The Land of Beer and Chocolate

When last we left our hero, my friend Emily was leaving to go back home.  Because she was leaving early on Saturday and I didn’t have a lot of plans the rest of the weekend, I decided to go to Brussels for a last minute trip.  The beauty of the Eurostar ---- 2 hours on a high speed train and you’re in another country.  The trip itself was easy enough, although I started and ended this trip by spilling my lattes all over.  I know I’m a klutz, but that’s amazing even for me.

It’s funny how my travel has changed over time.  I used to do so much research before I would head anywhere and create an Excel spreadsheet with 3 tabs (one each for things to do, restaurants and hotels).  Yes, I realize I’m a geek.  Before I came to Brussels, all I did was book the hotel.  I didn’t even know what there was to do in Brussels other than drink Belgium beer and eat Belgium chocolates.

While the weather didn’t really cooperate with me, it was a lovely weekend.  I got to Brussels on Saturday afternoon.  As it wasn’t too bad out and I like to get the lay of the land by walking around, I decided to walk from the train station.  The Eurostar train station wasn’t in the best neighborhood, so it wasn’t the brightest idea in the world, but I was never in any real danger.  I used my iPhone to navigate to the hotel (thank God for Google maps!).  The walk wasn’t too bad (about 30 minutes), but their cobblestone streets and sidewalks are a killer.

Grote Markt

Town Hall in Grand Place/Grote Markt

After I got settled in my hotel (totally lucked out because it was a nice place in a prime location), I wandered around the city.  My expectation for beer and chocolate was pretty spot on.  There are pubs, beer halls and chocolate shops everywhere.  It was a little overwhelming.  Kelly would have been in heaven.

There aren’t as many tourist spots in Brussels as there are in some other European cities.  Being that I only had two days, it was good because it enabled me to see most everything.  One hot spot is Manneken Pis, essentially a statue of a little boy peeing.  Yes, that’s right.  A peeing boy.  It’s become such the popular attraction that apparently heads of state bring outfits for the little statue representing their culture.  There are over 800 of these outfits now and they are rotated with the extras being shown in the local museum.  Bizarre, but true.  Because I didn’t really have a great map, I wasn’t exactly sure where it was, but I was able to follow the crowds there.

 Little peeing boy

Another hot spot is the Cathedral.  It stands at the top of a hill and looks fairly imposing.

It is a beautiful cathedral, but I think I prefer the smaller church, St. Nicholas, that is in the center of town right near the Bourse (the Stock Exchange).  

I went to mass there on Sunday morning.  They had an English speaking mass.  As it happened, some Eucharistic ministers were being inducted.  The priest had the weirdest homily/introduction before inducting them.  He started going on about how Moses was a killer and David was an adulterer.  He said “God chooses some strange people to service.  And now he has chosen you.”  What?  Really?  What are you trying to say, Padre?  I can't even cut him slack and say that it was a translation error because the dude was Irish.

At the end of mass, they had this opera-like singer sing Ava Maria for Mother’s Day.  She had a really beautiful voice, but I found it weird that I saw her later in the day singing on the street for change. 

I assumed she was some big shot singer considering the way they introduced her at church, but I guess not. 

I went running in the park on Sunday morning near the Grand Palace. 

I don’t think the king was in residence.  At least he didn’t answer when I rang the bell.

I was expecting the park to be like Central Park or at least Grant Park.  Unfortunately, it was more like Oz Park.  OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.  It was small, though.  I had to go round and round to get any sort of mileage.  It did have some pretty statues and fountains, though.

On Sunday afternoon, I made a trek to the outskirts of the city to see the Atomium.

It almost looks like it is coming out of my head.

It was built for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair.  As you can tell, it looks like a big atom, hence the name.  It has been copied in a lot of other cities, but this is the original.  It is 102 meters tall.  Each sphere is 18 meters in diameter and the tubes that connect them are between 23 and 29 meters long. 

You can take escalators and/or stairs to access floors 1-6 in some of the lower spheres, but floor 7(in the top sphere) is only accessible via elevator (at one point it was the fastest one in Europe at 5 meters per second.  You are only going 7 floors, so it is hard to judge that.).  They have some permanent exhibits and some temporary exhibits.  They also have a kid’s section that is only open at certain times.  It is set up so kids can spend the night in these little pods.

How cool would it be to sleep here for 1 night?

On the whole, the exhibit was OK.  There was a lot of information about the architects and some of the art deco buildings that were built in Brussels and Ghent around that time.  I don’t know if I wasn’t in the mood or what, but I wasn’t bowled over.

I’m glad I went because it was one of most well-known tourist attractions in Brussels (although I will admit that I had never seen it before).  It also gave me the chance to use their public transportation system.  It was extremely easy to get around.  I found it especially interesting that they played music on the metro system platforms.  Even more interesting was that it was all American music.  Some of it wasn’t even recent music.  They did play Rihanna (“Shine bright like a diamond…” – could think of nothing but my nephew Joey when they played that), but they also played Crosby, Stills and Nash, America and Carly Simon.  Very strange combination.

I love all the old architecture of these cities, but the cobblestone streets are killing me.  I have turned my ankles so many times that I’m surprised they aren’t the size of softballs.  Because of that, I decided to kick back and enjoy some downtime with some of the local Belgium food.

Other than chocolate and Belgian waffles (had one of those for breakfast), mussels and fries are a staple.  My garlicky mussels were tasty and the beer was even more so.  Brussels is a drinking city.  As I said, there are countless pubs.  There are also a lot of beer stores.  “250 Sorten von Bier” was displayed on the top of these shops.  That’s a lot of choice.  I stuck with some of the basic local varieties.  Before you ask, I didn’t have Delirium while I was there.  There is a Delirium café there that was quite popular.  For those not familiar, Delirium is a local Belgium beer with 8%+ alcohol.  I’ve had that in the States and it knocked me on my butt.  Being that I was by myself, I thought it was smart to stay upright.

All in all, the trip was really nice.  I’m glad I went because I don’t know that I would ever make a specific trip to Brussels.  I mean no disrespect to Brussels; it just hasn’t been on the top of my list.  Now, I feel like I got a little taste of it.