Brussels in one day - May 2018

A bit over two hours route from Luxembourg to Brussels was extremely boring - not only the maximum speed is only 120 km/h, it is basically all the time straight, and is going through forests or fields. Finally in the city I stopped falling asleep. When we got to our hotel in central part of town - it turned out that, next day we are not allowed to park next to it - some local festival was starting. Despite the parking information tag, the service of our hotel could not tell us where to park in the area without spending a lot of money. Luckily we found some place about 700 meters further - and it was free 😃. After quick refresh and preparation for rainy weather we went out, going in direction of most popular attractions.

Manneken pis The sculpture that was unveiled in 1619 was our first target -today one of the symbols of the city, and one of disappointments. Personally I can't understand how it's possible to be impressed by sculpture of peeing boy, and how it become so popular. On path to Manneken pis you can see in many places reproductions big in size and when you finally reach the place after going through the crowd, there is small ("natural" in size - 61 cm) sculpture. From interesting facts - statue was stolen multiple times in last 300 years - last time in 1965, after finding it - original was moved to city museum, and what we see now is just a copy.

Manneken pis - reproduction as a waffle advertisement

Grand Place - city museum on the left, Maison des Ducs de Brabant on the right

Figure at the north-east exit from the Royales Saint-Hubert gallery

Near the gallery there are plenty of restaurants (we recommend going to the Rue des Boucher) - here mussels with fries.

Mort Subite - a large traditional restaurant, a bit like Bavarian Bierhalle, we recommend dark beer :)

Belgian Comic Strip Center Museum was opened in 1989 in former department store with textiles from 1906. There are exhibitions of many of local creators. It is very popular place - we were not able to visit it due to huge queue, and additionally we realized that most we don't know most of titles presented there.

A figure of a comic character Gaston Lagaffe near the Center of Comics

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula

First church on Treurenberg hill was built in IX century, and buidling of present in romanesque style started in XI century. Works were finished in 1519. It is one of most important churches in Belgium - state ceremonies take place there - like the wedding and funerals of the royal family. Due to the dense housing in area, the building from the front looks higher than in reality - 64 m.

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula - inside

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula - stained glass

Place Royale Square laid out in 1780. The main building at the square is the Church of St. Jacob at Coudenberg, built between 1776 and 1787. In the middle of square is monument of Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the first crusade of 1096. In 1831, the square housed the coronation of the first king of Belgium - Leopold I.

Godfrey of Bouillon, Church of St. Jacob in back

Rather, a mass-produced garbage dump - but much more interesting than what you can usually see :)

Le Cercueil - our "viking" beer on "table" ;)

Atomium

On the morning of the next day we were heading towards Ghent, but the last point was the Atomium lying on the outskirts of the city. A building with a height of 103 meters and a weight of 2,400 tons built on for the world exhibition in 1965. It is a huge model of iron crystal - enlarged 165 billion times. In the highest sphere there is an observation platform, in the next 5 exhibitions, and the rest is closed to visitors. Due to the tight schedule and the huge queue standing under the entrance, we decided not to visit the object from the inside, but even from the outside it made a great impression with its monumentality. Definitely a place that needs to be seen!

Next point - Ghent comming soon!