The day started, as they all will, with a walk round the corner to the Mocafe where we have breakfast. Despite the fact we are staying in an apartment, it is on a bed and breakfast basis which means we don’t have to worry about getting supplies in. The breakfast choices were hot or cold, which are basically the same thing, bread and jam, yoghurt and fruit, tea or coffee, and if you go for hot you also get bacon and eggs, they say scrambled but it was more like an omelette but very nice all the same. Fully stuffed we went back to the apartment to collect the camera and the plan for today then it was just a case of walking to the Grand Place which isn’t very far away at all. The Grand Place is said to be the geographical, historical and commercial heart of the city, it is also home to tourist information so a good place to start. To be honest the tourist information didn’t have anything that we hadn’t already found so we went back into the square to have a look at the buildings. Open air markets took place on this site as early as the 11th century, and by the end of the 15th century Brussels town hall was built. The city traders added individual guild houses in a medley of styles but in 1695 the French destroyed all but the facades of the town hall and some of the guild houses during 3 days of cannon fire. Trade guilds were encouraged to rebuild their halls to styles approved by the town council which is why todays square provides such a spectacular backdrop. The hotel de ville (Town Hall) is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site, and before Covid you could attend a tour around the inside but unfortunately these tours seem to have been suspended during the lock down and have not started up again, however on a positive note they did clean the buildings during lockdown which is why they look so spectacular! It was a little chilly when the sun went in so we decided to pop back to the room to pick up an extra layer before starting the walk I had worked out for today. This was a good idea as walking between buildings was mostly in the shade so quite chilly in parts after the Grand Place our next stop was Manneken Pis which is a fountain with a 2 foot high Bronze statue of a boy going to the toilet! In all the historic pictures of Brussels he is naked but at some stage they started creating costumes for him and there is now a museum dedicated to his clothes! I am not sure if this was something to do with modesty, trying not to offend people or quite what caused them to start dressing him but it does look a little strange. The story behind the statue is that a Prince stopped during a battle to go to the toilet by a tree and this is said to be the very definition of bravery so the statue was created to commemorate him. From here we walked to the Norte Dame de la Chapelle which in 1134 was the first chapel built outside the city walls, it quickly became a market church serving the many of the craftsmen that lived near by. By 1210 its popularity was such that it was made into a parish church. The majority of the original church was destroyed by fire in 1405 and rebuilding began in 1415 in the Gothic style typical of the time, the new church was consecrated in 1434. It has a collection of gargoyles outside which are said to be ‘monstrously lifelike’ and I agree they are more human looking than a number I have seen but not that lifelike! From here we continued down the road to the Quartier Marolles, an area that is traditionally working class and has a daily flea market held in the Place du Jen de Balle, a flea market has been held here since 1640! I quite like flea markets as they are exactly what they say they are but I am sure some of the stuff we throw away is better quality than the things being sold in the market! We had a little wander round and even found the building that was home to the first fire station, complete with stables for the horses, then we started heading back to the centre, we walked along Le Marche des Tanneurs (or Tanners street) where a lot of merchants lived, it was quite sad as a number of the resident had obviously been Jewish and on the floor outside the houses were small plaques with the name of the people that once lived in the building and when they were ‘deported to Auschwitz’ and also from what we could make out when they died in Auschwitz, although some died on the ‘long March’, it was a little disconcerting, just walking along a road and seeing such a vivid reminder of such a terrible time in history! This whole area was where a number of different trades people lived and we even saw a wonderful warehouse with what looked like the names of various towns decorating the front, it turned out to be a wine warehouse and this was where all the wines were imported from! Our final stop on this walk was Halles St Gery, A chapel was built here in the 6th century, then in AD977 a fortress took over the site, a 16th century church followed and occupied the location until the 18th century then in 1881 a covered meat market was erected with intricate ironwork and glass, this building was renovated in 1985 and now serves as a local cultural centre with a cafe. We didn’t stop in the cafe but we did need a drink so we sat in a bar opposite which gave us great views of the square and sat having a Belgian white beer watching the world go by! It went down so well we actually had a second then we decided it was time to make a move and do the second thing on our list of things to do today which was have a ride on the hop on hop off bus. We walked past La Bourse which should have been our final stop on the walk but it is currently being renovated and is completely surrounded with hoardings so we couldn’t see it at all. The bus leaves from just up the road from Central station where we arrived yesterday and has two routes, we decided to do the route to the north of the city today and will do the other route later in the week. This route takes you out to the botanical gardens, which very much like Kew Gardens, have some massive greenhouses, however these are only open for 3 weeks a year. The bus also goes to the Atomium which was built for the 1958 world fair, this should represent an atom, with each of the nine spheres 18metres (60feet) in diameter, they are linked by stairs and escalators and there is a small restaurant at the top! We didn’t both getting off and having a look, nor did with bother with Bruparck which is home to Mini Europe where the landscapes of the European Union have been built to a scale of 1:25, the collection includes the Houses of Parliament, although for how much longer is anyones guess as well as things like the Acropolis in Athens and the Brandenburg Gate from Berlin. Having completed the circuit we then went in search of something to eat as we were starting to get a bit peckish, it was then time for another couple of drinks watching the world go by before heading back to the apartment for a relax, update the blog and pictures and check what we are going to do tomorrow.
