Brussels, Belgium

Greating from Brussels, Belgium!

(Click on the map to enlarge the image.)

Happy Birthday to Bob & David! Sorry I wasn't there to celebrate with you guys, but know I was thinking of you while drinking a beer (or two)!

Man, trains are the way to travel! They have been so comfortable and easy. No security lines, no waiting, affordable, no lost luggage, comfortable seats, beautiful scenery… We’re really enjoying this.

On the way from Amsterdam to Brussels we enjoyed watching the agricultural fields as we went by. All of the landscape was developed and most of it was farm land growing either corn (probably for feed) or raising cattle or other livestock. Most of the landscape was also scattered with streams and was exceptionally green. Much different than the buff browns we’re used to in Southern California.

As we arrived in Brussels the scene changed quickly from rural farmland to modern urbanization.

Our flat in Brussels was very nice and in an excellent location. We were just minutes away from “Grand Place,” which is the old center of town, and just steps away from the tram station which allowed us to get everywhere we wanted. The flat was nicely appointed with modern décor and views of a beautiful garden from the living room.

Outside our flat…

Dining/Living room… (We had to hang plastic bags from the ceiling lights to keep from running into them as they were very low. In every room, even I would walk into the ceiling lights and I’m vertically challenged!

My bedroom with photos on the wall of local sites to see… These were taken by the landlord and were a great idea!

View of garden from dining/living room…

Once we landed in our flat we decided to take a walking tour to familiarize ourselves with the city. Along the route we somehow stumbled upon the path to deviation. (OK, so it really means “detour” but it’s funny! Or is it just funny to me?)

The city of Brussels is an interesting mix of green space, medieval architecture and modern urbanization. Early on, Belgium was ruled by France and later became a part of The Netherlands. It wasn’t until the mid 1800’s that Belgium declared independence and formed its current government monarchy. Today Brussels is a central city for the European Union as well as a trade and banking capitol of the world.

One of the first sites we visited was the Jardin Botanique Kruidtuin, an historic garden near the center of town. Though the garden was beautiful it was rather unkempt and needed maintenance. Interesting, it seems that the garden has had difficulty finding success since it’s inception since its development in the early 1800’s, as is often the case with civic green spaces.

Here’s a view of a garden path among the dense plantings.

The garden was filled with interesting, though rather gruesome and ominous statuary. The statures were added after the state government took control of the park in the late 1800’s. They were created in an effort to beautify the park and attract more visitors. It seems odd to me that they chose such “dark” statuary to attract visitors. Still, with my macabre tastes (left over from too many years as a goth punk), I find them quite beautiful.

Rainbows in Brussels! The main fountain in the pond created this beautiful view (even if my photography abilities are rather limited).

As we returned to our flat at night we were amazed by a light show on a building across the street from us. The Dexia (a banking company) building across from our flat presents an amazing show by changing the colors of lights in the windows at night. The show displays striking patterns of changing colors but also shows local weather info and such.

Here’s a web link to a site about the building…
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/dexia-tower-and-the-light-fantastic/

Along our wandering we found many wonderful shops selling cheeses and breads and it’s damn hard to resist that! The small specialty shops are wonderful. We’ve found shops for cheese, breads, chocolates, fruits, produce, meats, fish, you name it! It makes me imagine shopping every day for food would be possible here. With such resources within your neighborhood, no wonder they shop each day! I must admit, I did have a favorite among the specialty shops…

Interestingly though, the Belgians seem to have rather peculiar (and specific) taste in snack shops, as shown in this picture… Some of my friends & family reading this will really appreciate this kind of snack! For the rest of you, I’ll keep looking…

Besides crude jokes, while we were in Brussels we were lucky enough to be there during the Flower Carpet festival. It’s an annual event (no pun intended) that has been taking place for many, many years. In the historic center of town called “Grand Place,” a huge “carpet” made of flowers is laid out for display for only a few days (as long as the flowers last). This “carpet” is made of many thousands of fresh-cut Begonias. Thousands and thousands of people come to view it, and not only tourists, but locals too. Each year the flower carpet is designed after an historic woven carpet, or at least is inspired by one. This year’s carpet was 1,800 square meters and boasts 300 fresh flowers per meter. That works out to 540,000 fresh flowers! Can you imagine that? It was really beautiful to see and experience in person. I tried to take pictures of it but it’s just difficult to express the beauty and scale in an amateur photograph. The flowers in the carpet are all Begonias, but some of the surroundings include live grass as well as mulch. As they are all cut fresh flowers, the whole display lasts only about 3 days, but it takes over 100 people a full year to design, plan and create. We were able to get up to a balcony in the old Town Hall (dating back to 1444) in order to take some pictures from above (with admission fees of course!).

While entering the old Town Hall of Brussels Grand Place (the old city center), we saw this white granite inlay in the sidewalk of the date the building was erected and Merilee said, “I don’t think that’s the street address!” We got a good laugh, but it truly is amazing to think that you’re walking through a building that is 568 years old! Think about this... Europeans didn't even sail to North America until 1492! Some of you reading this may remember that event from your childhoods.

While we were admiring the Flower Carpet, we were privileged enough to witness the rare occurrence of the parade of the “Shriners of the Pink Elephant!” OK, I made that up, but really, they were parading with a marching band and represented a brotherhood of beer masters and were affiliated with a brew called Delirium Tremens. The even had a mascot of a pink elephant! These people take their beer very seriously! God bless them! I felt right at home.

After the parade we paid homage to the Beer Museum, as any red-blooded beer lover would do! The tour was short, the museum was small, but the beer was really good! The displays showed how you make beer, then and now, and offered examples of both traditional and modern beer making mechanisms. I wept a little as I contemplated the weightiness of the place, the history behind it, and the wonderful things beer has brought to our lives! Heh, heh! As the very wise Homer Simpson once said, “Alcohol is the answer to, and the cause of, all of life’s problems.”

One of the other main sites we visited was the Atomium. In a sense it’s the Eiffel Tower of Belgium. It’s a structure designed by engineer Andre Waterkeyn and was originally built for the Brussels World Fair in 1958 to demonstrate the technological advancements and innovation of the people of Belgium. Standing 102 meters (about 300 feet) tall it is composed of 9 large spheres connected by giant tubes in the shape of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. It was originally planned to be dismantled after the World Fair, but due to its popularity it was preserved and just celebrated it’s 50th anniversary. Just a few months ago they finished a complete renovation to the exterior, so the structure is wonderfully shiny and brilliant! We were able to travel up the tubes using stairs and escalators and even up to the very top through a high-speed elevator designed in 1958. Even given its height and the age of the elevator, it only takes a few seconds to travel to the top with 20 people crammed in a tiny elevator!

Looking up the stairway of a tube in the Atomium...

Looking down from within one of the spheres…

While we were visiting the Atomium, Jason struck up a conversation with a guy named Vinicio. It turns out that Vinicio is Italian (go figure, with a name like that), and he lives in a small town outside of Milano, North from where we’ll be studying. He was really nice and offered great advice about living in Italy along with an offer to host us and be a tour guide while we are studying there! Talk about serendipity! Who knows? We may call him and take him up on that.

All in all, Brussels is a lovely city, and I’m very glad I’ve visited here, but I wouldn’t rush back. A few days here is adequate to see the main highlights. The people were not particularly friendly to us, even though I’m charming as hell. And a lot of the city is very much like the U.S., so we didn’t have as much of the novelty of a strange, foreign place. Many of the historic sites in Brussels seem to be struggling in a state of neglect while the focus and the money is directed toward the more modern development of the cities. While this is somewhat understandable, it made for a less “romantic” visit. Like I said, it’s a nice place but I wouldn’t rush back. If I were making a recommendation to someone wanting to visit, I’d say 2 days is plenty and would see the sites we saw.

More postings to come. Next, Brugge! In the meantime, if someone sees Jeff please give him a big hug and kiss from me (depending on who you are) and tell him that I love him and miss him!