Brussels

Trip Start Mar 08, 2009
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Trip End Mar 10, 2009


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Sunday, March 8, 2009

My friend AG (and son Caelan) was to meet me on the platform at Brussels-Midi to guide me through the metro to his house. Upon arrival, no AG. So I headed for the exits and met him herding Caelan onto the escalator up to the platform. A poorly timed need for the toilette on Caelan's part necessitated the delay. No harm done, I hadn't gotten horribly and irrevocably lost yet. Caelan, at age 5, was a savvy metro traveler and navigated the doors and stops like a seasoned pro, under the watchful eye of dad, of course. And I only had to sit next to one paper-bag-wrapped-beer-can holding, stale-beer-smelling, fellow passenger. What a bonus.

AG, Catherine, Caelan and the twins Zara and Lydie live in Southeast Brussels in an efficient, recently remodeled walkup, 5 minutes walk from the Hermann Debroux station across from a park with a lake and ducks. Very nice.

AG and Caelan took me to THE most famous attraction in Brussels, Le Grande Place. This medieval square has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. Originally built in the 1400's, destroyed by French bombardment in 1695 and then rebuilt, it contains the Town Hall, with a gothic tower and statue of Brussels patron St. Michael, the guild halls, and Bread House (Broodhuis or Maison du Roi). This brings up another point. The official language is French and Dutch with all signs in both. That makes for really long street signs.

Near Le Grande Place, the famous Belgian waffle is easily found and consumed as well as french fries, which were a Belgian invention. The potatoes were 'frenched' and fried. An understandable mistake on the rest of the world's part, but a sore spot for Belgians. Two blocks away is Manneken Pis the easily recognized symbol of French and Dutch collaboration in Brussels. This little nude boy statue piddles with abandon into the fountain and gets dressed in various costumes sent by ambassadors and emissaries from around the world. There is a little card showing the time and date of the costumes and where they are from for the week. There is always a little crowd there, grinning and taking pictures.

We explored the area, taking snaps in front of the Coffin Bar, and going in for one of the 40+ varieties of Belgian beer at Toone. Each beer in Belgian is served in it's own special glass. That becomes more impressive when you know there are over 500 regularly produced beers and 8700 special and one-off beers. I'm not much of a beer drinker but that Belgian beer is pretty good. I had a nice Mort Subite lambic and some cheese. The Belgian chocolate was on the list to bring back, so I picked Neuhaus chocolate and bought a few boxes. There are several great chocolate houses scattered around Le Grande Place and I picked this one at random. A good choice it seems.

My hosts treated me to a traditional Belgian home cooked dish of Belgian endives wrapped with ham and baked in a Béchamel sauce. Yummy!
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