Some pictures from Brussels that didn’t fit into the other posts.
Jeanneke Pis, Manneken Pis’s feminine counterpart.
A view straight down the tram lines outside Neil and Christianne’s house.
Tintin imagery all over town to remind everyone that the author was Belgian and not French
Bruges, a fairytale town.
City streets
Brussels bathed in golden sunlight one evening.
Belgian chocolate shops.
A brief view of Lille, France on the train ride back home.
Neil suggested that today, we visit Leuven, The next town over from Brussels.
I had a heard a little about Leuven on a YouTube travel show called Wolter’s World, where it was described as a typical university town in that it is more geared towards students than visitors.
I certainly got that kind of impression. There weren’t as Many tourist attractions as there were in Brussels and Bruges, but there was still plenty to say walking along the streets.
In terms of architecture, Leuven wasn’t quite as picturesque as Bruges.
That said though, The Stathuis was something to behold with all the intricate stonework all around the building.
Saint Patrick’s Church, which we also had a look in, was also pretty spectacular with all that stained glass windows and sculptures.
We had lunch in the university square.
Overall, Leuven reminded me quite strongly of Carlisle. Both cities have a lot of historical landmarks (such as Carlisle Castle and Carlisle Cathedral in the case of the latter) which are juxtaposed by student oriented bars, clubs, restaurants, and other modern establishments.
On the way back to Brussels, we stopped off at The Africa Museum. It wasn’t open, but we had a good look around gardens.
Back in Brussels, we mainly retreaded our footsteps from the last few days. We managed to find Manaken Pis’ canine counterpart, Het Zinneke (or Chien Pis as Dad called it) and came across several new street paintings.
When we first visited it on Wednesday, Neil told us that The Grand Palace was best experienced at night, and when we got there today, I could see what he was talking about.
I made the mistake of trying a strong beer at one of the bars near the square. The effect that it had on my vision reminded me strongly of looking through a fisheye lens. It also made me see pink elephants, although that may have just been the Delerium logo above the door.
There were some interesting opportunities for night shots once it got dark.
Even though we’d been here three days, that I hadn’t actually had a chance to look round Brussels itself that much, so we decided to do that today.
We started off in the town centre again. There were quite a few streets surrounding The Grand Palace which we didn’t get to see.
I noticed there was quite a lot of street art around the city centre.
We passed Maneken Pis again. Today, he was dressed as Dr Pis.
Before we came to Brussels, I had read that street food was quite good, so I thought that finding somewhere to get lunch would be easy, but as it turned out, there were virtually no food stalls in the town centre, so we had to settle for a fast food restaurant (which admittedly did serve quite good frites)
I noticed that although most service staff started off speaking English rather than French or Flemish, few cafés and restaurants had English translations of their menus.
After lunch, we walked back up past Centraal Station and through The Royal Library gardens. It certainly gave me a few new ideas my allotment.
On the other side of the gardens, we came to the Royal Palace of Brussels. There was a motorcade coming out the gates as we walk past. We may have seen the king of Belgium.
We had a look around the rather unimaginatively named Brussels Park in front of the palace. It was full of statues depicting Greek and Roman gods.
Once we had been round Brussels Park, we set off towards another park, The Parc Du Cinquantenaire, or 50th Anniversary Park in English, the anniversary in question being that of the country’s independence in 1880.
The park’s iconic arches were visible at the end of the road outside Brussels Park, but it turned out to be quite a long walk between the two.
For the second time, I was reminded of our trip to New York last summer, since The World Trade Centre look like it was only a short distance away from the Empire State Building, but it took most of the day to walk between the two.
The route to the park took us through the headquarters of the European Union, so now when they talk about the European Parliament and the European commission on the news, I know exactly where they’re talking about.
We walked as far as the arches and then set off back into town.
We walked back via a slightly different route and on the way back past the European Parliament, We came across a set of rather odd sculptures which were apparently meant to be “European citizens “
Today’s first attraction was The Atomium, a museum built in the shape of an iron crystal which was apparently created as a folly for the city’s world fair in 1958 and converted into a museum soon after.
Each “atom“ forms a separate room. The bottom few displaying a variety of Belgian memorabilia from the 50s and 60s.
The upper floors housed a temporary exhibition which I immediately dubbed “The Nucleusium” on account of the fact that the main feature was a model of the nucleus of an iron atom with safelights and strobe lights all around it. As with a lot of art, it was something that I found quite difficult to follow.
There was a viewing deck inside the top atom, however it was rather difficult to find the way up. There initially appeared to be a lift which went up there, but it didn’t go from the atom below. A member of staff explained to us that the lift actually went from the ground floor, so we had to go all the way back down to go all the way back off again.
My first impression of the viewing deck was that at some point, the designers in charge of The Atomium and The Empire State Building had shared notes at one point or another, on account of it looking almost identical to the 102nd floor of New York’s iconic landmark, right down to both rooms having old photographs on the wall showing the construction of the building.
There was an excellent view down into Mini Europe, a miniature village made up of iconic European landmarks. One of the first thing I noticed was that the Elizabeth Tower was still a part of the park and that The Union Flag was flying amongst the other 27. It’s always good to see that there are some Europeans who still have faith in our country.
After The Atomium we headed back into town.
We made a brief stop at The Pagodas, a pavilion and a tower from China and Japan respectively which had apparently been disassembled, shipped to Belgium, and then reassembled in Brussels.
Dad and I were basically just milling around the city centre for the rest of the day.
We managed to see Manneken Pis and The Grand Palace, both of which were high on my list of things to see.
I also had quite a culinary experience. I got some Belgian chocolate from a shop near Centraal Station (of course) and a Belgian waffle from a shop on one of the main High Street ( which funnily enough, was marketing it’s waffles as “Australian waffles “)
I also gave Belgian beer a try at a bar just outside The Grand Palace. This was my first time drinking beer, aside from the old sip here and there.
Ever the international jetsetters, or in this case trainsetters, Dad and I were off again this week, this time to Belgium.
Our friend Neil had requested a print of Spider In The Light (one of the photos that I had in my Animal, Vegetable, Mineral show) after it was commended in The British Wildlife Photography Awards and after a few production problems I had finally had it made, so we were visiting him and his wife Christianne in Brussels to deliver it.
It was the first time that I had been on The Eurostar, so I was quite excited to add that to my list of experiences.
There weren’t any photo opportunities on the train ride down to London , but I did get quite a few pictures of the approach to the channel tunnel and of the French and Belgian countryside.
Peering Down On Prague From Petrin Park #1
£10.00 – £50.00
Rudolph The Red Winged Reindeer #3
£10.00 – £50.00
Rudolph The Red Winged Reindeer #2
£10.00 – £50.00
Rudolph The Red Winged Reindeer #1
£10.00 – £50.00
I Love My Brick #2
£10.00 – £50.00
BARK-rigg Stone Circle
Lolly Pix – October 2019
Lolly Pix – September 2019
Dog Days Of Summer – 2019
Lolly pix – October 2018
Morecambe To Heysham Walk- September 14th 2018