Belgium

Belgium
Today we took train from Amsterdam and came to Brussels Midi. The train was Thalys which along with Intercity Express (ICE) and TGV is the another high-speed train company. We witnessed confusion over which is our coach and seat and same with other passengers. So much for high speed that coach number were not marked on coach or on platform. The interiors of the train were all red which was gaudy. We got down at Brussels-MIDI station. We took a cab which had to go around a lot where our hotel was located due to Donald Trump's visit on that particular day to Brussels. Cab dropped us close to hotel where road was blocked. We then lugged our luggage to hotel.

Our train to Brussels

Red Interiors

After check-in we walked to Grand Place which is center of Brussels. To go there we had to pass in front of Royal Palace of Brussels which is palace of the monarchy of Belgium. We had bought Brussels city card which came with free entry to museums which we utilised by visiting Palais du Coudenberg which is adjacent to Royal palace. Apart from exhibits depicting history of Belgium, in the underground it has medieval palace foundations with excavations on display.

Bus stop signage

Royal Palace

Brussels Museum

From there we passed Mont des Arts park which was beautiful and came to district housing Grand Place. There are several other museums around this location and each building is a gorgeous to look at. Grand Place is a huge city square completely encircled by elegant historic buildings dating back to the 14th century. These buildings house city hall which has a tall tower, museum, restaurants and eateries and shops on the ground floor.

Brussels historic district

Mont des Arts park overlooking the grand place tower

Mont des Arts park

Going towards Grand place

Street signs

Going towards Grand place square

Huge galleria

At Grand place square

Historic buildings at Grand place

Close by is Manneken Pis which is a bronze statue of naked boy literally pissing i.e. water flowing out of private part, of course it is provided by a water pipe. Somehow it has become a huge attraction over a period and there was huge crowd to take picture. There is so much obsession with this statue that its replica is everywhere including a statue made of chocolate in waffle shops!

Mannekin Pis

replica

Belgium is famous for Chocolates, Waffles, Fritters. There were plenty of shops selling Belgian chocolates, fritters, waffles. The waffle stores were overflowing with hundreds of types of toppings they came with. We just tasted a simple waffle which was good and filling. We also tried fritters from a shop called Belgian frites. Belgium is where Tin Tin comics originated. I have never read them but I heard they are very good. A friend asked me to buy a souvenir and there is only one store in the main area which I passed by thinking I will buy in the evening. But when I came back, it was closed. No other shop had any TinTin souvenir.

Tintin Exclusive Store

Waffle ship with numerous toppings

Belgian fritters

Next we decided to go to Atomium which is a huge metal structure formed like an Iron molecule structure with atoms as the vertices. Its a strange edifice. It was originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58). The edges of structure house escalators and vertices have exhibition rooms. There was lot of interesting exhibits inside with sprawling view of Brussels city from all sides. We took Brussels metro to go there. It was quite hot in the afternoon and we had to wait in queue for a while before we could go upstairs due to crowd. The edifice was old and had limited capacity in lift or upstairs but the vision & design was marvellous which stands today as one of the main attractions after 60 years.

Atomium

View from Atomium

View from Atomium

Inside Atomium

Endless escalators

From Atomium we took the tram and came back to Grand place. The place has come alive in the evening with some musicians doing live performance on streets and general gathering of tourists and locals. We hung around for a while before returning to our hotel.

Ghent, Bruges
Next day we had full day tour of medieval city of Ghent and Brugges which are west of Brussels. While planning we were keen to visit Antwerp which is another important town of Belgium but we had skip it. We had booked this tour as well on viator and we had to come to Grand Place to board our bus. Our guide was a gentleman who narrated entire historical significance of the towns. We first arrived at Ghent. Ghent is situated at the confluence of the Leie and Scheldt rivers. During the Middle Ages it was a prominent city. In the 18th & 19th century it got rich due to textile industry. Today it’s a university town and cultural hub. Attractions near city center include a row of guildhalls called Grslei, 12-century castle Gravensteen, Belfry tower, a UNESCO heritage and other beautiful buildings. Ghent also had a ring of canals which reminded of Amsterdam but it wasn't that grand.

Canal around buildings

Built in 1669

 

Gravensteen

Street scene

Belfry tower

Bruges is another medieval town with city center as UNESCO heritage site. It is distinguished by its canals, cobbled streets and medieval buildings. We arrived at Bruges at lunch time. Our guide took us inside the town and we had our lunch at a restaurant. We could already see the beautiful old building and criss-crossing canals and boats carrying tourists. After that we went on a small walking tour of the town on the cobbled streets finally emerging at Markt area. It is a square with two prominent buildings Belfry which is a bell-tower and City Hall with lot of activities including a traditional horse-cart ferrying tourists. We finally went for boat ride through the canals. The canals criss-cross the town and there are several pedestrian arched bridges for boats to go through. The buildings were red-bricked with sloping red-tiled roofs with stepped-edges with hanging flowering plants or creepers. The boat ride was quite enjoyable.

Gorgeous canals with ducks

General scene at Brugges overflowing with tourists

Canal busy with tourist boats

Canals busy with tourist boats

Belfry at Markt square

Scene at Markt square

Rows of medieval buildings

We left the town and headed back to Brussels which we reached in 1.5 hours and we again headed back to Grand Place. Today there was huge crowd due to a Jazz performance which was going to take place. At sunset just before dark, the buildings around were subtly illuminated in different hues which made them look beautiful.

Buildings illuminated at Grand place

Jazz performance at Markt square

On the last day we also purchased few Belgian chocolates for family & friends. That brought end to our Belgium trip.