Belgium & Netherlands - Brussels

The last city we popped into was Brussels, capital of Belgium. We spent just a day in Brussels as we didn't have a lot that we wanted to see there. The main attraction for us was the main square, the cartoon murals, Manneken Pis, and his 'sister' Jeanneke Pis.

The Grand Place (read in French, not English) did live up to it's name. Like Antwerp, the tops of the buildings were decorated with golden statues. The place is more touristy than Antwerp though. You can tell that the crowd is made up mainly of foreigners rather than locals.

































Our first stop was at the restaurant Taverne du Passage - it was lunchtime, and we were starving! The restaurant is on the top 5 places to eat in Belgium, and known for their good local food. We ticked off the last of the Belgian dishes that we wanted to try - Waterzooi. It's basically a cream based chicken soup of sorts. Hearty and yummy - typical of all Belgian food. We also ordered mussels, this time in wine instead of beer. Again it came in a large and satisfying serving. The food was excellent! And you can tell the place is popular with the locals as well. In fact, the majority of the people in the restaurant were locals :) The interesting thing about the place was that the waiters were all male (at least I didn't see any females), and some of them look like they've been working at the restaurant since it first opened! But because of their experience, the service was immaculate and very impressive.





















We went to search first for Jeanneke Pis as she was situated near the restaurant. I was surprised to see that she was caged up behind bars like a prisoner. In addition, she was located at the end of a quiet dead-end lane. The tourist board doesn't even recognise her existence as she's not listed on the tourist map. If not for Lonely Planet we wouldn't have known about her. In spite of her less than favourable circumstances, Jeanneke seems to have found the strength to remain cheerful :)












On-the-other-hand, Manneken Pis is given a luxurious garden of his own and displayed at the corner of a busy pedestrian street. Legend has it that he saved the city of Brussels by putting out the fire with some quick thinking and personal resources. So everywhere you walk you see little replicas of Manneken in the shop windows. Where's Jeanneke? Sexist..










Anyway, I thought it was lovely how they enjoyed their comics so much. As you walk around the city you'll stumble upon large murals, sometimes of well-known comic characters :) We went to seek out the murals of Tintin (for Jon), and Asterix (for me)!












We also went to check out the mural that was painted in the gay district. Previously people weren't quite sure whether it was a painting of 2 guys, or 1 guy and 1 girl. Then not too long ago they 'touched up' the mural and made one of the characters have wider hips and more visible boobs. Hmm..












Anyway having seen what we wanted to see in Brussels, we had a pancake stop and that's where a funny case of mistaken identity occurred. Along with my coffee, they served a biscuit to go with it that I happily munch it down. Then I took a closer look at the wrapper, saw Santa Claus, and thought "hey, they put these in festive wrapping!"...then I flipped over the rest of the wrapper, and started laughing...cos the character I thought was Santa Claus was actually the Pope! ;P Talk about priming...the season just made me think of Santa :) Even Jon said "Santa lah" when I asked him who he thought the character was before revealing its true identity ;)










Well, it was a fabulous trip filled with marvelous food. Having had our taster of Belgium and Netherlands, it was time to head back to London! How nice to feel like residents in London. Getting off the Eurostar at Kings Cross, we knew immediately how to get home without checking the map. Feels good to know you know the city well.

Here's a link to more photos we took during the trip. Take a look!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=r2ctt29.1kflcjjx&Uy=-xj3aet&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=514295358583_153393670605