Lindsay and I were going to be taking the train from Brussels to London early on Friday morning, which meant I had to be in Brussels the night before in order to make the trip. This was also the case for my trip to Istanbul, during which a series of unfortunate events caused me not to get to Brussels until dusk.
So I made sure this time to make it to Brussels while there was still time to see the city properly.
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I came armed with a list of museums and attractions that I wanted to see. Most of them were a fair ways apart but within walking distance. Brussels is also the home of the headquarters of both the EU and NATO. While NATO HQ is pretty far off and probably not that interesting for a tourist, the EU parliament was walkable.
Interesting sidenote: Ayaan Hirsi Ali is currently at the EU parliament requesting they fund her security. She's gotten a lot of support from the French on this; not so much from the Netherlands.
However, I got to Brussels and emerged from the Gare Centrale into gale force winds with dashes of rain. So much for all the walking I had planned to do.
I mostly just stuck near the train station, which still has plenty of things to see.
Nearby are the Royal Galleries of Saint-Hubert, a covered shopping arcade built 150 years ago and full of fancy shops and such. On the other side you enter a labyrinth of little alleyways full of restaurants.
Eventually you spot a tall tower looming ahead, and that's when you know you're approaching the Grand Place.
The Grand Place is a 600-year-old town square and is in the dead center of the city. It's dominated by the huge town hall. This is a sort of panoramic view of the Grand Place as you enter it, going from right to left.
That last building above contains the museum for the city of Brussels, which I almost went into but decided to keep exploring instead.
The town hall is really the most striking building in Brussels, and you can almost always orient yourself within the city by spotting the tower. (Here's a fun game you can play at home: how many pictures in this post have the town hall tower in them?)
You may recall from my last trip to Brussels, which took place during the winter festival, that the town hall was lit up with coloured lighting which changed in rhythm with booming classical music that was broadcast into the square. It was really cool.
I also notice in that old post that I called this building the Grand Palace, obviously misreading the word 'Grand Place' and then applying it to the wrong object. So for anyone out there who was under the impression that I'm infallible, now you know.
After you leave the Grand Place you come to a big building that was originally built as the stock market.
Here's how it looked the last time I was in Brussels.
As I was gathering the pictures for this post, I found it interesting how these neighbouring buildings resembled the town hall and parliament buildings in Vienna; one a big Gothic building, the other a big Greek building.
If I knew anything about architecture I'd expound more on how interesting this is, but I don't so I won't.
I kept walking.
The next significant structure is St. Catherine's Church. It's a very strange looking church; I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about the way this church looks that stays with you. The building itself is only 150 years old. An old church used to stand on the site, and the clock tower to the side is the other structure that remains from it. (Odd, because on appearances the clock tower seems to be much newer.)
And, again, here's how the building looked when it was lit up for winter festival.
I'm now standing in a big long open square, which I guess is known as the Fish Market. It was marginally less enchanting this time than it was the last time I stood here.
There was a big statue at the far end of an empty fountain, and it was surrounded by little statues of beasts that will haunt my nightmares.
There was also a monument that was erected in memory of WW1. It's a statue of a topless lady holding a pigeon, which I guess makes sense if you're Belgian.
The whole downtown area is a mixture of old and new, perfectly encapsulated by this photo of an old tower surrounded by a modern office building. Damn I'm good.
I kept trekking, up a hill towards the ritzy Upper Quarter of the city center. This picture looks back down towards the Grand Place.
Eventually I came to the biggest church in Brussels, the St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral. It was built in the 13th Century. I spent some time wandering around inside, but didn't take any pictures. I got yelled at one time by an old guy for taking a picture inside a church in Utrecht even though the lady at the tourist desk told me I could, so I usually don't bother.
A few blocks away is the Belgian parliament where politicians gather, fight over language and cultural issues, refuse to work together, and threaten to split the country in half.
The parliament building faces a gigantic park which at this time of year could be mistaken for a cemetary.
After what felt like a lifetime walking through the "park", I ended up at a big palace for the Belgian royal family. Fun fact: one time the Belgian King abdicated his throne for an hour so the country could pass an abortion bill that he couldn't bring himself to sign on account of his religion.
Doesn't it seem insane that these small countries have their own royalty? Honestly, if a guy came up to me and introduced himself as the King of Belgium, I'd probably start laughing.
There was a rooftop cafe nearby that offered a nice view of the city. In the very far distance, just beside the orange flag, you can see a large building on the horizon; it's a huge Basilica that was started by King Leopold in 1905 and didn't get finished until 1960. It must be gigantic to see up close.
I did some more walking around in the Upper Quarter and took pictures of random things, but I was starting to get mighty cold by this time.
As I was walking back to the train station I was behind a group of foreign tourists. The wind suddenly picked up again and knocked over this fence just as they were about to walk beside it. They all started screaming. It was pretty funny.
Well, that was Brussels. I took the train up to Brussels North station to stay the night at the same film students' place that I stayed at last time. We went out that night to see a screening of a few short films and then hit a pub afterwards. I ordered a beer in French and engaged six Belgians in a debate over the Iraq war.
Brussels was okay, but nothing too special. There are parts of the city that are really nice, but it also has a bleak or even shabby feeling to many streets. Part of this was definitely the weather, and part of it was also the amount of construction going on. (Actually, the amount of construction going in any European city at one time is pretty incredible. Case in point: the central train stations in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels are all under major renovations right now.)
I'll likely be back in Brussels before the end of my trip here, so maybe it will leave a better impression when the sun is out and the streets are full of shoppers.
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