the highwayman

Next destination: Brussels & Brugge

Next week I am taking 5 days off and heading to Belgium to visit my old good friend Gitti and others, as well as to chill out in Brussels and Brugge. I'm not really motivated at work these days, so this break might help me a bit to freshen up.

Labels: Belgium

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Video of the Day: DHL cheerleaders (full video report)

Wonder why DHL charges so much for even simplest express delivery service?!
Because it likes spending lots of money itself. I've already posted about our trip to Belgium for 3-day EuroCup football and cheerleading tournament (this year they bypassed us for "interesting reasons", but this is not a discussion of this post). Below is the video of the best moments of the cheerleading competition that I shot and compiled altogether (No video for our football games as I was playing myself). Although I uploaded it to Youtube long time ago, I never posted it here. To my surprise I found my own video posted in some other sites. So I'd also like to share it with my small loyal and daily unique visitors. Enjoy and watch how Swedish girls rocked the day!

Labels: Belgium, DHL

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Brussels in a day

(The name Brussels comes from the old Dutch Bruocsella, which means marsh (bruoc) and home (sella) or "home in the marsh". Source: Wikipedia)

"What is the sole purpose of the existence of Belgium?!"

I hear a lot of people throwing this question and immediately giving their own version of answer;
- "it's a buffer region between Germany, Netherlands and France..."
- "one day it will disappear from the map... Dutch-populated North Belgium will join the Netherlands and French-populated South Belgium will join France..."
- etc.

Well, as for me, Belgium or its capital Brussels were never on my list of the top places to visit in Europe. Many times I heard from the others that Brussels is a bit boring, and that it doesn't offer much to see. To be honest I only knew about the statue of the peeing kid (Manneken Pis) as one of the main tourist attractions! There you go, go there to gaze at the little tiny peeing kid statue?! Helloooo?!

So just Brussels visit was never a mention. Though one-day visit to Brussels could be included for the longer Amsterdam or Paris visits (about 2 - 2.5 hours of train ride from both places to Brussels), and that's exactly what we did. Miki and myself stole a day from our Amsterdam visit and with the help of Chris, Taiwanese friend studying in Brussels, express-toured the city in a day.

In central area you can see lots of interesting architecture from different styles like Gothic, Baroque, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Neoclassical. I am not the pro in architecture styles, but with the help of internet, I could figure out styles of some of the buildings, and learned the others from Wikipedia pages.

Old England building built in Art Nouveau style. It hosts musical instruments museum now.

My guess for the below buildings would be; leftmost is in Gothic style, and the others (or all) could be in Art Nouveau style.

Grand Place
Sounds like Grand Palace, but it is the name of the square (previously market place) in the heart of the city. It is surrounded by historical buildings (guild houses, the city's Town Hall and the Bread House). City's Town Hall was built in Gothic style, but other guild houses around the square are in Baroque style. Especially this square could be the highlight of the Brussels for its beautiful buildings and medieval look. Watch the 360 degree panorama view of the Grand Place here.

Guildhouses at Grand Place

City's Town Hall

Hummer limo as a wedding car in Grand Place!

As in many European cities, Brussels also offers a chance to make a wish at the cost of touching the statue. It is right on the building on the right of City's Town Hall, at the passage that leads to Mannekenn Pis. That building was under construction when we went there, so no chance for Belgian wish. Yet this source tells about it briefly:

You can see everybody doing it but what is the meaning of it? By 'doing it' I mean rubbing the commemorative plaque on the corner of the 'Karel Buls straat' or the 'Rue Charles Buls'. The large bronze plaque is the work of 'julien Dillens' -(1849-1904). It was inaugurated on 20 july 1902 and it shows 3 important episodes in Brussels history. The one you can see in the picture is ''t Serclaes'. He was murdered in 1388 after he recaptured Brussels. One of the plaques shows the popular fury after his dead. People besieged the 'castle of Gaasbeek'. The castle was completely destroyed after a month. Anyway people rub 'Everhard 't Serclaes' arm , dog... People are convinced it brings good luck. You can often see people close their eyes and make a wish. If you are a young unmarried girl and not a lesbian you might just even get more lucky.. 'T Servaes' will find you a -good- husband within the month. So keep your eyes wide open when prince charming walks along.

Picture source: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/d0c0a/

Manneken Pis - the peeing kid bronze statue.

The story I heard about this statue is that once lived a little kid that saved the city from the fire by peeing on it. You didn't buy it as well, I guess. ;) According to Wikipedia, "there are several legends behind this statue, but the most famous is the one about Duke Godfrey II of Leuven. In 1142, the troops of this two-year-old lord were battling against the troops of the Berthouts, the lords of Grimbergen, in Ransbeke (now Neder-over-Heembeek). The troops put the infant lord in a basket and hung it in a tree, to encourage them. From there, he urinated on the troops of the Berthouts, who eventually lost the battle.

Another legend goes like this: In the 14th century, Brussels was under siege by a foreign power. The city had held their ground for quite some time. The attackers had thought of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Juliaanske from Brussels happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city.

There was already a similar statue made of stone in the middle of the 15th century, perhaps as early as 1388. The statue was stolen several times. In 1619 it was replaced by a bronze statue, created by Franco-Flemish Baroque sculptor Jerome Duquesnoy, father of the more famous François."

For the kid's fans, here's the 360 degree view of that corner where the statue is located.

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Royal Palace

It is a very beautiful building built in neoclassical style, and the current look was re-built in 1904. It is located just opposite the Brussels Park. And on the other side of the park, there is the Parliament building. They say this overall structure symbolizes their system of government - a constitutional monarchy. The King exercises his prerogatives as Head of State in the Royal Palace.

Entrance to the Royal Palace was closed when we went there in early spring. The official web-site says: "Since 1965, it has been traditional for the Royal Palace of Brussels to be accessible to the public each year, so that they can admire the prestigious state rooms laden with history. This tour is available in summer, after the National Holiday on 21 July, until the beginning of September."
But they offer virtual tour of the Royal Palace for your viewing pleasure.

Entrance to the Brussels Park

St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral

Another beautiful gothic cathedral. Europe is so saturated with them! We didn't have much time to read and learn about it, but a short visit to inside of the cathedral was paid.

Front view

Inside view

Galeries Saint Hubert - shopping place including many chocolate shops.

The Petit Sablon and the Monument to Counts Egmont and Hoorn
The Petit Sablon is a small park surrounded by sculptures of different types of craftsmen, representing the different guilds. Main attraction here is the monument to Counts Egmont and Hoorn. They were two of the leaders of an unsuccessful fight for independence from Spanish rule. They were executed together in 1568 in the Grand Place.

Notre-Dame du Sablon church
Beautiful Gothic church right opposite the Petit Sablon park.

Another huge impressive building is the Lawcourts (Palais de Justice), built in Roman-Greek style architecture. It was under reconstruction at the time of our visit. Nearby there were war memorials, as well as observatory area of the city.

EU building - Berlaymont
Brussels is the capital of European Union. European Commission sits in Berlaymont Building (according to Wikipedia, they bought it for 550 million euros from Belgian government). We couldn't get to see much around the building as it started to rain.

Berlaymont Building

Belgian chocolate

Thanks to Miki I got to know more about Belgian chocolate. She had that typical japanese travel guide with chocolate shop spots in the city. So I got to experience the visits to the chocolate shops like Godiva, Cot'e Dor, Pierre Marcolini, etc. These shops offer all kinds chocolate related experience beyond your fantasies; chocolate fountains, chocolate house models, chocolate Mannekenn Pis, fancy shapes and flavors, great customer service (japanese sales girls for japanese customers!), etc. I tried some samples in those shops and they taste damn good! But at the end I went to the normal supermarket to buy Cot'e Dor chocolates for much less price! :)))

Pierre Marcolini chocolate shop

Godiva chocolate shop

Chocolate fountain in the shop

Belgian delicacy - Mussels and Frites

If you go to Belgium, this is must-try! It is boiled/steamed mussels served with Belgian frites (something like French fries). If you haven't eaten it before, you may struggle a bit while opening the shells. The trick to eating mussels like the Belgians is to use a discarded shell as a spoon to scoop out the plump little delicacies, as the waiter taught us.