October 18, 2016
We leave Brussels for Luxembourg tomorrow morning, so I will
try and make an addition to the blog before we leave.
Before I talk about Brussels, I forgot to mention a few
things about Amsterdam. The old churches in the main part of the city are now
mostly museums. One was having an exhibit about Marilyn Monroe. We were able to
attend Evensong at St Nicholas Catholic Church on Saturday where they had an
absolutely wonderful choir singing. My guess is that it was made up of mostly
professionals since the normal church in a country where people don’t attend
church would be hard pressed to come up with a choir that good.
Now, on to Brussels. We arrived by train on Sunday afternoon
and were able to find our Airbnb without a problem and got checked in. The
place we are staying is located on an old cobblestone street and is in a
renovated old brick home with several old original beams visible. Quite
charming.
Sunday evening, we went walking down to the Grand Place,
which is a large square surround by ancient gothic buildings which include
various restaurants and shops. The buildings have varying degrees of gold on
the outside and are extremely ornate. The square was filled with tourists and locals.
We people- watched and walked around the
area. Brussels center area does not have one straight street and they are all
cobblestone, so there is not one flat surface . . . including sidewalks. Less
bicycles and more fast cars with few stop lights and many circles makes for an
interesting time crossing streets.
Monday we took the train to Bruges, an old town northwest of
Brussels, filled with canals, bridges, old buildings and tourists. We spent the
day walking around the town, climbing (Roger) the bell tower, going on a canal
tour and eating waffles and chocolate. The leaves are starting to turn here so
it made for a very pretty setting. In the late afternoon, we returned to
Brussels.
Belgium is known for their chocolate, beer, waffles, frites, and
lace. There is a chocolate store on every corner, or more. Waffle and frites shops come in
a close second. We are "chocolated," "frited," and "waffled" out, but we enjoyed all that we
had. Since we aren’t beer drinkers, we can’t comment with any knowledge about
it. The lace is beautiful and pricey so I didn’t indulge much. I’m trying to
pare down, not add more to our stuff.
Today, was raining, windy and cold but we managed to get
most of the things done that we wanted. It meant for a lot of walking, which is
part of the way we travel. We started with the Palace of Justice, which is very
old, huge, opulent and in need of some repair. Unfortunately, many parts of it
have been disfigured by graffiti. This is the high point in the city and there is
a viewing area nearby where you can see some interesting sights, such as the
Atomium from the 1958 World’s Fair. We then took an elevator down to the
Marolles neighborhood. It is filled with antique shops, secondhand stores and
is a blend of funky and quirky. On our walk we found a Lidl store where we
picked up a few things for breakfast. For lunch, we stopped nearby to eat a
sausage wrapped in a croissant. Beats a hot dog bun any day.
On the return walk, we stopped at the Notre-Dame du Sablon
Church, close to where we are staying. It is a beautiful church, known for its stained
glass windows. There are many old churches in Belgium, and sadly like the
Netherlands, they are not well-attended. Then we crossed the street to a small
park area that is filled with a fountain, gardens and statues honoring
craftsman guilds and intellectual thinkers of the day, as well as two noblemen friends,
one Catholic and the other Protestant, who promoted tolerance during the
Inquisition and were beheaded.
Comics are a BIG deal in Belgium, especially TinTin and the
Smurfs, since their creators were Belgian. We didn’t make it to the Comic
Museum, but we did stop in at the TinTin Boutique that sold everything about
TinTin from puzzles to clothing and more. It was an interesting store,
especially if you enjoy TinTin. We then walked over to see the cheesy Brussels
mascot . . . the Manneken Pis (a statue of a little boy peeing). He was dressed
in some clever outfit so it wasn’t that obnoxious. 
Tomorrow we leave early for Luxembourg via train and will
only be there overnight. I are not sure
when I will blog again.
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