This is the land of Tintin, Lucky Luke and much more. We saw Tintin's face peering out at us in one or two storefronts.
Things to see and do in Brussels
At about 1:30 pm, we left our hotel across from Brussels Midi train station, headed out to walk, and walk and walk. Five miles in all on a loop that took us first along the straight tree-lined Boulevard Stalingrad. It has a Brazilian Steakhouse incongruously named Rio Texas. It has so many Moroccan restaurants full of Moroccans sitting outside at little square tables that we immediately christened this Little Casablanca. It was a wonderful reminder of our trip there earlier this year. We continued passed what we called Trident Square, due to the way the roads come off the plaza.
Another block or two up was a charming used bookstore. We stopped there and browsed the comic book section since this is the land of Tintin, Lucky Luke and much more. We saw Tintin's face peering out at us in one or two storefronts.
There are chocolatiers everywhere: after all, the Belgians are very rightfully proud of their chocolate. But it’s pricey stuff…
We visited the lovely little medieval/Renaissance Notre Dame domed church with its distinctive regional black roof.
From there we jaunted north into unbelievable Main Square. It’s called Grote Markt (Big Market) or Grand Place. I’ve never seen so much Gothic in one place. Not only that, but it’s all secular. It includes the City Hall with its soaring cathedral-like church spire, various museums and Dutch-style Gilder Houses. The scale is big, but not overwhelming. And Brussels feels like a little city that has become big recently as opposed to Paris, which seems like it’s always been big.
There are chocolatiers everywhere: after all, the Belgians are very rightfully proud of their chocolate. But it’s pricey stuff…
We walked through the Galeries Royals St. Hubert a beautiful pair of long 1840s galleries that evoked Milan's Galleria Victor Emmanuel.
We continued north east and made our way to the St. Michael’s (?) cathedral which sits on a hill. Usually cities are founded as hilltop citadels or river cities. Brussels should have been a river city, but where is the river? We haven’t seen one yet! Has it been buried?
Keep in mind that we did all this with a little pocket map and that we were uncharacteristically unprepared for this big new city. So I may later tidy up some of the names, directions, etc. The cathedral has fantastic symmetry, a French shape but British vertical lines. Stain glasses are plentiful, but look Renaissance. And there are lots of plain stain glass windows and patches in the stonework. The simple vaulted ceiling looks new. Were the cathedral and this city damaged in World War I? No, but it was occupied by the Germans for four long hard years.
French fries were invented in Belgium and thus should be called Belgian Fries. In any case, they are the national dish. We ordered a decent serving for Euros 3.50 with an included side of curry mayo.
We walked up to the lovely Kunstberg garden and stairs and fountains toward what I have just recently realized was the royal palace, though we couldn’t see it from where we were. Then we slowly headed back toward our hotel, reaching perhaps 45 minutes later. We got groceries next door, came up to our room, showered, ate and having flown all night and been in transit all day, pretty much went straight to sleep. It was 7:30 pm. :)
