brussels, finally

I went to Brussels many years ago when I was a wee lass, but it seems pretty much the same. Generally cute, a few interesting buildings, rather dull, really good snacks. Nothing against Brussels; it's a lovely city, it's just that for me it borders between dull and pleasant. It was really cold, too which probably didn't help.


That's a view from outside St. Michel's, the official cathedral of the Belgian royals. It's kind of a rip off of Notre Dame in Paris:


There was a mass going on when I went in and I didn't realize it at first. Sort of embarrassing. It has pretty stained glass, but I don't think it's original.

We took a long bus tour of the whole city and I got a bunch of pictures of things and I'm not sure what they are. We went by the two royal palaces, within about 10 minutes of each other, a handful of churches form different periods and a rather mind-boggling number of parks and gardens. Aside from the very heart of the city, most of Brussels actually looks like suburbia. This thing is kind of interesting:


It's a giant model of an atom called the Atomium (creative) and it was made for the World Fair when Belgium hosted. All that's left of those World Fair structures is this and an American amphitheater. I didn't get pics of the EU parliament, sorry.

Then we were dropped off in the middle (read: tourist section) of the city to wander by ourselves. It was very cold and windy, as I said - so windy the 90% of the city that seems to be under construction was in danger:


My main goal was not to see the sights - as there really aren't many - but to eat food. Sure, everyone knows about Belgian waffles and chocolate, but they make a wide variety of sweet and fattening deliciousness. I got a few yummy caramels, of course sampled the waffles and chocolate, and some ice cream and macaroons (below).


The two I got were one from the far right end (almond milk) and the darker pinkish/red one (strawberry poppy). Both were scrumptious.

We visited the chocolate museum, St. Michel's cathedral, the peeing mannequin and the touristy indoor market but were too tired and cold to venture much outside of the city center. I wanted to go to the Beaux Arts museum but it closed at 5; I heard later it wasn't that great, though.

We did have a good time just wandering around the city, which has some really interesting window shopping and is generally very friendly, but we had to be back at the mannequin to meet and make our train. Three people, however, took a bit too much time getting back to the peeing boy (and perhaps had too good a time sampling the Belgian beers?) and we wound up leaving pretty late. Then Holly found out the Metro machines did not take foreign cards (a pattern, it seems) so it took a while to get the cash for our tickets. The Metro took its sweet time coming, and by the time we got to the station we had about 3 minutes to make the train.

Of course, none of us new the Brussels station well and had no idea where we were going. But 40 people sprinted through the station, running into each other and shouting the whole way. Two girls wiped out and were left behind in the frantic search. Turned out though, when the first of us got to the platform (I and about 4 others took the correct turn out of the Metro) the train began to pull away: no one made it. After a bit of confusion and a few freak-outs, Holly got us all tickets on the next train back to Paris, only an hour after ours.

Hm, this probably makes it sound like I didn't really enjoy the trip, but it's more I just didn't care as much for the typical sights one is supposed to see in Brussels. It really is a nice city, and I think I'd like spending time there not as a tourist.