This is a mix of the more historical pictures from our walking tour and pictures from my time wandering the city center. I love Brussels-it’s such a fun, bustling, international city. I forgot to mention in the last post we also visited the visitor’s center for the Parliment of the European Union, but there wasn’t much to take pictures of there because it was more informational.
Martyr’ Square-there are over 400 people who were buried here, where they were killed during the Belgian Revolution of 1830.Just some lovely architectureEglise Saint-Jean-Baptiste au BeguinageSame church from the frontCute city squareThis tower is a part of the old city walls-when they tore down the walls they couldn’t tear this down because someone was living in it and by the time it was no longer inhabited it was considered a historical building and couldn’t be torn down, so (as you can see) they just built around it.Eglise Sainte-CatherineSame church, but you can see this side has been cleaned up and has a reflecting pool in front of itFontaine Anspach (with some random ducks in it)-this and the above church are both in the area that was the old fish market.La Monnaie (Brussels opera house)Another lovely little street
The next few pictures are of Grand-Place, which is Brussels main square, which is so beautiful-it takes your breath away and these pictures do not even begin to do it justice.
When in Belgium-must have fries with mayonnaise!Manneken Pis (which translates to the Little Peeing Boy, there is also a Little Peeing Girl and a Peeing Dog, but I didn’t see them)-a bit like the Mona Lisa-attracts crowds, but is much smaller in person!Manneken Pis has an entire wardrobe and he is dressed for certain holidays and events-there are some of his more “Hollywood” costumes (there’s a whole museum called the Manneken Pis’ wardrobe)When in Belgium-you must have a waffle-my only disappointment with this was the chocolate was the kind that gets hard, so it made it more challenging to eatGrand-Place againThe facade of the City Museum of BrusselsIf you look at my pictures of the Grand-Place in some of the photos at the very top of the one point you can see a statue-it’s a statue of Saint Michel and this one is the original that stood up there from 1455(!) until the end of the 20th century when it was replaced with a replica.This is the original Manneken Pis, the one in the square now is a replica because the original kept getting stolen or broken (often in half)
These are some final shots of Grand-Place before we departed.
I loved my time in Brussels-this is my 3rd time there and I’d love to go back again. I’m adding the comic book museum to my list of to-dos for future trips.
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