We visited Brussels in August, 2004, where we met our friends Chuck and Kathie. We spent the day wandering around the city, trying unsuccessfully to dodge the rain drops, but still enjoying the sights of the city. We started off where most visitors start, in the Grand Place.  This square was formerly home to the craft guilds and the buildings surrounding the open square reflect the various crafts with statues adorning the buildings. These statues either demonstrate the particular profession or feature the patron saint of the craft. The photo above doesn’t do the square justice, so you will have to visit it yourself to see. Be sure to get a guide that describes each of the unique buildings.

Outside the square, we wandered around a bit, first to the Manneken Pis, the famous statue-fountain of the little boy peeing. The legend says that a wealthy merchant lost his son during some festivities and days later found him on the spot where the fountain now stands. When the father found him, the son was doing just what he is doing in the fountain. Interestingly, this little boy fountain is dressed in various costumes, depending on the time of the year. And nearby, there is a museum that holds all the various costumes. Of course, you have several opportunities to buy your very own Manneken Pis statue or fountain to take home. We tried to find the little girl version of this statue, but gave up after a bit.

Wandering through the city, you will find lots of building walls that have comic figures painted on them. There are actually many of them and one of the walking tours highlights these paintings. The comics are representative of many different comic strips, both past and present. The photo at right is just one example. These comics provide a bit of brightness to the landscape and are an interesting diversion. Of course, it might be a bit more meaningful to Europeans who are used to seeing these comics in their daily papers.

We found the city to have a wealth of diverse foods and you can get almost any type of meal you desire. We opted for Vietnamese, but Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Middle Eastern, and a variety of European restaurants are easy to find. Of course, for dessert, we had to find the infamous Belgium waffles. They were wonderful, especially with the fresh strawberries and whipped cream! And while on the subject of food, we had to stop by the biscuit shop to buy fresh cookies (yum!) and Neuhaus, the world-famous chocolate maker for truffles. Wow!

We then walked up the hill to the Royal Palace, which is open to the public for no charge. It was interesting to see the interior and furnishing, but had no guide, so we probably missed out on some of the important bits. One of the items we did find interesting (though no photos were allowed) was the decor in the last room where several pieces of wall and ceiling as well as one of the chandeliers, was covered in a shiny, greenish-blue substance. We found out afterwards they were covered with scarabs, small shiny beetles! The walls and ceiling weren’t bad, but the chandelier was questionable in our opinion. Just below the palace, there is a nice view of the old city, shown at left.

If you find typographical errors or have any other problems when looking at the site please contact the Webmaster describing the problem and the page involved.