We began our adventure by walking through the Gras Markt, or The Rue du Marché aux Herbes, which is located in the historic centre of Brussels and stretches between the Grand-Place, one of the most beautiful squares in Europe, and the Bourse, an important square in the city centre. This was once one of the most important trade troutes in Europe, and the goods included herbs and spices, hence the name “Street of Herbs”.
The area is it is lined with beautifully restored buildings featuring Flemish, Baroque and neo renaissance elements. I became completely overwhelmed and didn’t take photos as I was too busy gawping.
These two buildings are in Grand Place, The Town Hall has a tower topped with a statue of St Michael.
There are also beautiful Baroque Guildhalls which were built by the city’s merchants. The whole effect is rather jaw dropping.
There is a beautiful arcade called Les Galeries Royales Saint Hubert, which is an historic, glass roofed shopping arcade.
I stopped at a famous waffle shop to have a Belgian Waffle and it was delicious!
This rather splendid building is Belgian Beer World and is housed in the beautiufl Bourse palace, which had been the stock exchange in a previous life.
We weren’t interested in the beer part (well I wasn’t!) but we walked through the building which was really beautiful.
There’s quite a lot of street art in Brussels, including some on the ground. Comics seem to be big business here.
This statue was in the square near our hotel. I was rather taken with the man with his impressive moustache, and his dog giving him a snuggle.
And this is the rather lovely view from our hotel window at night. It reminds me of when we were in Paris with the Eiffel Tower all lit up.
Our son sent us a map with all the sights on it, including, of course, Brussels Park and the adjacent Royal Palace
There was a lot of activity, with a helicopter hovering for what seemed like hours, and several motorcades leaving accompanied by police on motorbikes.
We visited the Sablon district which seemed quite upscale with a quite lovely gallery and a couple of parks.
There’s an area called the Royal Quarter, which has some beautiful buildings, including this one.
This building caught my eye, specifically the detailing and that rather marvellous clock.
in closeup, which also shows some of that architectural detailing.
We walked through the Mont des Arts, which is a terraced hill and garden connecting the upper town to the lower city.
There was an avenue of trees along one side. They were London Plane trees and had been shaped into a hedge like effect at the top, with the trunks splayed so they can be walked under. I had to look up why the trunks are coated with white limewash – to protect the bark against pests, fungus and sudden temperature shifts.
We have a London Plane tree on our verge, and now I’m wondering if we can make it look more interesting.
Still in the Royal Quarter, and we found yet another square with another interesting clock. This one has a statue of someone ringing a bell on the roof, and lots of alcoves with all sorts of figures in them. I think it’s modern, but so interesting.
Back in the Pentagone area, and we came across this lovely old building which had been a rare bookshop but is now a coffee shop. I would have loved to have seen it as a bookshop.
We saw these zebra crossings and loved them. Why can’t we have rainbow zebra crossings in Perth? They aren’t just attractive, but are painted to show inclusion. So good!
This seems to be on everyone’s list for Brussels and I have to say it’s a bit underwhelming and not the most interesting statue I’ve ever seen. It’s the Mannekin Pis and I had to look it up to see if I was missing something, and apparently I was! The statue was installed in 1619, but this one is a replica, with the original in a museum. It has a wardrobe of over 1,000 outfits, including some national costumes, and the clothese are also on display in a museum. Apparently it is occasionally hooked up to dispense beer or wine to the public; a concept I find rather unappealing. Folklore has it, that the boy saved Brussels from fire by urinating on burning gunpowder – that’s all right then!
Also on our son’s list was a visit to Pannenhuis, which was about an hour’s walk from our hotel. It was really interesting as it took us through regular suburbs off the tourist trail. I must admit that it was quite a long walk and I was just getting to the grizzling stage (and needing a bathroom stage) when we came across this.
We had no idea what it was, but could see people inside so found our way in. It was hard to work out what it had been, but I finally worked out what it was. It is the historic Gare Maritime building at the Tour and Taxis cultural and business district, a vast 19th and 20th century railway hub, which has been converted into the Gare Maritime Food Market; a contemporary indoor food hall.
I decided to delve further into its history and found it was built between 1902 and 1908 and measures 208 metres long, 140 metres wide, and 24 metres high. It was Europe’s larges freight and customs station for multimodal trade. By 1986 it had fallen into disuse and was sold to a developer. It was completely reimagined inside and is now a rather wonderful building.
The staircases are pretty exceptional, although we didn’t climb them.
The foodhall was large but fairly quiet on a Friday afternoon. I can imagine that it would be heaving on Friday nights and weekends.
This enormous space was empty and I wondered if it was some sort of exhibition or market space. It does give some idea as to scale.
After a short sojourn here, we continued our walk, following a path alongside a park, under a railway bridge, until finally we got to Pannenhuis. We were bemused to find that it was a train station, but I was ok with this as I wanted to get the train back to town. We bought a ticket, entered the main concourse and found this.
I was slightly gobsmacked and felt transported to the 1970s with these orange and futuristic circles and cones. Apparently it’s the most photographed train station in Brussels. No surprises there.
The view as I went down the escalator.
On our way back to our hotel we visited another attraction on our son’s list – The Tondo Footbridge which is a circular pedestrian bridge, connecting the Palais de la Nation with the Belgian Federal Parliament.
It is a really cleverly designed connection between the two buildings, providing a sculptural feel to something quite pedestrian – pun intended!
We only had two nights in Brussels, so I feel as though we saw a lot, and we certainly walked a long way. I almost didn’t add it into the itinerary as I had been fifty years ago, but remembered almost nothing about it, except a few of the sights, and I remember the film, “If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium”, which seemed appropriate back then. My memories from this trip will last a lot longer!
