Brussels is hard to love - chaotic, indistinctive, and even quite sketchy in some parts. What we enjoyed here were the specific quirky little things that may or may not appeal to everyone. The city has so much to offer that we didn't get to see everything we planned!
Warning: This trip report contains NSFW photo.
Itinerary of the day: Bruges → Brussels-Zuid station → Grand Place → Dandoy → Manneken Pis → Brüsel gallery/bookshop → Noordzee → Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée (shop only) → Vesalius Monument → Petit Sablon square/garden
The day started off by catching an early train to Brussels.
I am not tall enough and lacks the deltoids to put my luggages on those overhead racks, so these kinds of seats are great. On this train we encountered a couple from Calgary, who made a face when they found out we were from Toronto (as a joke obviously). It's oddly endearing to run into Canadian jokes in a foreign country.
The walk between Brussels-Zuid to our B&B Sweet Brussels was kind of sketchy...washed out buildings, a lot of constructions, and quite a few wandering people around the station. The traffic was...well, the signals are just decorations. We knew it was time to apply the second set of traffic rules we learned in other parts of the world, which involve "ignore the lights, follow the locals, and walk at a constant tempo".
The B&B is wonderful though! It's at a great location, not too close to the station but not far either. The owner Sophie is a friendly Dutch girl who gave us a warm welcome and tips on touring Brussels.
Their breakfast room.
There is only one thing that is a bit of a negative. We were given the top floor (5th floor) suite, and there is no elevator as this is a typical old house. We only had a small 21" luggage and already that's a pain to carry.
The suite itself is amazing though, very spacious and warmly decorated. The beds were soooooo comfy! The best sheets and blankets I've ever slept on in a hotel!
Private kitchen with all the necessities in the drawers.
Adorable bathroom, you can tell the hardwares are a bit old, but everything is functional. I would rate this place 10/10 (unless you are not good with stairs) and highly recommend it!
From the B&B it was a short 15 minutes walk to the Grand Place. Brussels' Grand Place is much bigger than Antwerp's and Bruges'!
The townhall and the guild houses. Back in the days when this was a city of powerful merchants...
Maison du Roi, which houses the city museum now.
At the square, we encountered a Korean girl who asked us to take her photo. After some brief exchange she asked us where we were from.
Us: "We're from Canada"
Korean girl: "Huuuuuuuuh? But you look Asian!"
...my friend and I were laughing for a good 10 minutes after the girl left. What year is this even, when can I stop getting stupid ass remarks like this? She makes a good story, at least.
For lunch we were at a well known waffle place, Maison Dandoy.
This place is recommended on every guidebook, and still receives a generally positive review on TA. In reality though, it has probably past its prime. The menu has multiple languages on it (a major red flag), and when we were there the only other customers were a group of Japanese tourists. The waffles are pricey (7.50€, and any add-ons are also extra). I tried a Liege waffle and nope, it was not nearly as good as Désiré de Lille. It tasted too sweet, oily and the cream is also unnecessarily heavy. My stomach felt a bit weird after this...For those of you who seek good waffles in Brussels, try somewhere else.
Just beside Dandoy is the ultimate Brussels tourist trap, the Manneken Pis. From this photo you can get an idea of how small the statue is:
...I'm not even going to sugarcoat it, this thing is hideous. We only took a look at it because it was nearby, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see this. The sticker on his belly seemed to say "Nobody is illegal", so he's in social justice mode today!
One of the things I didn't mention in the itinerary is Brussels' comics murals. There are dozens of them scattered all across Brussels, and together they formed a "comic route". It'll be difficult to visit all of them in one go, but we managed to spot a few. Near the Manneken Pis is the most visited one, the TinTin mural.
I was so happy to find this one because it was featured in Season 19 of The Amazing Race, one of my favourite seasons! The teams were right here in this exact spot getting their next clue.
I don't really know much about Belgian comics (or any comics for that matter), so my friend led the way to find the other ones.
Even though I don't know these comics I still liked the fun of simply finding the murals. I felt like this is one of the activites tourist can do to experience something "very Brussels".
As if murals weren't enough, my friend then took me to Brüsel, a gallery/comic book shop.
There is a wide variety of selection and many adults were also shopping here. This kind of reminds me of when I see seniors and salarymen reading manga on the subway in Japan - comics have the same status as an art form here and it's never solely for children and teens.
Some nice prints displayed on the walls.
I feel bad that even when I'm in a comic store I browse the manga section. I'm happy that so many genres of manga are officially translated into French and printed so nicely!
French version of Kami no Shizuku, not surprising.
French version of Thermae Romae woooooohooooo
Otoyomegatari in French, very nice.
Vagabond toooooo oh yeahhhhhh
...and this manga that I can't seem to ever see official publishings in English or in Mandarin. The covers are so beautiful a;dkfklsdfklsfj;adklf the paper they used is like, archival quality. For French speakers who liked this manga and don't know it has been published, please support a good series and buy it!
While we were browsing through the store, bam! Random (and badly drawn) porn. All these nsfw arts were out in the open (mind you, there were many nsfw comics on the shelves mixed in with the other genres as well). We've seen so many peens and boobs on this trip that we got pretty used to it after a while.
Since we only ate waffles for lunch, we got hungry again mid-afternoon, so we stopped by Noordzee next. This is "fastfood style seafood" where customers eat standing up. りっしょく Brussels style!
We ordered at the front off a handwritten menu, and wait for our names to be called.
Kibbeling (cod pieces in flour) and shrimp croquettes. They tasted so much better than they looked! The croquettes were filled with a soupy filling with chunks of shrimp! Salad on the side was very fresh too.
Around us is about half locals and half tourists, and an old Belgian man sitting beside us seemed so passionate about this place, he was eager to know if we liked the food or not.
Next we head to Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, the Belgian Comic Strip Centre. My friend browsed in the shop shown on the left of this photo, and I rest and observe the entrance hall designed by Victor Horta. We simply didn't have enough time to go into the museum.
TinTin bust and Hergé.
There was one monument in Brussels that was a must-see for us, and that is the Vesalius Monument. If you are in the medical field you might be familiar with him. Both my friend and I are medical illustrators, and Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564, born in Brussels) was pretty much the person who made this profession viable. His groundbreaking publication De Corporis Fabrica, dedicated to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, showed how important it is to include accurate visuals for the science of anatomy and medicine.
The monument is a bit further out from the historical centre, and he's not exactly a universally known historical figure, so there weren't anybody around. For us though Vesalius really made the day at Brussels memorable.
Across from him, there was this also very memorable architecture, which I called the "inkjet printer cartridge building".
A few other examples of ugly buildings we saw in Brussels, the "osteoporosis building with snowboarders as osteocytes"...
What is this even, it's not only ugly but I cannot imagine this design to be practical at all.
There are many museums in Brussels and we want to make it to all of them if we could. Given the time we had we cut down to one, and that is the Het Musée Magritte Museum.
Even though I drew him, I am not all that familiar with his works. After browsing through this vast collection, I liked how his mind worked! Although missing his most famous pieces "The Son of Man" "The Treachery of Images (This is not a pipe)" and "Golconda", the collections still is an excellent presentation of Magritte. The artworks were arranged in chronological order, and there were many of his earlier works and sketches to add context to his development as an artist.
No photos were allowed in the museum, so I could only link this picture from the museum-brussel website.
We wrapped the day up at the Petit Sablon square. Most of today's itinerary was set out by my friend, with the exception of this one. If anything was more memorable than Vesalius it's the monument of Egmont and Hoorn.
Count Egmont and Count Hoorn were statesmen of Habsburg Netherlands. While they were loyal to Catholicism and the Spanish King, being born and raised in the Low Countries they naturally wanted to fight for the rights of the people living there. Together with William of Orange, they negotiate with Habsburg Spain regarding their oppression and inquisition of the Low Countries. Despite their loyalty and peaceful attempts, their resonance with the increasing discontent of Spanish rule in the Low Countries led to their execution. Egmont and Hoorn were executed in Brussels in 1568, while William fled and lived on to carry on their objectives. Their death were considered to be a prelude of the Eighty Year's War, and their integrity won them high praises in centuries to come.
Can someone tell me which one is Egmont and which one is Hoorn?
The back of the statue is too cute for word, the bromance, the BROMANCE!!
I was doing my historical fangirl undulation, but had to stop when a guy in the garden gave me a look. This is just my way of showing affection to your country's historical figures just let me undulate in peace k thanks.
Behind them are a row of other historical figures not necessarily related to the Eighty Years' War. I don't know all of them but this one I do for sure. Gerardus Mercator, Belgian cartographer who developed the Mercator Projection. He also worked with Ortelius on the first modern world atlas (and the first person to use the word "atlas" to refer to a collection of maps).
Surrounding the garden are 48 small statues that represent different unions. It would be fun to try to guess all the professions, but it started to rain so we had to dash.
Dinner we had at Houtsiplou, a burger/sandwich place close to our B&B, because were were exhausted from the long day and couldn't walk anymore.
I've had better burgers back home but it's still good nonetheless. The fries in a pot are very good also. Good enough as a delicious meal but not distinct enough to make us remember it...
I really tried to keep this day's report concise but couldn't because we did a lot in a day! Tomorrow for the Luxembourg day trip the report will be very short, as we will be spending 6 hours on the train.
