Brussels
Thursday, the 25th of August 2005
We woke up really early again (I suppose that’s almost an obligation when you’re travelling and just want to see everything possible!) and decided to head to the European part of Brussels. We wanted to be there before 10 am because there was going to be a guided visit to an European institution and indeed when we arrived to the Brussels-Schuman (funny, I had to do an assignment about Robert Schuman for my European Law subject last year) station you were almost on time! Right out of the station was the European Comission (which is lead by a Portuguese person Durão Barroso) and we walked around it a bit. We got inside of it as well but we couldn’t really visit it so we decided to go to the European parliament (now, from what I remember the European parliament is situated in Strasbourg but there was another parliament in Brussels so I was a bit confused?!!) but it was quite far from the station so when we got there the guided visit had already started. We were a bit frustrated because it was basicaly a wasted morning in an ugly part of Brussels (really, that area was just plain ugly and uninteresting!) and it was always raining on and off the whole time. So we decided to go back to the centre of Brussels and start our discovery from there.
We had already been to the Grand Place the previous day and quite honestly, we were a bit disappointed by it as it didn’t seem as big as we thought it was. The buildings were still beautiful of course, but I suppose we were expecting another thing. The guide says that even before those buildings were erected, the whole place was a market for bread, meat and cloth sellers and became later a big commercial spot. On the fifteenth century it also assumed a civic and political fucntion with the construction of the Hôtel de Ville (on the south side of the square). The rulling dukes visited the square to meet the people or show off in tournaments, official decrees and pronouncements were proclaimed here, and justice was meted out with public executions. Facing the Hôtel de Ville were the guildhouses that give the Grand Place it’s character with lots of carvings and sculptures. Each guildhouse has a name, usually derived from one of the statues, symbols or architectural quirks decorating its facade. Here are the names: Roi d’Espagne, La Maison de la Brouette, Maison du Sac, Maison de la Louve, Maison du Cornet and finally Maison du Renard.
Really close to the Grand Place was the Manneken Pis. I had seen the statue before but oddly enough I never really associated it with Brussels. I’m sure you’ve all seen the statue of a little boy peeing! Well, there are all sorts of tales and legends about it but the one I’ve read about was about a little aristocratic boy that got lost and his father promised a very high reward if the boy was found. When they finally discovered the boy he was...peeing! So his father made a statue of him in that position. My guide says that it’s said that it was actually Jerome Duquesnoy who cast the original bronze statue in the 1600’s intented to embody the irreverent spirit of the city.
Afterwards we went to the Cathedral which is also only a couple of minutes to walk from the Grand Place (very close to the train station). This was a splendid gothic edifice altough the surroundings of it weren’t that nice (just a bunch of modern office blocks that totally contrastated with the cathedral).
Since we wanted to have lunch at the youth hostel we decided to go in it’s direction. But since the rooms were only availabe after 14h we had to eat in a bench outside of the hostel. And since there was a beautiful chappel (recently restored!) really close to it we decided to have a look at it. We stayed a lot of time inside it (it had begun to rain and we were also killing time) and it was really cool because there was going on some rehearsals of piano and singing and the woman had a really impressive voice!!).
Afterwards we started exploring the city around the train station (since we had already been to the centre) and I have to say that this part of the city was much more pleasant than the centre itself (and it’s usually the other way around, the part of the city close to the train station tends to be more slicky). We started out by the Royal Palace which was a really biug building. We actually wanted to go inside it but the last entrance was at 16h00 and we only arrived there around 16h15 so again we were quite frustrated. We really had the feeling that we were just not getting things right that day. First it was the excursion to the European Parliament that we had just missed for a couple of minutes and now the Royal Palace. Anyways, in front of it stopped a bus full of Chinese tourists and boy were they crazy!! They actually stood in the middle of the road taking photos despite the cars honking all the time...I just stood there watching that scene and thinking to myself that it wasn’t real. *lol*
Some time later we just climbed this street that lead to the Palace of Justice and it was quite beautiful but before we stopped in a little church and some sort of garden. On our way back to the youth hostel we also stopped at the St.Hubert galleries (which was more to the centre and was basicaly a labyrinthic gallery with some shops where you could buy lots of stuff, mostly leather clothing and other types of clothing in general. All stores had arabic owners) and Place de l’Albertine.
Generally speaking I much prefered the surrounding area of the station rather than the rest of it. Also because I wasn’t too much impressed with the European Area of the city as I described before. I suppose the weather didn’t help much either as we only caught some brief periods of blue sky. Another negative aspect were the conditions of the train stations, they all looked really dubious and weren’t at all easy to walk in (not much use of signs over there). I also found the Belgians a little unfriendly (at least when compared to the French people), but I can’t generalise obviously, maybe we were just unlucky with some of the people we talked to. Still, I think the days we spent there were quite worthy and pleasant.
Again, we needed another good night’s sleep. Holland was the next country on our map and since I had already been there in 2003 with my brother, I already had some expectations about it and was quite anxious for Ricardo to get to know it as well!
The European Comission
The Grand Place
The Guildhouses
The Manneken Pis
A sign in a chocolate shop close to the Manneken Pis with some really bad written Portuguese *lol*
Beautiful view not far from the Royal Palace
We woke up really early again (I suppose that’s almost an obligation when you’re travelling and just want to see everything possible!) and decided to head to the European part of Brussels. We wanted to be there before 10 am because there was going to be a guided visit to an European institution and indeed when we arrived to the Brussels-Schuman (funny, I had to do an assignment about Robert Schuman for my European Law subject last year) station you were almost on time! Right out of the station was the European Comission (which is lead by a Portuguese person Durão Barroso) and we walked around it a bit. We got inside of it as well but we couldn’t really visit it so we decided to go to the European parliament (now, from what I remember the European parliament is situated in Strasbourg but there was another parliament in Brussels so I was a bit confused?!!) but it was quite far from the station so when we got there the guided visit had already started. We were a bit frustrated because it was basicaly a wasted morning in an ugly part of Brussels (really, that area was just plain ugly and uninteresting!) and it was always raining on and off the whole time. So we decided to go back to the centre of Brussels and start our discovery from there.
We had already been to the Grand Place the previous day and quite honestly, we were a bit disappointed by it as it didn’t seem as big as we thought it was. The buildings were still beautiful of course, but I suppose we were expecting another thing. The guide says that even before those buildings were erected, the whole place was a market for bread, meat and cloth sellers and became later a big commercial spot. On the fifteenth century it also assumed a civic and political fucntion with the construction of the Hôtel de Ville (on the south side of the square). The rulling dukes visited the square to meet the people or show off in tournaments, official decrees and pronouncements were proclaimed here, and justice was meted out with public executions. Facing the Hôtel de Ville were the guildhouses that give the Grand Place it’s character with lots of carvings and sculptures. Each guildhouse has a name, usually derived from one of the statues, symbols or architectural quirks decorating its facade. Here are the names: Roi d’Espagne, La Maison de la Brouette, Maison du Sac, Maison de la Louve, Maison du Cornet and finally Maison du Renard.
Really close to the Grand Place was the Manneken Pis. I had seen the statue before but oddly enough I never really associated it with Brussels. I’m sure you’ve all seen the statue of a little boy peeing! Well, there are all sorts of tales and legends about it but the one I’ve read about was about a little aristocratic boy that got lost and his father promised a very high reward if the boy was found. When they finally discovered the boy he was...peeing! So his father made a statue of him in that position. My guide says that it’s said that it was actually Jerome Duquesnoy who cast the original bronze statue in the 1600’s intented to embody the irreverent spirit of the city.
Afterwards we went to the Cathedral which is also only a couple of minutes to walk from the Grand Place (very close to the train station). This was a splendid gothic edifice altough the surroundings of it weren’t that nice (just a bunch of modern office blocks that totally contrastated with the cathedral).
Since we wanted to have lunch at the youth hostel we decided to go in it’s direction. But since the rooms were only availabe after 14h we had to eat in a bench outside of the hostel. And since there was a beautiful chappel (recently restored!) really close to it we decided to have a look at it. We stayed a lot of time inside it (it had begun to rain and we were also killing time) and it was really cool because there was going on some rehearsals of piano and singing and the woman had a really impressive voice!!).
Afterwards we started exploring the city around the train station (since we had already been to the centre) and I have to say that this part of the city was much more pleasant than the centre itself (and it’s usually the other way around, the part of the city close to the train station tends to be more slicky). We started out by the Royal Palace which was a really biug building. We actually wanted to go inside it but the last entrance was at 16h00 and we only arrived there around 16h15 so again we were quite frustrated. We really had the feeling that we were just not getting things right that day. First it was the excursion to the European Parliament that we had just missed for a couple of minutes and now the Royal Palace. Anyways, in front of it stopped a bus full of Chinese tourists and boy were they crazy!! They actually stood in the middle of the road taking photos despite the cars honking all the time...I just stood there watching that scene and thinking to myself that it wasn’t real. *lol*
Some time later we just climbed this street that lead to the Palace of Justice and it was quite beautiful but before we stopped in a little church and some sort of garden. On our way back to the youth hostel we also stopped at the St.Hubert galleries (which was more to the centre and was basicaly a labyrinthic gallery with some shops where you could buy lots of stuff, mostly leather clothing and other types of clothing in general. All stores had arabic owners) and Place de l’Albertine.
Generally speaking I much prefered the surrounding area of the station rather than the rest of it. Also because I wasn’t too much impressed with the European Area of the city as I described before. I suppose the weather didn’t help much either as we only caught some brief periods of blue sky. Another negative aspect were the conditions of the train stations, they all looked really dubious and weren’t at all easy to walk in (not much use of signs over there). I also found the Belgians a little unfriendly (at least when compared to the French people), but I can’t generalise obviously, maybe we were just unlucky with some of the people we talked to. Still, I think the days we spent there were quite worthy and pleasant.
Again, we needed another good night’s sleep. Holland was the next country on our map and since I had already been there in 2003 with my brother, I already had some expectations about it and was quite anxious for Ricardo to get to know it as well!
The European Comission
The Grand Place
The Guildhouses
The Manneken Pis
A sign in a chocolate shop close to the Manneken Pis with some really bad written Portuguese *lol*
Beautiful view not far from the Royal Palace