Population: 1,350,000
Brussels!!! I haven't yet learned how this city got its name, but I should find out. First impressions: it's really nothing "special." It has high rises, shopping districts, etc. Then I look at my map only to find that apparently the city has accepted its qualification as "moche" (ugly) and is proud of it. Okay. Well, anyways, after exploring I've come to find that it has cool buildings, a great shopping district, and people who speak French!! It's really just an urban area, like a working city, but has some historical squares and parks that are pretty. It reminds me a lot of France- same chain shopping stores, Quick (the Europeans' lame attempt to imitate McDonald's), cafes with lots of tables sitting nearly on top of each other on the sidewalk. Both here and in Amsterdam it's been really windy and chilly and overcast, and in Belgium it's rained light showers for the past two days, but it's nothing too bad. One of the first things I noticed was that Brussels did not follow Amsterdam's trend of bikes: Holland was literally overrun with bikers, they had their own streetlights and paths and everything. Apparently theirs a black market stolen bike trade in Holland that does good business, and everyone owns at least two. They're all from the 50s maybe, really old with paint peeling. Not so in Brussels, although there are still more bikers than in America. Middle aged men in suits riding home from work on a bike are funny to see.
Right, so Brussels attractions: I went to the Grand Place (a UNESCO site!!) which is this square with four huge imposing buildings on every side of the square so its very impressive, and in the middle there are always tents set up with sellers (today there was a Beerfest type fair there). Two sides have been converted into cafes and shops and the other two sides are museums: one's the Hotel de Ville (former Town Hall) and the other's Le Maison du Roi. Le Maison du Roi was a really beautiful interior to a building built in the 1400s, but it's contents were also interesting, it was sort of a history of Brussels but more like a history of their culture: a room of porcelain from Faber, a room of tapestries, a room of artwork and mock models of the city's growth. There was also a costume room displaying 100 of the 708 costumes that have adorned Mannekin-Pis (this famous statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain) which I liked very much. The statue is a big part of the culture here, there's lots of legends as to why it was commissioned in the medieval era which give it an air of mystery. So after exploring the Maison du Roi I did some window-shopping at the many Belgian chocolate stores, lace stores, and souvenir shops. It seems like every other store is purely selling chocolate confections, Guylain seashells and pralines (invented in Belgium!) and biscuits of all colors and shapes, they all smell and look delicious.
In my sightseeing I went to Mannekin-Pis, who's really small compared to what one might think for a famous statue, and his little known sister statue Jannekin-Pis, who's not even labelled and in the middle of some apartment courtyard, and I went in "the" cathedral (of St. Michael and St. Gudula). It really reminded me of Notre Dame with its frontal view, and it sat atop a big hill in the middle of the city so it stood out. This little old man gave me a half hour history lesson of the church and this huge oak pulpit that was brought in from a church in Liege, and I got to descend the steps to the basement and see the original stones from the wall and foundation built in the 1200s. The whole city prides itself on its medieval history. And since Brussels is already grappling with French and Dutch, nothing's translated into English, even though most everyone speaks some.
I walked up to see the Congres Column, a really large column with a copper soldier on top as a tomb of the unknown soldier, and saw the Palais de Justice, still in use as the main courts of the city today but undergoing renovations to the exterior so most of the front was covered up by scaffolding. From the Palais there was a great view of the city (even though the view itself wasn't that breathtaking, but you could see far), and while I was standing there I saw lots of barristers walking into the Palais, I guess to go to work. They all had on black robes with white fur cuffs and a white pouffy scarf tucked into the front of the robe at the neck. Near the Palais de Justice was the Royal Library, which had good maps for tourists and some old printing presses, and this amazing little park called Le Parc des Sablons (it was on Rue Sablon). That was probably my favorite part of the entire city. It's right behind the Royal Palace and its well manicured with pink and orange flowers and some little fountains, nothing too extravagant, but the centerpiece is this huge statue of two men whose names were unfamiliar to me, and then all around the statue were white stone busts of famous scientists and thinkers (eg Mercator) sectioned off by tall hedges. Then, on the wrought iron fence surrounding the park, there were really small copper statues of little men in different poses, but the whole environment was very welcoming and lovely.
After snapping a photo in the Parc des Sablons I went to the Musee des Beaux Arts, affectionely called Bozar. Not my favorite national museum, even though it was pretty cheap to see. It had a lot of Belgium painters' works of impressionism, some more modern things, and romantic works, but the layout of the museum was odd - lots of stairs, and the paintings were really spaced far apart and hung on faux walls within each room...it's hard to explain. However, my opinion of the museum heightened slightly upon reaching the upper levels where the "Ancient Art" (circa medieval times) was displayed. It was all medieval and Renaissance art, like I remember studying in European History in high school, one of the paintings innocuously hung on a side wall was the very one I did a report on so many years ago (Le banquier et sa femme, de Mestys). There were a lot of Breughel, who I reckon must be Belge. After seeing so many depictions of Christ, I was ready for something else. The museum is opening another wing in 2009, all works of Magritte (he did the picture with a man in a bowler hat and the green apple obstructing the face). But for now, I moved on to the Royal Palace.
The Royal Palace also had to be a highlight of my short visit to Brussels, mainly because I had no idea you could go in but for 0 euros I got to see picturesque sitting rooms and music rooms and ballrooms with these huge crystal chandeliers, and all the while Albert himself was in the building somewhere! (The tricolor flag was flying, that's how you know). It was a palace like any other, but a very nice palace of course, and this one ballroom had a ceiling and chandelier that were of the most flourescent electric green color I've ever seen, it was made from the shells of jewel beetles of Malaysia. It gave a holographic effect to the room and lit it up without electricity and was just very unique for a Royal Palace. Next I went to the Belvue Museum, which was a history of Belgium the country, stressed because it's only been a country since 1830, so the medieval era was left out. This was definitely my kind of museum - straight up history. So after fighting off Holland in 1830 Belgium became an independent nation searching for a king, it chose Leopold I, member of the Hapsburgs, who led the nation towards economic prosperity while adhering to the country's strict interpretations of constitutional monarchy: he couldn't have a scepter or wear a cloak or make decisions without the pertinent minister's approval, and though he privately criticized this he followed suit. Belgium's main internal battles came from the Catholic and Liberal factions different interpretations of primary education, with Catholics obviously wanting religious education to "save souls" and liberals opposing this. There was and still is also a split between the French speakers and Dutch speakers (and now German speakers since after World War I Belgium got 60,000 Germans and some of Germany as part of Versailles). French = Wallon, Dutch = Flemish, Flemish people in Flanders have traditionally been very poor and this region has in the past fought for independence, unsuccessfully. The second King, Leopold II, took the country to new levels of wealth by conquering the Congo and making millions off the ivory and rubber trades (he actually owned the entirety of the Congo by himself from 1885 until 1908, when his country forced him to cede the title to the ownership of Belgium as a whole, which confused me a little, but either way the Congo was a colony and people were getting their hands chopped off so the technicalities can rest.) With this revenue Leopold redid a lot of the main boulevards and built lots of monuments that people still come to see today, including Le Parc du Cinquentenaire, built for the fiftieth anniversary of Belgium. The early 1900s were prosperous for Belgium and they had 7 World Fairs (Expositions) prior to World War I, then, being the first country run over by the Germans in 1914, they suffered, but were rebuilt in time for World War II, where they were again overrun and had factions that supported the Nazis and a complicated controversy surrounding the King who went to Germany as prisoner or maybe not, I'm not sure, but either way his son ruled as Regent for a while until the country allowed him to retake his post. The Congo was given up in 1960, and from then on the history is just that of the EU pretty much, although I was really surprised to learn just how important Brussels is :not only is the European Commission here and the Parliament, but also the headquarters of NATO and of the Benelux Federation. It doesn't seem like this city is all that worthy of such worldchanging corporation headquarters. Oh yeah, and the other thing that happened post-1960 was that laws were passed making Belgium a federation, so the three ethnicities have more say over cultural affairs and domestic laws, while the capital takes care of foreign policy. Random facts included in my learning expedition: Bakelite was invented by a Belgian, 80% of the world's billiard balls are made by a Belgian company, 85% of the world's diamond trade takes place here, the border between Belgium and the Netherlands was not finalized until 1995, and Belgians are the second highest consumers of champagne, behind the French.
Also in that area was Coudenberg, this old palace of Charles V that burned down in 1731, but the foundations still rest underground. Moving on to the Parc du Cinquentenaire, another pretty green area with this giant triple arch behemoth designed to replicate (and exceed) the likes of the Arc de Triomphe. The only thing is, its in the middle of this park that was really nearly empty so its tourist attraction is not as piqued. Attached to the arches are wings for major expositions, and one entire wing is now the National Army Museum, which was this amazingly vast museum (also amazingly free of charge) with literally every piece of knowledge about every war and every country involved in every war that you'd ever want to know. There was a section on Communism, the Russian Revolution, concentration camps, Finland's part in World War II, I mean down to the last detail they had it. It was a little eerie because a lot of the museum was wax figures dressed up in real military uniforms, and there was heavy music playing and dark lights in some of the exhibits, and I guess the fake people is just not done much in museums today so that was a little odd. But I stumbled out of that place overwhelmed by the amount of info there. Most things weren't translated into English, and I didn't take the time to read the French, so if I ever came back to Brussels I would most definitely return to that museum (you could spend days there and not read everything, if you could stand the lifelike models around every turn).
Finally, I passed up all the European Union buildings, I mean I walked past them but they are all literally just big skyscrapers with glass windows reflecting the sky, and lots of suits walking by. The criticism of the EU - that it has no face and no good public symbolism to evoke pride in its members, is most definitely apparent here in the "heart of Europe." It's almost sad that the heart of Europe is so depressingly average, even the one statue of a man stepping off into the unknown was unappealing. Too bad really. So after all of this touring I enjoyed my delicious French cuisine - bread, fruit, cheese, and chocolate, and Coca Light, which is infinitely better than Diet Coke and I forget how much better it is until I get here, and go back to the hostel to relax. I'm not sure how many tourists this city gets as compared to say Amsterdam, but here I saw a lot more inhabitants of the city actually carrying out daily life - kids visiting museums or riding bikes, people jogging in the parks, etc. Tomorrow I'll make a quick stop at the grocery for more bread and chocolate and reine claudes (these little green plums that are really sweet and good), and head to Brussels Midi/Zuid for the train to Aix.
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