After the long day yesterday we decided to take it slightly easier today so we had a lot more relaxed start, then rather than walking the route I had planned, we walked up to Central Station and brought a one day travel card so that we could jump on the metro, bus and trams as required. First stop was Schuman so we could visit the European Quarter, when the European Union was first founded the administration rotated between Belgium, Luxembourg and France, I cant remember when but at some stage they decided that the administrative remain in Strasbourg and the meeting centre would be Belgium and initially it was assumed that staff would work from buildings around the Royal Palace but they soon outgrew this and a number of buildings were built to house the various administrative bodies. These new buildings meant that a number of buildings needed to be demolished as well as part of the Parc Leopold which is a pubic park occupying the former land of a 19th century estate, there was some opposition to the European offices being built but unfortunately they lost and the offices were built. We walked round looking at some of the buildings then started walking up the road to Cinquantenaire which is another of Leopold’s grand projects. This park was built for the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Belgian independence in 1880. The park was built on unused town marshes and comprises a triumphal arch and two large exhibition areas, but by the time of the 1880 Expo only two side exhibition areas had been completed, it would take another 50 years before the large halls on either side of the archway were completed, one of these halls is now home to Autoworld which is said to be one of the best collections of automobiles in the world but we decided we wouldn’t bother going in as we have looked at quite a few cars in our time! From here we walked through the park and round the fountain to the metro to head for our next stop which was Quartier Royal which is a park in front of the Royal Palace. The Quarter Royal has traditionally been home to the Brussels nobility, chosen because the air was purer on the hill than it was in the Lower town. The area was once known as Coudenberg Hill and in the 15th century was home to Coudenberg Palace, in 1731 the palace was destroyed by fire in just 6 hours, it was slowly rebuilt during the 18th and 19th centuries when four new palaces were built and the park landscaped. It is a really nice park to walk through, not very big but has a couple of fountains and quite a bit of seating, we also came across a cafe that had double deckchairs so we stopped for a drink as we had been on the go for a bit, then we finally walked down to Palace Royal which unfortunately, like Buckingham Palace is only open when the royal family is not in residence which is end of July start of August so we couldn’t go and have a look round. From here we walked down Rue de la Regence which has a number of very nice buildings, including the museum of musical instruments as well as the facade of The Old England department store, it is no longer a shop but in true Brussels fashion they leave the facade in place and build behind it! We walked towards the Palais de Justice which dominates the skyline as it has been built on top of the hill, although built between 1866 and 1883 it is still home to the city’s law courts. We decided to jump on a tram to head back to central station but missed our stop so we ended up by the zoo! So we crossed the road and jumped on a bus back to central station. We decided to pop back into the apartment to drop some things off before heading round to the Grand Square again to have something to eat, the square was full of Dutch football supporters as Holland are playing Belgium this evening. After we had something to eat and a few drinks we went back to the room to relax as we have another long day tomorrow.
