Last night we had a really good night! Troy found a little Belgian restaurant and we went there. He had a steak and I had a sausage and mashed potato traditional to this area. We had some beer and then went to a couple of cute little bars. Tried a few different kinds of beer. Belgian beer is definitely the best in the world, no matter who you are you'll find one you like here. I pretty much just try the few on the menu I haven't already now!!! We ended the night at a 1930s jazz club. It was a really fun night!
Had a really great day today. It's still beautiful and sunny with not a cloud in the sky, very unusual apparently with it raining here 265 days a year approx.
We started the day off by getting the metro to the Atomium, a huge atom that was constructed for the 1958 world expo here in Brussels. It's been a pitstop on 'The Amazing Race' and as it turns out is a little way out of the city!
It's 102m high, has 9 spheres that are 18m in diameter and 20 tubes. We queued up and got our tickets. First we were taken by a lift that travels at 5m/second to the very top where we had a nice panoramic view over Brussels. Because it was so clear we could even see Antwerp!
Then you go on a tour of some of the other spheres. We saw a small exhibit about expo, and how it was built because general Eisenhower wanted atoms to be for peace and energy instead of warfare, as this was the first post WWII expo. There were some weird furniture exhibitions and a cute school camp in a sphere that primary schools can hire out!
Then Troy went to an attraction called 'Mini Europe'. I feel bad, we are on such different budgets. He's just at the start of his trip, full of energy and with a full wallet. I on the other hand am quite run down and am on a strict budget to see me through the year. So I sat this one out as I've done a similar thing in Canberra and it was pretty pricey. Instead i walked through the parkland nearby and lay down in the grass relaxing for a while. It was amazing!
Had a waffle for lunch and headed back into the city. Had a quick rest at the hotel and then joined the New Europe walking tour. If you're going to Europe I would highly recommend - have done them in all the major cities and they're fab!
We got a fantastic guide called Onno who was Dutch and took us on the tour for three hours. We saw all the main sights and learned a lot about Belgium and Brussels...!
Brussels is multilingual (French and Dutch) but mostly French is spoken here. This is unusual because the region Brussels is in (Flanders) is mainly a Dutch speaking area. Apparently when Brussels was the capital all the rich and powerful people moved here, and so to succeed here you had to speak French well! Due to being multilingual the street signs are in both languages, and Onno said when you see an English movie here half the screen is taken up by subtitles due to being in French and Dutch!
Belgium has the most comic book writers per capita. I as a kid loved 'Tin Tin' and 'The Smurfs' and both are Belgian! In the 1990s 50 murals were painted across the city to celebrate comic culture here and we saw a couple, my fave was the 'Tin Tin' one of course!
A walking tour of Brussels isn't complete without Manekin Pis. Yesterday we saw him, today we learned about him! He was put there in the 1400s and is only 61cm. Aside from the tanner story I told you yesterday, there's a story here was put there to commemorate a real boy who saved the city by peeing on a dynamite fuse when invaders came to blow up the city! Yesterday he was naked and today he was dressed up. Apparently King Louis XV knighted him because his soldiers had been disrespecting the monument which was upsetting locals and he was worried about uproar! He had it dressed up because couldn't knight it while naked. Today he has 927 outfits! We apparently saw the second of today which was to celebrate the 650th anniversary of a local association. This morning he had been a sailor, and he has other costumes like Santa for Christmas, green for St Patrick's Day etc!
Had a really great day today. It's still beautiful and sunny with not a cloud in the sky, very unusual apparently with it raining here 265 days a year approx.
We started the day off by getting the metro to the Atomium, a huge atom that was constructed for the 1958 world expo here in Brussels. It's been a pitstop on 'The Amazing Race' and as it turns out is a little way out of the city!
It's 102m high, has 9 spheres that are 18m in diameter and 20 tubes. We queued up and got our tickets. First we were taken by a lift that travels at 5m/second to the very top where we had a nice panoramic view over Brussels. Because it was so clear we could even see Antwerp!
Then you go on a tour of some of the other spheres. We saw a small exhibit about expo, and how it was built because general Eisenhower wanted atoms to be for peace and energy instead of warfare, as this was the first post WWII expo. There were some weird furniture exhibitions and a cute school camp in a sphere that primary schools can hire out!
Then Troy went to an attraction called 'Mini Europe'. I feel bad, we are on such different budgets. He's just at the start of his trip, full of energy and with a full wallet. I on the other hand am quite run down and am on a strict budget to see me through the year. So I sat this one out as I've done a similar thing in Canberra and it was pretty pricey. Instead i walked through the parkland nearby and lay down in the grass relaxing for a while. It was amazing!
Had a waffle for lunch and headed back into the city. Had a quick rest at the hotel and then joined the New Europe walking tour. If you're going to Europe I would highly recommend - have done them in all the major cities and they're fab!
We got a fantastic guide called Onno who was Dutch and took us on the tour for three hours. We saw all the main sights and learned a lot about Belgium and Brussels...!
Brussels is multilingual (French and Dutch) but mostly French is spoken here. This is unusual because the region Brussels is in (Flanders) is mainly a Dutch speaking area. Apparently when Brussels was the capital all the rich and powerful people moved here, and so to succeed here you had to speak French well! Due to being multilingual the street signs are in both languages, and Onno said when you see an English movie here half the screen is taken up by subtitles due to being in French and Dutch!
Belgium has the most comic book writers per capita. I as a kid loved 'Tin Tin' and 'The Smurfs' and both are Belgian! In the 1990s 50 murals were painted across the city to celebrate comic culture here and we saw a couple, my fave was the 'Tin Tin' one of course!
A walking tour of Brussels isn't complete without Manekin Pis. Yesterday we saw him, today we learned about him! He was put there in the 1400s and is only 61cm. Aside from the tanner story I told you yesterday, there's a story here was put there to commemorate a real boy who saved the city by peeing on a dynamite fuse when invaders came to blow up the city! Yesterday he was naked and today he was dressed up. Apparently King Louis XV knighted him because his soldiers had been disrespecting the monument which was upsetting locals and he was worried about uproar! He had it dressed up because couldn't knight it while naked. Today he has 927 outfits! We apparently saw the second of today which was to celebrate the 650th anniversary of a local association. This morning he had been a sailor, and he has other costumes like Santa for Christmas, green for St Patrick's Day etc!
The fries that Belgium is so famous for are called French fries. But they should be called Belgian fries! They originated in the east of the country. When fisherman didn't catch any fish they started to use the oil to fry potatoes instead. And during the war the allied soldiers were sharing food and the American soldiers loved the fries the Belgians were eating. But they heard them speaking French so in the confusion and chaos of war named them French fries!
We also learned about King Leopold II who killed a lot of people in the Congo when Belgium had control of it, and kind Alfred I who worked to fix this situation and stood up to the Germans when they asked to invade France via Belgium before the beginning of WWI.
We also saw the parliament building, the royal palace and gardens and then ended the tour. Our guide was one of the best I have had on a walking tour!
Tonight we are having Belgian fries for dinner and heading out on a pub crawl.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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