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Published: January 2nd 2006
The arch of triumph in Brussels
Not so flash at night, probably prettier in the daytime. And from another angle. Still nice though.Probably the only things I knew about Belgium before I got there were that they have good chocolates, and interesting beer. And they do have both. I didn't know though, that Tintin is Belgian.
We arrived in Brussels at night, and the first thing that was pointed out to us were the green cross signs that indicated open pharmacies. I think it's a brilliant idea. I mean, if you got sick in the middle of the night and haven't got a clue where to go, all you have to do is run around looking for a green neon cross. Brilliant eh? I didn't manage to get a picture of one in Brussels, but it seems that they're common all around Europe and I got a shot of one in Switzerland.
Brussels is where the EU holds their meetings, did you know that? And NATO too. Let's not forget NATO. And recently the EU had a meeting here too, and they were talking about budgets and things as I kept hearing about it on BBC and CNN. Those were the only channels I could watch as all the others were in another language that I didn't understand.
People here
Christmas tree in the square
Interesting fuzzy picture and it's actually quite a large tree. speak Flemish and German. I didn't learn any Flemish but it sounds like Dutch and uses a lot of ARAHHGAHHHGR sounds. NYRHGHHRRAHHG maybe more like it. I can't do it.
Ah yes, so what did I see in Brussels. I saw the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. There's a basilica by the same name in Montmarte, France. But that has a French name. I think the guide said it's the 4th largest in Europe or something like that. I mean, the one in Brussels.
Saw the Belgian arch of triumph. Unfortunately I wasn't paying too much attention when the tour guide was explaining who asked for it to be constructed. And why. But there you go, we saw the Belgian arch of triumph. It was in the Cinquantenaire Park. Here, I did a little bit of research.
In 1880 Belgium celebrated the 50th anniversary of its independence. Therefore, king Leopold II wanted to have a world exhibition organized in Brussels. For its location a former military exercising ground outside of the center of the city was chosen, the so-called "Linthout" plains. In this exhibition the world would be able to see that the new state of Belgium On the way to see the Manneken Pis
Fuzziness galore. But at least it doesn't have a date on it. was prospering and able to take its place between the important nations of Europe. In the second half of the 19th century Leopold II had acquired the Congolese colony in Africa which supplied him with considerable financial possibilities. He decided to use a part of his new fortune to give Brussels the outlook of an important European city. One of his realizations was this Cinquantenaire park with its imposing monuments.
The most eye-catching monument is, of course, the triumphal arch. This arch was built to serve as a monument to illustrate the glorious past of Brussels. It also was to serve as a new entrance gate to the center for people entering from the eastern side of Brussels, via the newly constructed Tervurenlaan/Avenue de Tervueren.
The arch was planned for the world exhibition of 1880, but would take a long time to be finished. In 1880 only the basis of the colons had been constructed. During the exhibition the rest of the arch was completed with wooden panels. In the following years the construction and completion of the monument was the topic of a continuous battle between the king and the government. The Belgian government actually did not
The famous Belgian!
Pissing on them all. want to spend so much money on an (in their eyes) unnecessary monument. Via private funding (for which the king had provided the money) the arch was finally completed by 1905, just in time for the 75th anniversary of the Belgian independence.
The monument was then also crowned with a quadriga, representing the province of Brabant. The other 8 provinces were symbolized by allegoric statues at the foot of the columns.
On both sides of the arch are 'galleries of the columns' with mosaics representing and glorifying the 'peace-loving nation of Belgium'. These mosaics were made between 1920 and 1932.
Source. I must tell you that we saw Manneken Pis. Or perhaps, the Manneken Pis. Whatever it is, he's supposed to be the most famous Belgian. And it's a little boy pissing. You see, the local Belgian guide who took us spoke very clearly but she sounded like a tape recorder being played-back, and my attention sort of wavers when people speak like that. Therefore I don't know why the Manneken Pis is there.
What I did hear though is that Belgium has a king and queen, and they once upon a time came from
Belgian lace
Notice that it says "handmade in Belgium". Mum made sure the photo showed that. Notice also the crazy prices. Germany. Germany lent them, or maybe gave them, a king when they became a proper country. Therefore their flag is like the German flag, only their stripes are vertical, to remind them that their royal family came from Germany.
It is though right opposite the bar that we went to, for what the guide called 'cherry beer'. I didn't catch its German name. It's red and it's sweet, but I wasn't feeling too well during the earlier parts of my trip, so I didn't finish mine. But I can tell you it's sweet. I'm not at all a beer person so I can't tell you much else.
The Swiss have kirschwasser which is also from a cherry but the alcoholic drink that comes from it is clear, not red. So it certainly isn't kirsch. In fact I think it might be the kriek. In that case, yes kriek is unique to Belgium. Read about it
here.
Belgium is also famous for chocolates. And waffles. So we were given some time to wander about on our own, and of course, the meeting point about an hour later was no other place than the Godiva chocolate store.
"Hello
The pub in Brussels
Cool interior. It was warm too. I would like to buy some chocolates, which would you recommend?"
"Mmm what do you like?"
"What's your most popular chocolate?"
She picks up a macadamia nut one. Australia is full of macadamia nuts. I even bought macadamia nuts home this year. I'm not going to have macadamia nut chocolates in Belgium.
"Ah .. what's a really
Belgian sort of chocolate?"
The lady looks perplexed and says in her German-accented English, "They are all Belgian!" and sweeps her hands across the chocolate display bar in this all-encompassing manner.
OK. Not going to be too helpful. I don't want to buy a whole chocolate display counter. But I don't know which to get.
Then the other sales person comes up to me and puts this giftbox of chocolates on the counter. Apparently that's what most people buy, and it has a whole variety of chocolates. It was €11 which I suppose is ok, so I got that. I found out later that it contains the macadamia nut one too.
We spent some time at the main square, where there were several old buildings and lots of Christmas decorations. There was a Christmas tree
More of the pub
Toldja it had a cool interior. in the middle, a fairly large nativity scene thing in the corner, displays of lights, and lots of people.
And oh they are supposed to have good oysters, and Brussels sprouts did once upon a time come from Brussels but I didn't have any. I wasn't feeling too good, remember, so oysters probably wouldn't have gone down too well.
What I didn't know, like I said, was that Tintin was drawn and written by a Belgian. That would totally explain why I saw a wall painted with Tintin characters. I have a friend who looks like Tintin. I don't have his picture though. And he probably wouldn't like it if he knew that I put his picture up on the internet. There is a Tintin musical though, isn't there? He would win the title role snap like that. I wonder if he can sing though.
Audrey Hepburn in from Brussels. And so is Jean-Claude Van Damme. Jean-Claude Van Damme, man.
We had dinner in town, but because Dad was ALREADY sick of European food (there isn't much to talk about really if you come from Malaysia where we have the best food in the world no
Cherry beer!
Duh, it says right there that it's kriek. contest, in my
very humble opinion), we went down a Lebanese/Greek area in search of something more Asian. The Middle East isn't really Asia, so we wandered up and down. I was feeling pretty crummy so I didn't care really where we went, cause I wasn't going to be eating. The Middle Eastern-looking people there were probably of Middle Eastern origin, but they all spoke either German or French. One nice-looking man said to me, "Bonsoir!" and then a whole bunch of French which I think he was trying to say "Come eat in here!".
The man next door said, "Rice! Rice? Rice!" and THAT immediately got my mum's antenna up, and told Dad, and so we went in. I wasn't convinced that they had real rice, I thought perhaps they meant couscous or something. Either way I can't remember cause I was feeling pretty nauseous and made sure I didn't have to look at food too much that night.
So no oysters for me.
We saw a statue of Don Quixote (and his squire but I don't remember his name). Now, what's his relation to Brussels since he's Spanish? I don't know. Again, I wasn't listening.
Town hall in the square
The colours are from the lights display. It's so blur cause I was trying to use the night mode but I didn't have a tripod. I have shaky hands. Probably because the books were printed in Brussels.
Well, seeing that we didn't spend all that much time in Brussels, that's about all I can tell you of it. We saw many old buildings and there are some pretty nice gardens too, but one night in Brussels isn't really much good. If I ever go to Brussels again I'd make sure I had some waffles, some oysters (or was it mussels? Or are they the same thing? I don't like seafood very much really), had a closer look at buildings and parks, and find the Tintin & Snowy statue.
And pay closer attention when the guide is talking.
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Mark
non-member comment
Nice! a blog and a lesson on Belgium....