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This free wifi at the hostel is really helping us get up to date with our entries and pictures! It's great to be able to easily talk to people at home and check our email. This was our only full day in the city of Brussels so we got up early and headed out to check out the sights.
Turns out, there aren't really a whole lot of sights in Brussels. It's pretty easy to walk around everything worth seeing, but we bought Metro cards for the day to get us to the farther points, the first of which was the start of our day.
We had read about this flea market in our "guide to Brussels" that we printed off the hostel website we've been using. Having enjoyed the one we went to in Paris, we decided to start there. This one was not as spectacular as the Paris one. It was more like a giant yardsale, full of the old crap that people had cleaned out of their basements. It was a big open area, like a giant sidewalk, covered in sheets and cardboard boxes that held all the "treasures" people had come to sell, like old shoes and dirty dishes. We left pretty quick, and walked over to the Palais du Justice.
This was a pretty impressive building, despite the neighborhood it was located in. It was surrounded by a sort of slum area, and we quickly took the elevator up to the main level of the building to enjoy the sights from there. Apparently, this building was actually the largest in the world for a time during the mid 19th century. From the top level we could get a really great view of the city, and we took some pictures.
After the Palais du Justice we moved on to another area that we had read about in our guide, Sablon. It's a few smaller side streets that are full of antique shops, chocolatiers, and cafes. We perused the chocolate shops, buying a couple of the cheaper candy bars to sample from Neuhaus and Godiva. There are chocolate shops everywhere, but most things are way out of our budget! After the chocolates we headed into an antique shop, just to look around. Bill found a gigantic bird cage/aviary that was mounted on a table top. It was incredible! It was more like a whole bird city than just a cage for a pet. It had turrets with little doorways into the main area, and towers that were taller than us! We both decided it would make a fabulous decoration in a house, even if there were no real birds inside.
From Sablon we walked towards the Royal Palace. Our first stop was at a giant white building with columns in front and impressively decorated windows. We took pictures, thinking we had found the palace. It turned out to actually be a church in the middle with the sides divided into a hotel and shops. We kept walking, searching for the real palace. That was just around the corner, and we stopped to admire the facade of the massive place before crossing the street to enter the Parc de Bruxelles. We walked through the park, rather than on the sidewalks, as we made our way towards the Cathedral of Saint Michael. This was yet another one of the gothic cathedrals that covers Europe. It was very similar in style to the others we've seen, and extremely large. We didn't go inside this one, choosing to just admire the outside. Before reaching the Cathedral though, we stopped to take a picture of the Belgian Parliament building, which was located straight the park, just opposite the Palace.
Next we made use of our Metro tickets again, riding across town to the European Parliament area, the home of the European Union. Before we got to the Parliament building we walked through the Cinquantenaire, a sprawling park in front of the War Museum. This is where we snapped the few shots of us in front of the tree.
After these pictures we walked about a block away to the actual Parliament building. This was an extremely modern building, with the front walkway lined with the flags of the member countries. We didn't spend much time there, since it's a busy place with delegates bustling about. On our way back to the Metro we walked through the garden/ park area surrounding the Parliament. We stopped to munch on one of our Belgian chocolate bars, and Bill picked a small white flower for me. It was a pretty area to relax for a bit after all the walking we had been doing up til then. We hopped back onto the Metro to get back towards the city center, ready for our last stop of the day, the Grand Place.
The Grand Place is made up of incredible gothic style buildings surrounding a wide open square. This is the main tourist area of the city, and you can find tons of chocolate shops and waffle stands everywhere. We each enjoyed our very own authentic Belgian waffle, mind with caramel and whipped cream, and Bill's with strawberries and whipped cream. Waffles are a big deal here, and you can get pretty much whatever you want on top of them. So delicious!
Once we had finished this yummy snack we walked back to our hostel, which is conveniently located just 10 minutes from the Grand Place.
It wasn't the most exciting day, just a lot of walking around and snapping photos. But at least we were able to save some money by not paying admission or tour fees anywhere!
Our final conclusion on Brussels is that it's a lot like France, since everyone speaks French, the buildings have wrought iron railings on the windows, and croissants are just as prevalent. The main differences are that the Belgians seem to have substituted waffles for crepes, and chocolatiers out number patisseries. It was nice to see the city, and sample the sweets, but we'll be happy to leave the illegitimate child of France and the Netherlands.
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