Not Just Fries and Mayonnaise in Brussels

Posted on 18. Sep, 2010 by Marie in Travel

We visited Brussels in early May of 2009. It was the first leg of our backpacking trip and we were all very excited, to say the least. The rather early Eurostar ride from London St Pancras was smooth and complemented with mustard fields along the way. Our excitation kept us from sleeping for the whole ride, which only made us even more giddy. We couldn’t wait to start our very own eurotrip!

Knowing we were headed to Amsterdam in the evening, we left our bags at the Midi train station and walked to the city center. Along the way we noticed a lot of comic strip walls, which were quite impressive. I mean, a fifty feet high drawing is always impressive, right? It was like a happy form of street art, which is usually a little more grunge - we loved it.

As every member of the team was hungry, we stopped by a little restaurant near the Stock Exchange and ordered the classical Brussels meal: a mitraillette. Apart from being an artery-clogging kind of meal, it’s a delicious sandwich made of steak, fries and  a large amount of mayonnaise. Typical and tasty.

We strolled on Rue au Beurre, stopping at a few places along the way to make sweet provisions for the train ride later on. We couldn’t believe the deal we had: one kilo of Belgian chocolate for €10. In Canada, that would’ve cost us a week’s paycheck (slight exaggeration). There was enough sugar in there to make us run to Amsterdam and back, so we tried not to taste every piece on spot. I wasn’t very successful at that.

When we finally got to the Grand Place, we were floored. We knew it was grandiose (something about the name) but we were not quite prepared to be that impressed. It is one of the most beautiful sights I remember from the whole adventure.  From the golden arches to the delicate gothic details, everything there is perfectly preserved. The only downside, if I may call it that, is that the Grand Place being a large square, it’s impossible to photograph as a whole. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful moment.

To celebrate, we decided to have a typical gauffre au chocolat. It was very good, but being on the Grand Place, it wasn’t cheap. After a minute of whining about the costs of travelling and tourist traps, we reminded ourselved that 1, we were lucky enough to travel and 2, that we had a giant box of belgian chocolate to eat later on the train. I’m not sure which one of these affirmations made us happier.

We slowly made our way to Les Galeries Saint-Hubert, the world’s first shopping mall, where we quickly window shopped before getting to the Tintin Museum. I had to go there as my dad is a big fan and I wanted to buy him a souvenir. I settled on a funny postcard (and a stamp!) that I was truly excited to mail home. Funny anecdote: I come from a small place. So small, in fact, that when my dad went to the bank to get British pounds before I left, everyone at the bank gathered and examined the notes because none of them had seen something like this before. I was so excited to imagine the reaction of the mailman when he would see a Belgian stamp!

Slowly, but surely, we climbed the street up to the Palais Royal, where the Prince of Belgium, Albert I (the grandfather of Albert II, the face side of the €1 coins), was born and used to live. It is not a royal residence anymore, but it is indeed very pretty and peaceful. It reminded me of Versailles a little bit, on a much less over-the-top scale. Facing the Palais is the city’s largest park, which makes for a well appreciated and relaxing pause (and is modelled on masonic symbols - take that, Dan Brown).

And before we knew it, it was time to head back to the train station. We still had two attractions on our list: the Manneken Pis and a few famous wall-sized comics. The former was the most disappointing sight of our whole trip (even worse than the evening light show of the Eiffel Tower). There were roughly 200 people blocking the way and trying to take a stupid picture with a tiny little bronze man, dressed in an orange suit that day. I just don’t understand what the big fuss was all about! Needless to say we didn’t bother checking out the Jeanneke Pis.

Brussels is one of the few city where we didn’t feel nostalgic leaving. Not because we didn’t love it, but because we knew we could come back one day… and because we were heading to an even greater place: Amsterdam.

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Tags: activities, architecture, belgium, Brussels, drink, eat, Manneken Pis, money, sights, Tintin