Brussels

One late night train later and we’re on the European continent. The train ride was remarkably smooth and short. High speed rail is amazing.

Brussels is a wild city. There is stuff everywhere here. The old downtown pedestrian boulevards meander between architectural masterpieces, with chocolate, waffle, and souvenir shops lining the streets at ground level. Then just beside it, massive 19th century palaces and churches get swarmed by trams and traffic, driving overtop front promenades. A modern office downtown sits on its own separate from them all. And between all of that, intricate gothic churches will make surprise appearances around the corners.

Our first morning started with a walk towards the old city. We had a general direction, and made it to a fantastic area with walking only cobbled streets. The centerpiece of it all is The Grand Place, which lives up to and surpasses its name. The Grand Place is a plaza surrounded by massive gold laden buildings. Statues are carved into every available stone wall, and some copper and gold statues stand alone among the stone. The plaza is filled with tourists eating their overtopped waffles, stuffed with fruit and whipped cream. Tour groups of every language will stop at each building, the guide giving a brief description of the history. We must have spent three hours people watching there.

The surroundings to The Grand Place were enjoyable. We went on our own version of a chocolate tour, taking in at least 10 free samples. Grahams favorite was a cinnamon milk chocolate, Cam’s was a fluffy light textured chocolate meringue. We culminated the food tour with a standard waffle with icing sugar, and the Belgians sure know what they are doing there. It was warm and delicious.

One thing we noticed right away was not to dine out. Every restaurant has a menu outside the door so we would look often at various restaurant to see if we wanted to stop for lunch. Every place we checked out sold fries and mussels for an average price of 20 euros. No thank you. Especially after the amazing mussel we had in London. So we went to the grocery store and bought a baguette, various meats and cheeses, waffles, oats, and other snacks to hold us over for a couple days. The groceries here are very well priced.

We made our way to Brussels Palace, a 10 minute walk or so away. We got fooled twice on the way there, first thinking the Royal Library was the palace, and then Saint Jaques sur Coudenburg, a church, was as well. Unfortunately for us, the palace is under restoration at the moment, so it was an underwhelming sight when we laid eyes on it as 2/3s of the front was covered. Oh well. The park gardens across the way were lovely.

Our final stop of the day was Gare Maritime, an open concept hall. It had a few restaurants at the end of it, and a climate technology conference which we did not crash. There was a nice garden there as well with a pond that we sat at. A little 3 year old stole Graham’s glasses at one point! It was a lovely evening, and the people watching made it more entertaining. One poor soul dropped their phone in the pond, and him and his friends were using a bamboo pole to try and retrieve it. They were successful.

The second day in Brussels was a rainy one. We woke up and it was pouring out. We decided it was a museum day then, and headed to the Atomium. Despite our best efforts to stay dry, our shoes were absolutely soaked after a short 100m walk from the train to the Atomium. Not great and our shoes are still wet 3 days later.

The Atomium is sick. Its this massive steel structure meant to represent the iron crystal. Which means, its one unit square of a BCC lattice. Thanks materials engineering. The inside is a little tour about the history of the Atomium and world fairs in general. This building was originally built for the 1958 Bruxelles world fair. And then in the middle of the cute little exhibits, bam, PSYCHADELLIC LIGHTS SHOW. No warning, except for the escalator ride up, and no mention of it after. Just, here’s this intense metal ball playing techno music with LED lights dancing all around you. We must have spent half an hour in that room.

The rain was still coming down, so we headed to the Design Museum. This is just a bunch of plastic chairs. Legitimately.

The rain lightened up, so we took a walk around Laeken Park nearby, enjoying the mist that the rains of the day had created. This park boasts massive trees towering over wide paved pathways, with large fields in the middle. Interspersed throughout are gothic monuments to various historical figures, a closed off festival ground, and a private castle. It was a lovely walk through the park, before heading to our final destination, Palais 12.

Hans Zimmer had the crowd at Palais 12, and he put on a brilliant show. Interwoven through movie score medleys he introduced the history behind some pieces and the band members with their contributions. He comes across as a very kind and humble fellow who needs to give himself more credit, as he introduced Interstellar with “A piece I am almost proud of.” The whole thing was magnificent. The Ukrainian orchestra provided the backdrop for his star performers to grace themselves throughout the pieces, shredding guitar solo’s, running cellos, and blasting every type of flute possible. The most powerful moment was when Pirates of the Caribbean came together after being teased and built up to for 10 minutes. Every soloist was playing the familiar riff, commanding the tune at the front of the stage. Cam’s favorite pieces were Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lion King, while Graham really enjoyed Dune Pt 2 and James Bond.

And that’s it for our time in Brussels. Except for one thing. They keep telling you about the Mannekin Pis statue here, of a boy peeing, but not about her sister, Jeanneke Pis. Apparently there’s a dog too, but we didn’t find it.

We leave for Bruges the next morning, for another Belgian adventure. Thank you for reading! We miss you.