A Few More Belgium Pics

Brussels and Bruges--The Belgium Experience

The last weekend in January we took the Eurostar from King's Cross/St. Pancras one freezing Friday morning at 5:45am into Brussels Midi Station in city centre Brussels. I was amazed by the constant city contradictions we encountered that first day traipsing around to see all the gothic sites. Best known for its chocolate (the home of Godiva), its beer, and home of the creator Peyo of "The Smurfs," (which is, of course, the most important reason for wanting to go to Belgium), we got by on my intrepretation of speaking French...which is basically a lot of "Je Voudrais .....me pointing at what I want...and sil vous plait." (I have become very well-versed in my French-pointing skills.) Although JT's Dutch was a bit helpful as well, as Belgium's main languages are almost equally split between French and Dutch.

The things that struck us most were:

• the motion-sensored escalators that wouldn't begin until you went to step on them to go downwards (the upwards ones always seemed to be working, but maybe that was my imagination)
  
• the amazing gothic buildings directly next to the modern ones (as if when the older ones started to fall, they just built a new different one back up in its place) (see castle-esque wall remains sandwiched by other buildings pic)


• the ability to escape people and noise by going down a side street one block away from traffic cars and people crowds shuffling along
  
• the appearance of artistic little parks, sometimes only marked by some punctuation-shape-inspired benches and a focal tree or statue, or sometimes a geometric web of rope which we couldn't avoid a bit of climb (see pic :-))


• the frozen or empty fountains all over the city. With the weather this cold, most fountains had been emptied.


• the sting of the easterly breeze in 0*c weather to make a crazy windchill factor paired with the spots of sunlight streaming diagonally against buildings to create spots for the sun to warm you back to the core after the wind had battled through you escaping with your internal heat
  
• NO starbuck's anywhere in sight, we stopped for coffees everyday at least 2-3 times in addition to meals just to get inside and get warm and were always able to find a cool, little spot for coffee, a window seat, and a phenomenal view

On the Saturday we took the train 1 hour to Bruges, which is know for its touristy existence of gothic buildings, canals, and windmills. This was beautiful and romantic (and very cold), but we were blessed by blue skies for the second day in a row. The highlight of the day was battling the icy canals in a scenic canal tour for 30 minutes...a must do activity if you ever go there! We even happened upon the church (we knew it was in Bruges, but didn't actively seek it out) which houses Michaelangelo's "Madonna and Child." Oddly enough there was also a picture of Obama with what I presume was his speech translated posted on an accordian wall as you walk about the gothic exquisite high ceiling-ed room.

Our final day was spent seeing the last bits of Brussels we had missed as Brussels is home to the European Union and NATO. So we fought the wind to view these buildings that look like security was probably the last thing on their mind, that were sandwiched with construction sites that I would imagine will look vastly different in 5 years. Our last official site was that of the infamous Peeing Cherub Boy Fountain, (it wasn't terribly impressive, in fact I grew up close to a neighbor who had the same statue in his front yard, and my siblings and I found it way more interesting back then).

Needless to say, we had an amazing trip. My personal favourite being our day in Bruges and JT's being the evening Italian meal where we sat window-side in Bruges in the town square: a view of The Belfry as the sun set, and the town centre of Markt's street lights coming up.