21 June 2014

Happy Summer Solstice :o)  I am going to celebrate the longest day of the year by writing the blog, updating Maggie Moos' facebook page, hopping in bed, and taking a nice long snooze!  I've had a very busy, but fun, day!  I took notes on a piece of scrap paper so I wouldn't forget anything.

Woke up and then hit snooze.  I love doing that when I don't have to be up.  I dozed until about 10 and then decided to get up and get moving.  I went over to the train station and had one of the most delicious, flaky, chocolate croissants.  Scrumptious!  And fizzy water.  What a terrific breakfast!  My tummy troubles seem to have abated with the help of some modern over-the-counter medicine, but I'm only cautiously optimistic.  We'll see. Regardless, who doesn't love a nice, flaky breakfast?!  One of the funniest things I've seen....okay and there's another too....is a bread vending machine.  You can buy loaves of fresh bread in the train station!  Ha!!

The other funny thing are the open air men's latrines.  They are all over the place.  They are about 7 feet tall and have four sides that have indentations in the from floor to the top so it's like a little compartment.  Men walk up to the side they want, zip down their fly, and pee into a grated area.   Hahahaha!!  Out in the open.  Holy cow, I'm dying.

After that, I went looking for the cache that is right across the street.  And, I could not find it!  Argh!!  I have a picture of it.  I have the coordinates.  While it is possible it's been muggled, it was found on Thursday, so I'm pretty sure it is still there.  Maybe not.  I was frustrated since it couldn't have been an easier find if he'd brought me to it.  Oh well.

Came back to the hotel and got ready for the tour.  Before then, I got a quick lunch of spaghetti.  It was decent, but not Italian.  I should have gotten a doner kebab, oh well!  The agency said the bus would pick me up between 130 and 150, so I headed back at 125.  Yikes....he was already there and getting ready to leave!!  Luckily we saw each other and apparently I looked like the kind of tourist he was supposed to pick up, haha!!  And I wasn't sure if I'd make it to the tour alive!  Holy crap he was a scary driver!! And he loved the horn....beeeeeeep!

In the Grand Place

City Hall
Grand Place

I was pleasantly surprised by the trip.  I thought it would mainly be a walking tour of the downtown area, but it was an all over town bus tour with a couple of stops. (tour link) We met near and walked to the Grand Place, which is the great market place from the 1300s.   The buildings there were quite ornate with gold paint (?) on some of the façades.  Jasmine, our tour guide, speaks several languages:  French, Flemish, and German, which are the languages of Belgium, although Dutch is widely spoken I believe.  She probably speaks it too :o)  Spanish and English.  I'm sure there are others, but she deftly switched between English and Spanish throughout the trip.

I took notes, as I mentioned, but have to "cheat" and use the Internet too :o)  I can't remember everything, haha!!

St. Gudule and
St. Michaels

Brussels has been around since the 10th century.  Jasmine told us that Brussels means the city along the river.  Wikipedia says something slightly different. There are many canals in the city/country, so I'm sure that didn't help map makers in the olden days, ha!  Originally it was Dutch, but in 1830 they said enough is enough....we will be our own country.  After a quick battle, it was done.  They are a monarchical society, but have a prime minister. 

Our Lady of Laeken

In the 17th century, France devastated Brussels and ruined the Grand Place and much of the city.  The buildings we saw today in the Grand Place were rebuilt. Although they didn't really have much luck being kept "healthy" over the last few centuries.  But now, the buildings in the area are back to their glory.  There is the town hall, the Broodhuis (breadhouse), and numerous guildhalls.  Later on this year, I think she said in August, they will have their famous begonia "carpet" laid out in the main area.  Over 1,000,000 flowers will be used.

After this, we walked over to St. Gudule and St. Michael's Cathedral.  It looks almost exactly like Notre Dame in Paris. We did not go inside, but she said there are beautiful windows there.  We got on the bus...there were 31 of us....and off we went!

Atomium

Atomium with Maggie Moo

As we drove around town, she told us about different things and at some points, there was a recorded guide to which we could listen.  We passed by several very interesting things.  Many things were not open to the public except on rare occasions and we went ALL over town, so it was okay that we didn't stop much.  We passed by Our Lady of Laeken, which is where the Kings and Queens of Belgium are buried. 

After that, we stopped at a truly bizarre and very cool building/thing from the 1958 World Fair.  It is called the Atomium.  This building represents an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.  I wrote down that iron has 9 atoms (?) and that each of the spheres represents one of the 9 provinces of Belgium.  I failed chemistry in college (dropped out before the F sneaked its way onto my transcript), so who knows what iron has.  I remember its atom symbol is Fe.  Whatever.  Ugh...hate chemistry.  What a way to ruin a perfectly nice historical tour, haha!  Now I think there are more than 9 provinces. 

Chinese building

Palace of the King

From there we went past a Chinese and Japanese building.  I couldn't get a good picture of the Japanese building, I was on the wrong side of the bus.  We then passed by the palace and the basilisk of  the King Leopold II.

Basilisk

During WWI there was a bit of damage when the Germans occupied, but in WWII, the Belgium army surrendered after 18 days and the occupying German forces did very little damage.  So, we are able to enjoy Brussels as it was.

bicyclists....

We continued around the town and came upon quite a horrendously frightening sight...naked bicyclists!  Oh my!  There were a few partially and fully clothed too.  The bus driver and guide were laughing, telling us it was an added extra to the tour, hahaha!!  The picture I've included here doesn't show any nakedness, sorry.   No idea what all that was about!

Cathy, Maggie & a
chocolate statue of
Mannekin Pis

From the naked people, we went to the chocolate factory.  It's a pretty small store that does a boutique business from what I could gather.  We went in and in a 15 minute demonstration the chocolatier showed us how they mixed chocolate, how they molded it, and how they made truffles.  I couldn't resist and bought some.

One of the other ladies on the tour discovered that around the small shop they had samples.  I kept thinking that Katie and John would be in heaven!!  We were able to try a piece of chocolate in the shape of the Manneken Pis (little peeing boy...more on him later) and then hot chocolate with things like lavender and a few other things.  It was kinda interesting...I wasn't sure how much I liked it.  I think it would grow on me.

From there, we left to drive and finish our tour.  We came up to a place where the road was blocked and this very scary official woman was standing by the blockade.  The bus driver motioned that he needed to go through because the other streets were extremely narrow.  We were in a full-sized coach bus.  She sternly looked at him and then he got a little cheeky and motioned and flapped his arms, asking her if that meant they had to fly over.  She was not amused, but those of us sitting at the front of the bus burst out laughing!!

This meant that he had no choice but to back up!!  So, he began to back up, in the opposing lane.  Beep, beep, beep.  For three long blocks!  I'm not kidding!  And there horns being blown and gestures from him and others, and he stopped and waiting and gestured out the window.  At one point, he muttered "Oy, merde!"  And people moved.  The bus was bigger than them, haha!!!

After three blocks, he had a wide enough road to venture up and we, after clapping loudly, were on our way.  Jasmine was laughing and telling us the was an extra special tour of the area free of charge! 

Maggie with her
Belgian waffle!

Moving in a forward direction, we ended our tour by seeing the EU buildings and dropping people back off at their hotels.  We wound up back at the original cathedral.  It was an enjoyable tour and I learned a lot of history, which I loved!  It was a great way to get a quick view of Brussels.

I then puttered around the Grand Place and had a Belgian waffle.  I couldn't resist.  Banana, strawberries, and chocolate sauce all over a waffle.  Delish!!  Got a picture of Maggie Moo holding the fork!  Off I went after that in search of some trinkets to bring home and to see the world (in)famous Mannekin Pis.

Mannekin Pis

Mannekin Pis is a statue of a little boy holding his penis, peeing into a basin.  We didn't discuss this, nor see it, on the tour.  Apparently it was made in the early 17th century.  Like the mermaid in Copenhagen, it seems to have been stolen several times.  The one that's there now is a replica.  There are several versions of fables that tell why it was created.  Each is kind of interesting.  Who knows why this really exists!  He is dressed up several times a year. Today, apparently, nothing exciting was happening, so he was just his normal, boring self :o) 

I visited a lace shop.  I could have purchased an antique, hand-made lace doily (about the size of a placemat) for a mere 2,500E.  Yikes!  Also wandered into some stores to mindlessly browse.  Hopped on the metro and tried to pick up my ticket for Monday, but apparently I need to wait until Monday.  Quite inconvenient.  Oh well.

Came back to the room and decided to write my blog before I forgot everything :o)  Tomorrow I'm off the Bruges and Ghent.  Need to make sure my camera is all charged up!