S and I left for Brussels late Tuesday morning and since our
neighbor was nice enough to give us a ride, we saved 8 leva. WizzAir successfully took off on time for
this flight (I waited for 6 hours for my flight to Paris last fall) and we were
in Brussels before 3. After some
confusion and our first taste of Belgian French fries, we took the airport shuttle
to the train station. However, as it
turns out, Brussels has 4 or 5 train stations and we were at the wrong
one. Luckily, it also has an extensive
metro, so we headed downstairs and took our first of what would be many rides
on Tram 4.
After finding our hostel, we headed to the Grand Place. The Grand Place is a large square with
buildings gilded with gold. Directly in
front of us was the town hall. It was
built in the 1400’s and has a 315 foot belfry tower and is covered by carvings
of saints and other figures. It looks
really similar to the gothic town hall in Vienna,
even though it was built 400 years later.
Around the town hall, some of the buildings from that time period were
covered markets for bread, meat, and cloth.
However, these were torn down as the square became used for government
rather than merchant activities. The
name stuck, however, and one of the “new” (from 1536) buildings is still called
the bread house. In 1695, French
artillery destroyed much of the Grand Place except for the town hall’s
shell. Since it was all rebuilt at the
same time, however, the Grand Place ended up looking great. The new buildings were built by different
craftsmen’s guilds, hence, you can visit the Brewer’s museum in the building
originally built by the brewer’s guild. Overall,
you come, you look, you take some pictures, you move on.
From there, we wandered. We ended up passing a restaurant that called itself a “Mexican Grill.” Well, that’s the key word for us, as Mexican is almost impossible to get in Sofia (HIT now carries Old El Paso products, but they’re made in Ireland so….). We went in and sat down and ended up getting a weird yet tasty Mexican-Arab fusion dinner complete with after dinner mint tea. Oh, and we got more French fries (that’s 2x in one day, for anyone keeping track).
1st Stop:
The Atomium. The Atomium is a
cool monument built for the 1958 Brussels World Fair. It is in the shape of an iron crystal that
has been magnified 165 billion times. You
visit the top sphere by elevator (apparently it was the fastest elevator in
Europe in 1958). From the top sphere,
you get a nice view of Brussels and the “Mini Europe” attraction below. After visiting the top, you take escalators
and stairs to several other spheres.
There is a museum on the 58 Expo (I remember reading on a sign that
approximately (since I didn’t take notes): 12 babies were born at the expo and
7 people died and over 20,000 liters of beer were served each day) and a museum
on world water issues. It included an
ingenious toilet design were you have a sink above the toilet tank and the
drain water is used to fill the tank and flush the toilet.
3rd Stop: The
Musical Instrument Museum. First of all,
it is housed in the coolest art nouveau building that used to be and Old
England Department Store (I really want to live there). Next, it has over 8,000 instruments, the
largest collection in the world. Last,
you get headphones at the front desk that you can plug in by the displays to
hear the instruments playing. I listened
to everything from clanging Tibetan chimes to harps to bagpipes. I also learned that the saxophone was invented
by a Belgian named Adolphe Sax in the 1840’s (and now the name makes
sense). And, not that I needed any more
reasons to love this museum, there is an entire floor (that’s right, floor)
dedicated mostly to pianos, harpsichords, and similar yet totally weird
instruments like a lutheal (the only one in existence) and a geigenwerk
(stringed like a piano but uses a circular bow to play it, aka: violin orchestra). There is also a nice view from the top floor
windows.
6th Stop: The
Comic Strip Museum. It is also housed in
a cool art nouveau building (not as good as the instrument museum) and shows
the history of comic strips from around the world, though clearly more focused
on Belgian comics. The most famous
Belgian comic is Tintin, but did you know that The Smurfs are from
Belgium? Neither did I. This museum would have been more interesting
had it not been hot. Plus it smelled of French
fries and we were hungry.
10th Stop: Parc du Cinquantenaire and the triumphal arch. Most of the park’s buildings were built in 1880 to mark the 50th anniversary of Belgian independence. The park is very large and really nice and the arch is really impressive and flanked by 2 museums (which we didn’t visit…).
11th Stop: Parc de Bruxelles. The royal park is across from the palace and currently holds artisitic representations of traditional Belgian foods. It is similar to the Kansas City Cow Parade in that Brussels sprouts, beer, chocolate, mussels, and French fries are all decorated by artists to represent different themes. I enjoyed the French fries the most. The beer and chocolate ones were kind of lame (much as I hate to say anything bad about chocolate).
First impressions of Brussels are perhaps not the best to
base your entire stay on. For being the
capital of the EU, it is sort of dirty and certain places (such as underpasses)
smell like pee. The city centre is,
thankfully, much nicer. However, I never
fully lost the feeling that this is a place where you need to be extra conscious
of the location of your wallet.
After finding our hostel, we headed to the Grand Place. The Grand Place is a large square with
buildings gilded with gold. Directly in
front of us was the town hall. It was
built in the 1400’s and has a 315 foot belfry tower and is covered by carvings
of saints and other figures. It looks
really similar to the gothic town hall in Vienna,
even though it was built 400 years later.
Around the town hall, some of the buildings from that time period were
covered markets for bread, meat, and cloth.
However, these were torn down as the square became used for government
rather than merchant activities. The
name stuck, however, and one of the “new” (from 1536) buildings is still called
the bread house. In 1695, French
artillery destroyed much of the Grand Place except for the town hall’s
shell. Since it was all rebuilt at the
same time, however, the Grand Place ended up looking great. The new buildings were built by different
craftsmen’s guilds, hence, you can visit the Brewer’s museum in the building
originally built by the brewer’s guild. Overall,
you come, you look, you take some pictures, you move on. 
On from the Grand Place to see Manneken Pis. The little peeing boy statue was originally
made in 1619 and is a symbol of Brussels.
Being a symbol, you can buy large copies of it in every tourist shop on
your way there. Then you get to the actually
fountain and realize it is about 2 feet tall and he’s the most musclely toddler
you've ever seen. Sometimes the statue is
dressed up for different occasions, but when we were there he was naked. Also, unless you go to Maison du Roi, you’ll
see the copy from 1965 (apparently, people liked to steal the statue, so they
had to increase security).
From there, we wandered. We ended up passing a restaurant that called itself a “Mexican Grill.” Well, that’s the key word for us, as Mexican is almost impossible to get in Sofia (HIT now carries Old El Paso products, but they’re made in Ireland so….). We went in and sat down and ended up getting a weird yet tasty Mexican-Arab fusion dinner complete with after dinner mint tea. Oh, and we got more French fries (that’s 2x in one day, for anyone keeping track).
After this we wandered back towards the Palace of
Justice. It was the biggest building
constructed in the 1800’s and bests St. Peter’s Basilica for square
footage. So yeah, it’s huge. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go inside and
it was surrounded in what is possibly the largest scaffolding set up of the 21st
century, but it was still impressive.
Plus, from the back, you can see a great view over the city at
sunset. We then went back to our hostel
and went to sleep.
The next day, we decided to get the Brussels Card. I love these things. Several cities around the world have them and
if you’re dedicated and well planned, you can more than make them worth your
while. We got out the door early, so we
stopped at Jardin Botanique which was near to our hostel (and not near to
anything else we were doing that day).
It was the official botanical garden from 1829-1938, and is still a nice
garden outside, but the inside is now hosts concerts and exhibitions.
We then stopped at the Grand Place tourist info desk to buy
our Brussels cards. With the card, you
get free entry to over 30 museums, free public transport, and discounts on
several other attractions for 24, 48 or 72 hours. So began our 24 hour whirlwind tour which
included several rides on tram 4:
1st Stop:
The Atomium. The Atomium is a
cool monument built for the 1958 Brussels World Fair. It is in the shape of an iron crystal that
has been magnified 165 billion times. You
visit the top sphere by elevator (apparently it was the fastest elevator in
Europe in 1958). From the top sphere,
you get a nice view of Brussels and the “Mini Europe” attraction below. After visiting the top, you take escalators
and stairs to several other spheres.
There is a museum on the 58 Expo (I remember reading on a sign that
approximately (since I didn’t take notes): 12 babies were born at the expo and
7 people died and over 20,000 liters of beer were served each day) and a museum
on world water issues. It included an
ingenious toilet design were you have a sink above the toilet tank and the
drain water is used to fill the tank and flush the toilet. 
2nd Stop: Coudenberg,
the former palace of Brussels. Cooler
than it sounds since most of it is under the current palace of Brussels. It was
built in the 11th century and was used by the royal family until it
was destroyed by fire in 1731. They didn’t
have the funds to rebuild, so the remains sat there for 40 years. By the time rebuilding started in 1771, the
style had changed. The original sight
was very hilly, but it was popular at the time to create large open
squares. So, they filled in the ruins
with dirt, leveled out the hill, and build a huge (flat) square surrounded by
official buildings. Since they filled it
in and it has since been excavated, you can walk through the foundations of a
large portion of the former palace and see highlights like the latrine
cesspool, a “waste disposal conduit,” and the former level of Rue Isabelle
street. You can walk down the hill on
the original street underground and then you can go above ground and walk on
the “new” level one. It was cool.
3rd Stop: The
Musical Instrument Museum. First of all,
it is housed in the coolest art nouveau building that used to be and Old
England Department Store (I really want to live there). Next, it has over 8,000 instruments, the
largest collection in the world. Last,
you get headphones at the front desk that you can plug in by the displays to
hear the instruments playing. I listened
to everything from clanging Tibetan chimes to harps to bagpipes. I also learned that the saxophone was invented
by a Belgian named Adolphe Sax in the 1840’s (and now the name makes
sense). And, not that I needed any more
reasons to love this museum, there is an entire floor (that’s right, floor)
dedicated mostly to pianos, harpsichords, and similar yet totally weird
instruments like a lutheal (the only one in existence) and a geigenwerk
(stringed like a piano but uses a circular bow to play it, aka: violin orchestra). There is also a nice view from the top floor
windows. 
4th Stop:
Belgian Brewer’s Museum. It is
not that good of a museum. There is
basically one room showing brewing equipment and a boring video. However, it is free with the Brussels card
and you get free beer at the end (if you like beer).
5th Stop: The
Halle Gate, built in 1381. Brussels used
to be a walled city and this is the only surviving medieval gate (it survived
due to its functionality as a prison).
Apparently there used to be a moat and a drawbridge, but these are
gone. Also, in the 1880’s it was “restored”
and some trendy gothic elements were added, so it doesn’t look exactly like it
did in 1381. Luckily, the 20th
century additions include an elevator to the top. You get a nice view of Brussels from the
ramparts and you can take the loooong and high winding staircase back down,
visiting museum rooms on the way. We saw
armor, cannons, you know, the usual. We
also tried on some armor before we left.
S went all out (every piece was on), I was a bit more reserved (breastplate
and helmet only). As we walked back
towards the metro snapping some last pictures of the gate, a creepy man asked
to take a picture with us, which then cut our picture taking short as we
quickly left.
6th Stop: The
Comic Strip Museum. It is also housed in
a cool art nouveau building (not as good as the instrument museum) and shows
the history of comic strips from around the world, though clearly more focused
on Belgian comics. The most famous
Belgian comic is Tintin, but did you know that The Smurfs are from
Belgium? Neither did I. This museum would have been more interesting
had it not been hot. Plus it smelled of French
fries and we were hungry.
7th Stop:
The Magritte Museum. René
Magritte was Belgium’s most famous surrealist artist, and I like surrealism. While in my opinion he’s not as good as Dali,
I still liked the museum. Even though
you don’t realize it, you’ve seen some of his paintings. For example, the guy in the
bowler with the apple in front of his face or the train
coming out of the fireplace.
8th Stop:
Subway (the restaurant). We were
hungry.
9th Stop: Galeries
Royales Saint-Hubert. This is a covered
shopping center from 1847 that is full of antique stores, chocolate stores,
cafes, and such. Apparently, since
Brussels has such poor weather, the glass covered shops allowed people to feel “outside”
without getting wet.
10th Stop: Parc du Cinquantenaire and the triumphal arch. Most of the park’s buildings were built in 1880 to mark the 50th anniversary of Belgian independence. The park is very large and really nice and the arch is really impressive and flanked by 2 museums (which we didn’t visit…).
11th Stop: Parc de Bruxelles. The royal park is across from the palace and currently holds artisitic representations of traditional Belgian foods. It is similar to the Kansas City Cow Parade in that Brussels sprouts, beer, chocolate, mussels, and French fries are all decorated by artists to represent different themes. I enjoyed the French fries the most. The beer and chocolate ones were kind of lame (much as I hate to say anything bad about chocolate).
12th Stop:
Église Royale Sainte-Marie, a church just down the road from our
hostel. It was built to lie on the path
that the royals took between their two palaces.
Last stop: Our
hostel. Finally. Sleep.
The next morning we visited the St. Michael and St. Gudula
Cathedral which was finished in the mid-15 century. It is really bright and nice. They also have a carillon and a
huge organ. 
Then we headed off to spend the day in Bruges…
