Travel around the world: Western Europe Trip

Brussels - The Grand Place (Central Square)

It is the last full day of our trip and we sleep close to the airport and commute to downtown Brussels as it is safer with our plane early in the morning. The hotel is acceptable however it has limited shuttles to the airport which makes for a difficult commuting as the buses to the downtown area are starting from the airport.


Ibis Hotel near airport	Typical Ibis Hotel Room

We catch all the buses as hoped and arrive at the train station from where we walk towards the National church of Belgium a nicely decorated church even though a bit underwhelming in size compared to the other cathedrals we have seen on our trip.


Cathedral Sts Michel and Gudule-National church of Belgium	Detail on the entrance

We continue to the Botanical Garden, it is relatively small but it has nice floral arrangements and some statues which look antique. The glasshouse however is not in use anymore as the main Botanical Garden has moved to a different location.


Botanical Garden - former glasshouse	One of the many statues


Inside the garden	Natural doorway in the garden

After the Botanical Garden we trace back our steps and continue towards the Royal Palace. On the way we see the Congress Column built to commemorate the formation of the Belgian State. It has an eternal flame in front of it in honor of all fallen to protect Belgium in the First World War. After a few more minutes we arrive at the gardens in front of the palace, they are full of children, adults and tourists enjoying the fontains to cool themselves off.


Congress Column	Base of column with burning flame


Park in front of the Palace	One of the fountains in the park

The Royal Palace is impressive with a beautiful private garden and we walk along it to take a few pictures and then continue on towards the downtown area.


Palais Royal - Front	Palais Royal Gardens

The fastest way downtown is through a covered mall which seem to be common at least in the downtown area. Brussels even has the first shopping arcade in Europe which might be the reason for the strong presence of covered malls. As we approach the Central Plaza there are more and more people including tourists shopping, sightseeing are just trying to grab a bite to eat.


Interior of a mall in Brussels	Galeries St. Hubert - first shopping arcade in Europe


Downtown street	Lots of people everywhere

The area is patrolled by horseback police as it would be difficult to use cars. However what we care most is to find a place to eat and after a short search we settle on a busy place where we eat waffles and french fries with goulash - for a tourist restaurant the food is quite good.


Horseback police	Restaurant near Central Square


Goulash in Bruselles	Waffles - more typical for Belgium

Satiated we walk to the Grand Place, the focal point of Brussels. We have been here before but it was cloudy and dark today it is sunny and it looks much more better. As we look around we identify the different well known houses - the house where Victor Hugo lived, the house/palace where the Spanish king stayed when visiting his Low Countries dominion, the guild houses and so on - all of the houses here carry some history with them.


Grand Place - Hotel de Ville	Le Pigeon - home of Victor Hugo (second from left)


Maison du Roi - former residence of Spanish monarchs	Guild houses on the Grand Place

The details on most houses are beautiful with the swan from the "Swan House" being our preferred one. Close by we find also Stock Exchange in a nice classical style building.


Detail in Grand Place	Maison de Roi - Detail


Ornate facade	La Bourse - Brussels Stock Exchange

After the Grand Place we walk to the other major attraction - Manneken Pis - a small statue of boy doing...well you can see. It is quite popular with tourists so snapping even a single picture without anybody else in the frame is a miracle. The companion statue of a girl, Jeanneke Pis, is much less visited and in a different area but we find it in the end after some searching.


Manneken Pis from a distance	Or is this the real one?


Close up of Manneken Pis	Jeanneke Pis

After this we wander around visiting a few other touristy and less touristy areas. The Place de Martyrs where the center of the Flemish government seats we find by mistake almost but the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinee we search for quite some time before finding. The museum is dedicated to the Belgian cartoons the most well known being Tintin and we take a look through the well stocked museum shop before returning towards the train station and our hotel.


Place des Martyrs	Flemish government building


Lace shops - they are everywhere	Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinee

During our Brussels we couldn't resist buying quite a few souvenirs from the many shops around us. We tried to focus on the traditional products lace and chocolate, there were quite a few interesting things available to buy and the chocolate was delicious. After returning to the hotel we have to pack and then we have the long trip home after the interesting multi country whirlwind tour of the area.