Europe Tour Part Duex

Finally, it has arrived! The second installment of my European tour. A feast of 42 pics in total! For this time, the pictures and memories will be coming from the capital of both Belgium and the European Union. Belgium marks the start of the picturesque part of our tour and the beauty will be evident in the pictures I believe. Some very interesting points about this French speaking country are its international population due to the commerce and mere fact of being the EU capital, 350+ different kinds of locally brewed quality beer to suit any kind of taste or preference (each has it's own uniquely designed cup/mug too. There's even one that has a round bottom and wooden holder to help it stand!), great food (Belgian waffles, CHOCOLATES, etc etc). Our guide starts the tour from the centre of Brussels, La Grand Place and walks us to most of the more significant sights in the city. Most of the pics coming up are from the walk, but some are from after as well when we were wandering on our own. I'll hit you right off with a pic of La Grand Place, one of the more if not most beautiful central squares in the cities of Europe.










A musical instruments museum. Was really sad I didn't get to visit this one.






if only the trees had flowers in bloom... winter has refused to release its hold yet this year.



breath taking view



a busker





Quirky buildings we saw while walking on our own. Cool drawings eh?





The Royal Palace















The Manekin Pis concludes the guided tour of Brussels and its sights and we were free to wander by ourselves for the remainder of the day. It was sort of like a pit stop as well as most of the group dived into the nearby MANNEKEN PIS - CAFE A BRUXELLES for our first taste of authentic Flemish beer. Pat had Kirk (a cherry flavoured beer) while I had DT, a darker sort of brew. Was nice! The statement on how the Belgians treat their beer like the French treat their wine isn't far fetched at all. Such class, hard work and attention to details. After a drink, and pics of the pissing boy, we began our own tour of the city before heading back to La Grand Place to look for dinner. Here's a helpful map of Brussels. Next: de Pis, self-tour of Brussels (already posted some of the pics from this part of the walk)



The "Manekin Pis" literally translated as "The Pissing Boy" so significant because it supposedly embodies the ambivalent spirit of the Belgians. The stories goes that the commander of a great vast army (during the Holy Crusades?) saw this boy, probably his personal squire, taking a leak nonchalantly in the middle of a raging battlefield. The story elicited a very big "huh?" expression from me. Seriously...for real? That aside, another reason why the Manekin Pis is so popular is that people from all over the world donate costumes for it to wear on all sorts of festivals. When we passed by it again on our night stroll, it was already stripped of the costume and laid bare for all to see in its naked bronze glory. ; ) Anyway, in keeping with the ambivalent spirit, we proceeded to take pics, some quite amusing ones too with us (mainly me) in disregard of the queer looks people were shooting at us :P












Pat drunk (after only 1 cup of fruit beer! but at least she liked it) and snapping any ol' pic. Actually have other more "unglam" shots... but I kind of want to keep my head attached to my neck. So there. Hehe.



Trader's Guild Building - the statues actually have inscriptions of "India", "Asia" and some others, but I don't think the statue for Asia looked very Asian at all.



Guild buildings, middle one is the Ships Guild if I'm not wrong. Top of building supposed to resemble front bow of ships.



Is that Cupid?



back at the square





After all that walking, we decided to have an early dinner at Leon, a diner that even locals frequent! You can just about see the name printed on the napkins. I settled on Carbonade Flemanade while Pat had mussels in fish stock with fresh greens (celery, brussels sprouts, lettuce, etc. Hey, we ARE in Brussels, what did you expect? Bean sprouts? :P) - both traditional Flemish dishes. Mussels are self-explainatory: excellent when in season, fresh, properly prepared. Interesting thing is, how to know WHEN the mussels are in season? Simple, months that are spelt with an "r" in them means the mussels are in season! There's a bit of trivia for you :) My dish, Carbonade Flemanade is beef stewed with beer. Fries and alfafa sprouts on the side Both dishes were of the highest standards. The diner really lives up to its reputation. The service, according to Pat anyway, was impeccable as well. Seems like all French speaking people know how to treat their ladies right. *wink*



Traditional Flemish dish, mussels. Pat was pleasantly surprised by how much she likes it. Oh, of course, it came with beer, which I had to finish for her. Only too gladly. *grin*



Looking out the window by our table, we could see the street really start to come alive. Right on the dot at 7pm too, just like the guide book said! Hehe. Pat claims this is her favourite street, wonder if it's because of the sights or the dazzling variety of food and the way each restaurant tries to entice you into trying their dishes :P



The next few MAGNIFICENT night shots of La Grand Place were taken by Pat. Amazing, aren't they? Was actually seeking shelter from the downpour when we took this. It makes me believe how the display of light shows must be really wonderful when it occurs in summer. Was after these few shots that we decided to try to make our way back to the hotel and got woefully lost in the rain. However, wasn't all bad. Still saw lots more of pretty sights and we didn't really mind the rain. Can't remember if we were freezing though. Were we, Pat?









By the time we saw this, the nightly downpour had arrived right on schedule, give us a proper drenching and stopped. It wasn't so bad getting lost though. We managed to see this as well as the Palace the King once built for his brother (I think?)



Beautiful garden that we chanced upon while wandering around Brussels. Was here that my camera decided to annouce that it was both out of batt as well as memory space. Superb timing I say *scowl* It's a pity we couldn't any night shots of the Grand Parliament as it has a dome that's even larger than St. Petersburg's! It has a very creepy war memorial monolith in front of it though. Feels almost as though there's someone buried in there... Oh well, this concludes this post then. Tried a new way of blogging, the Hello! bot in picasa. Which version do you prefer?

Stay tuned for part 3~~