Have to say, the first day arriving in Brussels was quite disturbing. The train stations leading up to Brussels Central were quite haunting. They felt like used Hollywood stage sets that has been left with graffiti sprayed all over. There was not a soul you can see.
To make the experience even more sketchy was a man on his cell phone in our train cart yelling! Then when an older gentleman requested him to speak quietly, he went off in Francais. I am not every good at picking up French when they speak, as they all speak so quickly, but I am pretty sure I can understand the international way to say the F word. Eeeek. Thankfully the conductor came in time to calm him down.
On this trip, I am very paranoid. Awaiting myself to become an international headline.
Every, what I deem to be, "unusual" person or act, I immediately think of the worst!
Anyhow, we arrived in Brussels, lugging around my bag, walked about 20 minutes to Hotel Thon, but only to find out we went into the wrong one. We had to head towards city centre instead! Who would have thought, there would be a chain of hotels named after a mediocre fish!
We spent the first night eating at a local pub-ish place. I had prime ribs! Yes that's right, I needed the protein! I have been having bread and the occasional fried rice so far, so this was my chance to get all greased up! The server introduced to me a new beer that was quite delicious, called Grimbergen. Apparently brewed in Belgium, it tasted very fruity and refreshing! Definitely recommend a try!
The first full day in Brussels brought us to the Atomium. By the way, who says all reality TV shows are junk?! I would not have known about this place without watching the amazing Amazing Race! The monument was spectacular in person. Completed in 1958 for Brussels World Fair, this replica of an Iron Crystal unit cell magnified 165 billion times!
At the base, you can purchase tickets to go up. There is also Mini Europe, which is located near the Atomium, basically it was a theme park with all models of European structures such as the Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, it was NOT worth the money.
Within the Atomium, you can walk through the tubes that links the balls (sorry not very scientific). The walking part takes you through exhibitions. When we were there, it was about accessibility of clean water around the world. The neat part is definitely walking/escalating up and down those narrow, circular, steep tubes! Once you're down at the base again, you can take a fast elevator that shoots up to the observation deck above. The deck gives you a nice view of the city. And for just 20 Euros per course, one can also enjoy a meal there, but we did not bother.
If you've read my posts earlier in Paris, we were informed about the EU having only sales during the month of July do we hit the streets for some much needed shopping.this
Gotta say, not too bad buying shirts and board shorts between 5-10 Euros!
The remainder of the night we stayed in and got caught up on Big Brother, god I hate Mike Boogie!
The next day we decided to visit Grand Place which is the old own square. This place by far has been the most impressive square so far on our trip! Every building had so much details. Gold trims lining the columns and golden statues erecting from the roof.
This building below, which is a museum today, used to be a place of trade for merchants but when the building was built, it turned into a place for administrative purposes for the ruling family.
Today, the Maison du Roi stands with in it's same place, a museum that shows the changes of Grand Place over the course of history, through the bombardments by the French in the 1600s. The building stands beautifully today, and shines even in the shadow of the Majestic Brussels City Hall.
We got a bit tired of sight seeing so though a Belgian Waffle and ice cream was much needed. Delicious!
Now when I came to Canada back in 1993, I had To learn English quickly in order to fit in at school. Back then most of the Chinese immigrants were Cantonese so that did not help as I only speak Mandarin!
So to learn English quickly my mother bought me a VHS cartoon monthly. On top of this, I read as well (that's right, once upon a time I read for fun, and believe it or not, read to learn!). One of the cartoons that is still nostalgic for me is The Adventures of TinTin!
So Tin Tin started here in Belgium by the artist, Hague.
There do happen to be a comic strip museum here in Brussels, so we spent an hour looking through some of the history of the beloved comic strip!
By far my favorite character is Snowy!
The last day in Brussels was a date with Mr Manneken Pis.
A fountain with a boy peeing. Oddly famous. He was a bit smaller than I was anticipating, the fountain as a whole of course! This boy was sculpted in 1619 but the legend behind the boy dates a few hundred years back to around 1142. There are a few different legends, but mostly are relating to a boy urinating to save the city of Brussels.
We then had another great Belgian Waffle covered with banana and whip cream.. delicious!!
Our last afternoon took us to the Royal Palace. The Palace's exterior was even more grand than the Buckingham Palace, and it sits directly across a magnificent park fill with art, trees, and locals.
We left Belgium with a better impression than we initially had coming in.
Amsterdam now awaits us.
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