Beautiful Belgium - Bruges and Brussels Trip with Studifahrten Posted on: 28th October 2016 :: Photo Credits: Silva, Prayaag, Alap, Pabitra, Gaurav ::
Continued From: Bruges
Day : 1
Location: Brussels (Belgium)
Just outside the city of Brussels, we had a short stop at ‘Atomium’, the most popular attraction in this capital of European Union. It is a 102m tall building consisting of 9 stainless steel spheres connected to each other in the Body-Centered-Cubic (BCC) crystalline structure. The materials engineers in our group had a good time debating about the properties of BCC structure. Since we didn’t have enough time, we couldn’t go to the upper sphere to see the views of the city skyline. So after making a quick circle around the Atomium, we ate the original Belgian French-Fries! They were the best French-fries I have ever had! (btw there is an ongoing dispute among French and Belgian people about who invented French-fries :D)
By the time we left Atomium and entered Brussels city, it was already past 2 PM. The bus drivers took us towards the ‘Parc de Bruxelles’ or Brussels park, but to our disappointment, it was closed. So we drove back to the drop-off point near the Palais Royal de Bruxelles or the Royal Palace of Brussels.
The palace is built on top of a small hill offering a splendid view of the city’s skyline.
We were excited to explore the city and have some authentic Belgian cuisine. The weather was also perfect: a bright sunny day with a pleasant cool breeze. Our first destination was the famous: Manneken Pis meaning ‘Little man Pee’. This is a landmark small bronze sculpture created in the 17th Century embodies the irreverent spirit of Brussels. From being a public fountain, the little fellow has now become a legendary figure.
From there we walked to the Grote Markt or Grand Place, the central square of Brussels. On the way, we stopped at a ‘Tintin shop’ to browse through the history of ‘Adventures of Tintin’, one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century based in Belgium.
The Grand-Place square was surrounded by the ‘City hall of Brussels’, ‘Museum of the city of Brussels’ and many guildhalls. A group of teenagers was performing some jugglery with bowling pins and one-wheel bicycles. Every time someone put money in their collection hat, they used to cheer loudly. We spent about half an hour enjoying the show and marveling at their incredible skills.
As we got hungry, we started to search for a place to eat on the ‘Rue des Bouchers’ or ‘Restaurant Street’ of Brussels. It was a narrow alley with lots and lots of restaurants offering all kinds of cuisines available on the face of the earth. Each of these restaurants had put up their menu card on billboards and had employed people speaking all kinds of languages to attract tourists from all countries. Whenever we walked past a restaurant, one of the waiters would start speaking in Hindi or Urdu (some even started singing Bollywood songs)! But the prices were very high and we decided to look for a cheaper place somewhere else. Near the food street, we stumbled across the sister-monument of Mannekin-Pis called ‘Jeanneke-Pis’
We found a vegetarian restaurant on Google Trips app and decided to go there. It was located a bit far away from the city (~30min by walk) and by the time we reached there, our hunger had reached its limit. But to our dismay, the restaurant was closed and we had to settle for falafel in a kebab shop nearby. After finishing our meal, while returning back to the city center we stumbled across one more ‘pis’ statue: ‘Zinneke Pis’ (It seems that these Belgians like pissing a lot, especially in public places :D)
When we reached the Grote Markt (Grand Place), daylight had vanished and the buildings were now beautifully lit up in golden lighting.
We still had around one hour before returning back to the pickup spot. So we decided to hunt for some Belgian chocolates and waffles. The market was now slowly being shut, but we found a Waffle outlet and had the delicious classic waffle with maple syrup. After buying some Belgian chocolates from a nearby shop, we commenced our journey back to Aachen.