Our first day waking up in
Brussels began with a more than pleasant stroll through the parks outside
Palais de Bruxelles. Officially in the midst of Europe’s autumn, with leaves
littered all along the paths and across the grass, backed by a cool and
overcast sky, it was a beautiful way to start the day.
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| A stroll through the park to Palais de Bruxelles. |
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| Palais de Bruxelles. |
We passed the Palace itself, but
only regarded it from afar, continuing our stroll before stopping for a morning
coffee at Café du Sablon just outside Eglise Notre Dame du Sablon, a striking
example of Gothic architecture. Avy went all out with a fancy, dessert-style
coffee, while I just kept it simple.
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| Café du Sablon, a charming little hipster cafe... |
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| ... with a view over Eglise Notre Dame du Sablon. |
Following a different route into
town today, we happened across a shop dedicated to one of my childhood heroes –
whom I’d not really thought about for a good 25 years or more – Tin Tin! I can
remember watching the cartoons on TV as a kid, and here we found an entire shop
filled with books, figurines, and any sort of memorabilia you can imagine. The
famous orange cowlick lives on to this day!
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| Tin Tin! |
Like any European city, Brussels
has its share of museums and tourist destinations, but having just come from
Paris, we were museum-ed-out! We were happy to spend our time wandering the
streets and just looking around. We checked out some of the local famous
chocolate, but didn’t taste test (yet), before finding ourselves a spot for
lunch.
Unfortunately, we picked poorly
on this occasion; what had looked like a good set menu of Belgian food turned
out to be mediocre overall, topped off with pretty poor service. But we weren’t
going to let this one experience bring down our view of Belgian cuisine, so not
to worry. But maybe avoid eating along Rue Grétry – or at least avoid La
Canebiere – when you visit.
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| Hoping for some tasty Belgian cuisine. |
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| The beef was actually not bad, but also nothing special. |
Just around the corner from
lunch, we visited the feminine rebuttal to Belgium’s most famous little man,
and let me tell you… Jeanneke-Pis is a classy little lass! There’s really not
much else to be said about her, to be honest! Shut off behind protective bars,
she’s good for a quick glance and chuckle, but that’s about it.
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| The ever-classy Jeanneke-Pis. |
Side note: directly across from
Jeanneke is a place I was interested to visit but didn’t get a chance. Delirium
bar is home to over 2000 beers, truly showing off the Belgian skill. But since
wifey is not a drinker, I opted not to drag her inside. At least not on our
honeymoon…! I’ll be back for you, Delirium!
We wandered our way through the
streets – like I said, just relaxing and enjoying our time in this gem of a
city – eventually ending up to the west of town. We completed the trifecta of
pissing statues, locating the last (I hope) in Zinneke-Pis. At least this one
is depicting an everyday kind of act for the public eye!
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| Zinneke-Pis; man's best friend joins in on the fun. |
Slinking our way back through
the city, we stopped off for an afternoon coffee and waffle, this one a little
bit fancier than yesterday’s. And this is the thing I think I loved most about
Belgium – the relaxed aura floating through the city streets; restaurants
serving food outside on the cobblestones, and people just ambling place to
place with no real hurry. It was a great way to start winding down on this
incredible journey.
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| Coffee and waffles! |
But
we’ve got a long way to go yet!!
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