First stop on my tour of the European Union: Brussels, Belgium.
Soon to become an indoor farmers' market |
Mmm...Belgian Easter chocolate |
On our first day, we had a walking tour of the city. It's a lot smaller than London, and even though we walked for two hours, it felt like nothing compared to what I'm used to. Good thing, too, because not only is it Easter weekend, but also the Metro is closed because the workers are on strike.
City wall and hotel |
Our tour guide, Elisabeth, started showing us around Brussels. The first stop was a remnant of the city wall that is now surrounded on three sides by a modern hotel. What is so striking about Brussels is how the architectural styles are all jumbled together, combining multiple eras on the same street from contemporary to Art Deco to bourgeoisie imitation of elegant Parisian apartments. It is ugly but inspirational and so entirely different from the organized, uniformly Georgian and Victorian design of most of London's buildings.
According to Elisabeth, a lot of this mish-mash of architectural styles comes from the nouveau riche's desire to construct apartment buildings that advertised their wealth. They became prosperous in the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th Century. Belgium was the first country on the Continent to follow England into industrialization.
Another thing we saw is the cartoon art on "blind walls." This decoration is intended to beautify the wall and discourage people from urinating on it or stowing trash in front of it. The blind walls are a result of the extension of streets from the medieval period, but the new additions were built with wider roadways, so the sides of the buildings that used to be at the end of the road are now exposed.
Manneken Pis |
I also saw the Manneken Pis (pissing boy) fountain. I've actually seen that before--in my favorite video game, Animal Crossing! I didn't even know that was a real thing until I saw it on the street. Of course, I got a little Manneken Pis figurine as a souvenir.
On the way to dinner |
Ok, see you soon! It's going to be a lot easier to blog because I have to journal for class, so I can just type my journal entries now. That is, if I continue to have internet access.