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Published: October 6th 2007
In my opinion, Brussels has the most unique character of any European City I have visited so far. Brussels is a bilingual city where both French and Dutch are official languages, so all the streets have two completely sounding names. Some of the people you come across do understand English, but I was lucky enough to stay with French speaking family.
There is plenty of fantastic food and drink to be tasted in this city. The classics being Belgian chocolates, waffles, mussels (moules), fries (frites) and the Belgian beer. The French have their wine and the Belgians have their beer. Typical beers of Brussels are gueuze (bitter) and kriek (sweet, cherry based) I had the latter of course, which was great. I was also lucky enough to try a traditional Belgian dish called waterzooi, homemade by aunt, and it was delicious! Waterzooi is a stew made of chicken, vegetables, cream and butter and the name literally translates to mean "watery mess"...I didn't find it messy at all.
Brussels is home to the world's first shopping mall, Galeries Saint Hubert-Sint Hubertusgalerijen, which opened in 1847. It is a light and airy triple-story gallery with boutiques, bookstores, cafés, restaurants, and a
La Grand Place 2
The House of the Dukes of Brabanttheater. La Grand Place hosts a beautiful set of elaborately decorated guild houses. These houses were privately owned by corporations which always had a stake in the city administration. The houses were used as meeting places to discuss new rules or regulations within their specific trade or commerce.
Manneken Pis is a small bronze statue just a short walk from the Grand Place. There are several legends behind this statue. One legend states that Brussels was under siege by a foreign power and attackers had planned to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy from Brussels happened to be spying on them, so he urinated on the burning fuses and saved the city. Another legend states that troops of a two-year-old lord named Duke Godfrey II of Leuven were battling against the troops of the Berthouts. The dukes troops put the infant lord in a basket and hung it on a tree for encouragement. The child urinated on the troops of the Berthouts, who eventually lost the battle.
A tourist attraction that rivals Manneken Pis is The Atomium, which is often referred to as the Eiffel Tower of Brussels. It represents a unit cell of
La Grand Place 3
Belgian Beer Festival in La Grand Place. an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times and was built for the 1958 Brussels World Fair. It was originally planned to last only six months, but it has become one of the most popular attractions in Brussels.
Another fun place to visit in the Heysel Exhibition park is Mini Europe which contains replicas of famous buildings from countries in the European Union, presented at 1:25 scale. The buildings are known for their detail and are said to have cost over 75,000 Euros per model to reproduce.
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Cheryl Neil
non-member comment
Awsome, Awsome, Awsome
These are great picture. How funny is the story about the little boy putting out the fuse. Sometimes it takes a simple solution to address a big problem. It looks like you are having a wonderful time. I am learning so much on your travels. I am adding new places to visit on my list every time I get your updates. Keep have a great time and I look for ward to your next adventure. Love Cheryl