Today was our ‘big Brussels day’! At 1.25 million people, Brussels is a huge city and is the heartbeat of Belgium on many level, from politics to culture to infrastructure. We set out this morning with one full day to take a bit out of Brussels’ key sights.
A lack of sleep and the five hour time difference from Halifax caught up on us this morning. We had hoped to be out the door at 8:30AM, but it was actually 10:30AM when we closed the hotel room door and set out. We walked quickly, lingered a little less than planned, skipped one planned museum tour, and somehow, we got in everything we had hoped to. In brief, we concentrated on the historic centre, the Royal/Sablon areas, and made a trip outside the city centre to the Expo 1958 site to see something more modern - Atomium. It was just after 6PM when we made it back to our hotel area, where we visited a poke restaurant for dinner, before calling it an evening.
Brussels is known as a fairly walkable city, in terms of taking in the key sights on foot. Having just taken two metro rides all day, we proved walkable reputation to be correct.
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| Golden Angel Memorial in Square de Meeus, near our hotel. It pales in comparison with later sights in the day. But still, it was a nice statue with which to start our big Brussels day. |
The Royal Quarter
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| Monument to King Leopold II, Belgium’s second king. |
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| Brussels Royal Palace - Belgium’s equivalent of Buckingham Palace. |
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| Impressive gates of the Brussels Royal Palace. |
Mont des Arts Quarter |
| Look at that hedge work! |
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| The near-perfect Jardin du Mont des Arts, with City Hall’s spire in the distance. |
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| Another view of the Jardins du Mont des Arts. |
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| The Carillon du Mont des Arts. Those figurines become active when the clock strikes on the hour. |
Grand Place Quarter
If you want to see tourist hoardes in Brussels, this is where you will find them. And, a zillion souvenir shops, chocolate shops, waffle shops, and cafes to go along with the scene.
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| Ru de Marche aux Herbes. Notice the neat hanging items over the streets - Brussels has so many creative varieties of such overhead displays! |
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| Belgian waffles with all imaginable toppings! |
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| The Belgians take the waffle to heights that no other country on Earth can match. |
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| Those waffles are often topped with berries, and there is no shortage of the most delicious berries available for sale. |
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| Our first close-up view of Brussels Town Hall as we were entering the square known as Grand-Place. The Town Hall was originally between 1401 and 1455 and it is the only medieval building left on the main square. The tower reaches 96m, topped by a 5m golden-copper statue of St. Michael slaying a demon. Only a stone shell of the building withstood the French bombardment of 1695. |
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| Grand-Place was originally a marshland, which developed into a marketplace, and then into a Gothic administrative hub. The French levelled it via artillery bombardment in 1695, after which it was quickly rebuilt into a uniform Baroque architectural masterpiece. In 1998, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. |
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| More from Grand-Place. |
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| This close up of the Town Hall shows stone figures representing local saints, prophets and nobles. |
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| The multi-stepped guild houses of Grand-Place all bear the year 1697, when they were rebuilt after the French bombardment. |
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| More from Grand-Place. |
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| More from Grand-Place. |
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| A whimsical display in a courtyard of the Town Hall. |
Mannekin Pis
A short distance from Grand-Place is Brussels’ most iconic little statue. At just 55cm, Mannekin Pis symbolizes the cheeky spirit of Brussels. While the original version dated from the 1400s, today’s version was built in 1619. The statue has over 1000 outfits that are worn during special events! You wouldn’t believe the number of tourists that come to see it.
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| As you can imagine, the souvenir shops and pastry shops all around Mannekin Pis cash in on the statue. Take, for example, this nearby waffle shop. |
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| Whimsical Pam with a whimsical cat! |
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| The luxury shops of Galleries Royales de Saint Hubert. |
Cathedrale Saints Michel-et-Gudule |
| Construction of this Gothic structure began in 1226. The towers were added in the 15th century. |
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| Triptych by Michel van Coxie, who died in 1592. |
Back to the Royal Quarter
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| Statue of Godfrey of Bouillon, called the first king of Jerusalem. He died in Palestine in July 1100. |
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| Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg Catholic Church |
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| The Supreme Court (‘Palais de Justice’) sits at the end of Rue de Regence. Its stunning dome is under renovation. |
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| Statue entitled, ‘La Rivière de Rivier’ by the French sculptor, Maillol. Created from 1938-1943. |
Eglise Notre-Dame des Victoires au Sablon
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| The church has a definite ‘boat theme’ going on! |
Petit Sablon Square
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| We ate lunch on a park bench in front of this statue. |
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| Petit Sablon Square is surrounded by statues on pillars. |
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| Typical 19th century row houses on Rue aux Laines. |
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| This art installation in the Bozar Centre is called ‘Uterus in Uterus’. |
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| Parque de Bruxelles. |
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| WA family of ducks in Parque de Bruxelles. 🦆 |
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| The Belgian Parliament Buildings - fairly blah. I guess, when you have the EU Parliament in town, you don’t want to show them up with your own national parliament buildings? |
Atomium and the Expo 1958 Site
After a day of exploring Brussels’ medieval history, we made a trip outside the core to explore its more modern side: the site of Expo ‘58. Atomium is the only structure remaining from Expo ‘58. And it’s as popular today as ever!
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| This was an incredibly futuristic structure at the time, just 13 years after the end of WW2. |
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| President Eisenhower was promoting atomic energy for peace, in the years after the Japanese atomic bombings. So, Expo ‘58 tries to promote this peaceful approach to the atom. |
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| The Expo ‘58 grounds are essentially parkland today. But at the time of Expo ‘58, they were a bustling area of international exhibition halls. Even the USSR had a huge pavilion. |
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| One passes from atom to atom in the structure via a series of escalators and stairs. |
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| Each pod iin the Atomium structure was created tended to give the visitor a sense of the power and mystery of the atom. |
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| Belgium’s king opened Expo ‘58 in April 1958. |
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| Expo ‘58 had 300 chic Belgian hostesses who greated the millions of Expo ‘58 visitors. |
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| The Expo ‘58 site. |
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| Some of the technology on display at Expo ‘58 include tape recorders, 3D Viewmasters, and home video cameras. |
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| From Atomium, you can look down on Mini Europe next door, which has mini versions of some of Europe’s iconic structures. |
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| The view of Brussels’ modern centre, fronm the top of Atomium. |
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| Back near the hotel, we had delicious poke bowls for dinner. |
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| We have beautiful parakeets just outside our hotel window, and they visit each evening. |
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