A Guided Tour of Brussels

Oh dear. I’m not off to a very good start.  I’ve uploaded all my flagged photos on Brussels . . . and there are 57 of them! I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be able to fit in everything I want to show you about this wonderful city.

But we gotta start somewhere, right? How about here. At the stock exchange.

We started our tour from this point and went straight to the Marché Saint-Géry.

It was built on the edifice where the old church Saint-Géry was located (on an island surrounded by the river Senne).  

Inaugurated in 1881, it finally closed its doors nearly 100 years later. Now it’s been renovated and turned into a neat café where they have expositions.

Around the corner from there we went to a very old brick hotel

which now has apartment buildings in place of stables.

The interesting thing about this is that Brussels used to sit on a series of rivers, like Venice. But the water was rather stagnant and contributed to a lot of diseases, so they covered the river with solid ground. (It was called the Senne, pronounced like Paris’ Seine).

Now in this little courtyard of the hotel is the only place where the Senne is still visible and uncovered. Cool huh? There was a Parisian with us who said, “I’ve lived in Brussels for over 20 years and even I didn’t know there was a place where you could still see the river.”

It makes sense to go touring with locals. Informed locals.

We walked towards Sainte-Catherine’s church and came across this street with a restaurant selling traditional Belgian food.  (Although my friend Céline said to go to the Place Jourdan and eat fries at Maison Antoine).

Here’s Sainte-Catherine’s with the belfry to the right.

The belfry served as a watchtower to keep an eye out for invasions; the townsfolk were notified by the ringing of the bells.  Right across the street from Sainte-Catherine you see some row houses that are very Belgian – tall, narrow, and stuck together.  

Many of the houses have their construction date written across the top.

And just around the corner from there you get to the old port.  

This is all that’s left of those riverways that brought commerce into the city.

The funny thing about Brussels is the architecture – let me tell you what I mean. It’s one of the few places where you can still see residences shacked up against the church wall (which was very common in the Middle Ages).

Real Estate reigns and you will find a modern building built right around an old piece of history. This is a part of the wall and they didn’t want to tear it down, but they didn’t want to lose some valuable space in which to build property. So they built right around it.

And then you can get this view of Sainte-Catherine …

and turn around, take two steps, and stumble on this.

A flashback to the 1970’s.

But my Belgian friend looks at it like this – you never know where you’re going to stumble onto a treasure in Brussels.  You have to search for it, the same way you search for the hidden treasures in a friend.

One of those treasures is this.

You go down a tiny street called Petite Rue des Bouchers (little butchers)

where you see small restaurants with platform seating and open windows like this

and then you strike gold with this Toone place.

You walk in,

walk past the tables where there is the pullout stadium seating on one side

and the marionettes on the other side (shows are for adults).

And then you can keep on walking and come out on the other side of the restaurant right on to a different street.

And there are lots of cute little restaurants that are located down small stone pathways. You just have to look.

But the pièce de résistance, the most magnificent part of Brussels is La Grande-Place.

This hosts the king’s palace (*correction below)

and the town hall

(although I’m sorry, I don’t know which is which)

and the House of Beers, of course.

Like many grand plazas, Brussel’s has seen its fair share of tragedies over the past hundreds of years, with public executions and wars destroying the wooden edifices – 

but now . . . 

it is a place of light and life.

Stately, ornate, gorgeous – Brussels.

PS * My friend sent an e-mail to let me know that the King’s Palace is not located in the Grande Place.  She sent me a photo of the palace and it’s magnificent.  But elsewhere.

PPS If you haven’t already, do leave a comment in my giveaway post to try for a $50 gift certificate for a fair trade company called Novica.  The giveaway ends Friday.  I’ve been very hectic this week and a little silent in responding to people, but things should be back to normal by next week.  Lots of love.

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