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Belgium
So we went to Belgium…
Brussels
The first thing we did was cycle out to the Atomium. This is a rather mad structure put up in the 1950s as part of an international exposition. Given it’s size it’s fortunate that there’s a lift to the top. Getting down involves stairs and escalators, but you stop to see things on the way.
There’s a restaurant at the top which might have been a good lunch choice but turned out to be booking-only. More Atomium.
After that we had a look around the Museums of the Far East. I like this guy’s collection of heads:
The first of several impressive sunsets, here in reflection:
We visited the Musée Magritte (but that doesn’t allow photos).
We visited the Musical Instruments Museum, housed in what used to be a department store:
You get an audio player and headphones on entry, which plays the sounds instruments make when you stand near them.
I think this - a monochord with a keyboard - was the maddest looking device we saw:
We visited the Royal Palace.
There was a mask-themed exhibition on. Some of the masks were (presumably copies of) exhibits at the African musuem (below).
Across the road in the Parc de Bruxelles was a much more peculiar exhibition:
We cycled out to the Natural Science Museum. Obviously enough the prime attraction was dinosaurs.
Anatotitan copei, thought apparently current thinking is that this is actually the same animal as Edmontosaurus:
Whales got legs (or at least, had them 47MYA):
We went next to the Espace Léopold, a cluster of EU buildings including local instance of the parliament (there’s another one in Strasbourg), though that was unfortunately closed to visitors. We did get a loook around the Parlamentarium, the visitors’ centre, though.
There was another impressive sunset.
We visited the cathedral.
”…and stay down!”
This is actually rather nasty: it depicts part of an anti-semitic myth from the C14th.
The most bored-looking St Michael I’ve seen:
The Maison du Roi now contains a museum. The local copy of Saint Sebastian looks a lot more upset than his Sicilian counterpart:
We visited the Musée Hergé (which doesn’t allow photos). It’s in a Belgian new town, which was pleasant enough for all that l-) On the way back we were lucky enough to run into part of the Belgian comic strip festival. My favorite photo of the whole trip:
I’ve no idea who this is:
I think this is a Care Bear:
Le Chat, a character I’d not previously encountered. I don’t know if he exists in English translation, from the little I saw of Philippe Geluck’s work I’ll be buying some if he does.
More giant inflatable cartoon characters.
We made our way out to the Museum of Central Africa. Belgium’s history in the area is not particularly honorable; although much of the museum hasn’t been updated for a very long time some of the more modern parts do reflect this.
Making our way back we stopped at the Military History museum and the surrounding park.
Although local pride is firmly on display the museum includes a lot of articles from other countries.
We went to Waterloo. The original station of the name is a little bit smaller than London’s version:
The battlefield itself isn’t very interesting but we went around the museum and up the Butte du Lion:
The panorama’s worth a look too.
We went swimming at Oceade. N was mostly there for the water slides, I think. One bit had a fairly strong current taking you round a loop, which made it fairly clear how people get swept out to sea…
Around Brussels
Our travels often took us past the gigantic Palais de Justice:
This reminded me of the pavement graffiti in Palermo:
One of the many chocolatiers lights up impressively:
Inevitably:
They dress him up, with a large collection of old costumes accumulating in a museum. Video.
Giant plant pots on the Boulevarde de l'Impératrice:
They have Boris bikes without the Boris:
The seatpost adjustments can be a bit oily:
We found getting around by bike worked pretty well once we’d learned to look out for trams. The main annoyances were hills and cobbles (and especially the cobbled hills).
Pantone Hotel
We stayed in the Pantone Hotel, a colorfuly-themed establishment promising “unyielding comfort”(!) The color-based theme extends to the bathroom.
The floor’s redness extended to the corridor lighting:
All holiday articles:
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