Brussels - Day 2

Wednesday 14 May

A slow start this morning and we didn’t leave the hotel until 10:00, catching the train to Central and walking to view the statue known around the world “Manneken Pis” which is, like the “Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen, quite diminutive and not as expected. Walking around some of the smaller streets in Brussels Central we found two more statues with a similar theme as the little boy. “Warning the following photos may offend.”

We decided that we would eat our midday meal at a restaurant and found a little lane which ran into a narrow street, both lined with restaurants specialising in seafood and chose a local favourite, mussels cooked in white wine and a small plate of French fries, accompanied with a small bowl of salad and a half bottle of wine. The meal was most enjoyable but we wouldn’t want t do it every day as it cost $117 for the two of us.

After lunch we walked up to the cathedral, a large twin towered Gothic building, the stained glass windows throughout the cathedral were more like historic paintings than religious windows, with historic events portrayed. The pulpit which was carved by Hendrick Verbruggen from oak had among many of the scenes, Adam and Eve being chased from the Garden of Eden by a skeleton. A side chapel had a most unusual altar, two bronze pelicans supporting a glass top.

Our next stop was at the Parliament House, a very plain and uninteresting building nothing like the parliaments in other capital cities. Over the road was the Belgium Park also very uninteresting, very little grass, no flowers and uneven dirt tracks, we thought the park linking parliament and the Royal Palace would be a show place, it certainly didn’t attract many people on a warm day. We walked on to the Palace of Justice a building reminiscent of St Paul’s in London and topped with a gold dome and a surmounted by gold crown, and like many large buildings in Europe it was also decorated with scaffolding, which we call European Art, this was confirmed as art years ago when we visited the Louvre and they had scaffolding all through the galleries, so it must be art.

Brussels centre is a series of cobblestone winding streets and lanes, many for pedestrians only and it must be a nightmare for drivers. There must be a huge amount of money spent throughout Europe on repair and restoration of buildings and Brussels is no exception, with many old buildings covered in scaffolding. Also throughout Brussels there are large comic strip murals on the walls of buildings and many are based on the adventures of the comic strip hero Tin Tin, there is even a walking guide to find them.

We thought Brussels to be rather grubby with areas outside buildings and footpaths littered with cigarette butts and at lunch time today a waiter from an adjoining restaurant came out for a cigarette and just threw the burning butt on the street and went inside. Throughout Europe there aren’t any restrictions on smoking in restaurants and bars and at times this practice spoiled the enjoyment of our meal, but if it’s allowed you can’t complain. Another thing they don’t seem to bother about is cleaning up after their dogs so you have to spend as much time watching where you put your feet as looking at the sights. All that aside, we have had a wonderful time so far and the people we have met have been very helpful and friendly and we have enjoyed all the places we have visited.