A FEW DAYS IN BRUSSELS

Tickets, bags, iPads, Iphone, Samsung phone and Kindle in hand we began our journey to Brussels.  While waiting for the train we met another American who was making his home in Amsterdam, although he had already lived here 4 years.  He came over to Amsterdam on a student visa to study dance but an avocation of his, knitting, has turned into a full time profession.  Of course, that's what he was doing as he was sitting waiting for the train.  He designs and makes patterns, and teaches all over Europe and the US including Southern Pines in NC.  When we asked him what his folks thought of him residing in Amsterdam he said they miss him but as he hads two brothers who are Marines and in Iraq they are just happy to have him in Amsterdam.  

This is Stephen West and I'm just giving him  a few pointers.  Seriously, he's quite the talent.  Check out his website ; westknits.com.  

We arrived in Brussels-Zuid and caught a cab to the Dominican Hotel on Rue Leopold 9 in the heart of Brussels and just a short walk to the Grand-Place where the flower carpet is unfurled every other year.

 From there we went to explore the area and find the Grand-Place.  With directions in hand we departed the hotel and found our way to the Gallery Shopping area.  We were distracted from getting to our destination by a beautiful window display in an art gallery.  We walked in and spent almost an hour there looking at the wares - chandeliers, sculptures, vases, crystal, jewelry.  Everything was so beautiful and a lovely French shop keeper was more than happy to take items out of the display case and show them to us.  

We finally left the shop and walked through the shopping gallery which was beautiful.  It was filled with  restaurants and shops , particularly chocolate shops.  So many delicious distractions.  

At last we reached the square where the carpert would be assembled.  It is a beautiful square.Great examples of Gothic architecture.

    A little history behind the flower carpeet.  Every two years the Grand-Place is covered in a carpet of flowers, the begonias.  Officially the flower carpet was born in 1971 on the Grand-Place.  It was the work of the landscape architect E. Stautemans, who was inspired by other carpets created in diverse Flemish cities. The peculiarity of the Brussels Flower carpet is in it's location.  The carpet is 77X 24m.  It is planned one year in advance.  Scale reproductions are done and the number and the combinations of colors are determined.  A life size drawing of the carpet is put on a transparent and micro-drilled plastic sheet.  The carpet than has to be made by approximately 120 voluteers who install the nearly 1 million begonias within 4 hours. The Flower carpet is installed only 1 weekend.  Acess is free although if you want a panoramic view  there is a 5 euro charge to view it from the baloney of the City Hall.

This was the square on Thursday when we went to look at it around 1:30 or so.

A few boxes of flowers started to arrive.

While we were wandering around the square we went into the courtyard of the City Hall where we saw two fountains built during the 18th century which are decorated with allegorical statues representing the two big rivers that cross Belgium, the Meuse and the Scheldt.  In the middle of this courtyard is a large star which represents kilometre zero, the geographical center of Belgium, from which the distances to other cities are calculated - similar to the disc in the area in front  of Notre Dame in Paris.

The Spire on the City Hall can be seen from many of the neighborhoods and is an architrectual landmark that has graced the Brussels landscape for more than five centuries.  The 300 or more statues that decorataed the building pay homage to different figures that have left their mark on the political, cultural, and economic life of Brussels.  The City Hall has housed the municipal authorities since the 15th century.  Day or night it is impressive.

We found the visitor's center next to the City Hall so we got our city map, a good overview of the city from the attendant and as our stomachs were rumblling at ths point we decided to wander out of the square to look for something to eat.  We decided that we shoud not miss the  Manneken-Pis sculptor while in Brussels so we headed in that direction.   The Mannekin-Pis was at first a fountain that played an essential role in the former distribution of drinking water since the 15ht century.  Towards the end of the 17th century the statue became more and more important in the city life.  It was a survivor of the bombardment of Brussels in 1695.  "Mannekin-Pis became a precious good and enjoys a ceaselessly glowing glory".  He is adorned with luxurious clothes during big events.  He lost his main function in the network of water conveyance  in the 19th century but he became an image and symbol of the Brussels   folklore, the joy of the inhabitants and their capacity of self-mockery. 

The little fellow has over 900 suits.  His entire wardrobe is in the Museum of the City of Brussels.  

By this time we were starved.  We turned the corner and there was a belgium waffle shop.  Who could resist.  We certainly couldn't.  So many toppings to choose from and in an effort to try most we ordered one with, strawberries, bananas,whipped cream and nutella.

The worlds biggest waffle with the world's littlest fork.  Basically my approach to this was eat everything off the top with your itsy, bitsy, teeny weenie plastic spoon and than pick up the waffle with your fingers.  It worked.  The waffle was much sweeter than I expected and I can only say I had one and that will probably do me for a lifetime.  Too sweet!  Of course maybe one shouldn't eat it for lunch or I should  have ordered a Belgium beer to go with it.  Perhaps I will have to try it again.

While at the visitor's Center we did learn that the Palais-Royal was open to the public from July 22 - September 7 so off we went. We had to walk by the Grand-Palace again so we took a look at the progress.

 As we were making our way toward the palace a little black cloud appeared and we saw the CitySightseeing bus on the corner and decided that might be a good way to get around the city and to the various destinations we wanted to visit and stay dry if it started to pour.  We had decided to leave our rain geer in the hotel.  I'm almost sure I wanted to bring mine but Sharon talked me out of it.

Off we went in our little red bus to the Palais Royal.  The palace is not the home to the Royals but is where the King exercises his perogatives as Head of State.  It is the place where he grants audiences and deals with affairs of state.  It also includes the State Rooms where large receptions are held, as well as apartments  provided for foreign Heads of State during official visits.

The grand staircase.  

This is the year commemorating the First World War and in keeping with that the exhibition in the Palace is entitled "Albert and Elizabeth: the film of the life of a royal couple". They were the rulers during this period of history.

From a selection of filmed documentaries one can see the life of these two Sovereigns over a twenty-five year period.  Albert and Elizabeth were a modern couple that enjoyed contact with the population.  They loved to travel and were interested in films.  He and Elizabeth were immensely popular with people.  When he returned to Brussels after the Armistice, in his speech from the throne on the 22 November, King Albert announceed major reforms:  Introduction of uiversal suffrage, effective equality for the two national languages, and the switch to Flemish at the University of Ghent; recognition of trade union freedoms and the extension of social legislation.  In 1934, the King died tragically following a fatal fall in the rocks of March-les-Dames.

This and the following tapestryes are in the Goya 

Room of the palace.  They were woven in Madrid and were presented to King Leopold I by Queen Elizabeth II of Spain.

We finished the tour and than waited for the bus to come to pick us up. It was so slow.  Poor us.  It started to rain but we were fortunately at a covered bus stop.  Note the expressions on our faces as we waited.

We had waited for the bus for over a half an hour and when we got on we went around a corner, and about one block and pulled up to the start/end of the route.  We had made the entire circle of bus number 2 and we were very close to our "neighborhood".  We could have been home, although a ittle wet, if we had just known.  Oh well.  

We were glad we had done the bus tour, you get to see so much of the city and also learned interesting facts about it.  Brussels is the capital and largest city in Belgium and the de facto capital  of the  European Union.  Since the end of WWII Brussells has been a major centre for international politics.  Generally you wil hear three languages being spoken , French, Dutch, and Flemmish. Although Brussels is primarily French ,the city is officially bilingual.  It was a little bit more difficult to communicate although we did find many peope who spoke English.  One thing pointed out in the dialog on the bus was that the people are very friendly and if you see someone looking at a map someone will come to aid them in finding their way, if you are in a restaurant eventually someone will end up talking to you.  It also described some of the traditional food that should be sampled while visiting Brussels.  That is besides waffles and chocolates and beer ( I'm almost sure beer and wine is a food group)!  I wanted to try them all.  Sharon not so much.  I'm a foody and Sharon isn't.  She 's a good sport though and goes along with me.  One thing I don't have to worry about is her tasting my food.  Some of the specialties are Belgium fries ( I had to guard these because Sharon will eat them)

rabbit, tomatoe crevette (hallowed out tomatoe filled with locally caught grey shrimp ( cannot substitute) and mayonnaise ),Moules frites (mussels and fries) and  filet Americain (steak tartare).  All that was making me hungry.

Once we got off the bus we decided to stop in and have a Belgium beer.  Sharon picked out the bar and I noticed there wasn't another woman in sight except the bartenders.  ( I would never have picked such a bar :-).  We ordered our beer but a young man came over and told us to change our order to Jupiter, so we did.  We ended up talking to him for some time.  He left and another man came in and ordered us another beer.  I think he may have had just a little too much to drink or he was overwhelmed with my beauty.  I'd prefer to think the later but ...the nice thing was that a couple  of the customers , one being the young man who had spoken to us earlier ,came to check on us and made sure we were OK.  Sharon and I guzzled our beer down and made a hasty departure.  I am not allowing Sharon to pick any more bars for us!  

We got back to the hotel and freshened up and departed for dinner.  The hotel clerk had recommended a restaurant,the Scheltema,not too far away down a neat little alley filled with eateries.  

We sat between two tables, a French couple at one, and a group of American women.  We had a limited conversation with the French couple but we exchanged smiles and laughter, and ended up having a nice conversation with the women who were military wifes and were living at Ramstein Air 

Force Base.  They told us to look them up and we would have a place to stay.  We had a fun time talking with them and I have a card with a name and number.  Never know when that might come in handy.

After dinner we walked over to see the carpet and than walked back to our hotel and had a little night cap before turning in.

It was a full day and our plan was to get up early the next day and stand in line to get a ticket for the City Hall to view the carpet from its balcony.  Of course we forgot to check on what time they started selling tickets.  Oh well.