Wandering Through Brussels in Wet and Windy Weather

My son and his fiance decided they wanted a wedding ceremony in Paris rather than a big wedding at home. Destination weddings seem to be quite popular, and this was their choice of destinations. My wife Silvette and I decided since we were going to Paris for the wedding, we would make this a longer trip and fulfill some of the travel goals we have had. We planned a three week European trip starting in Brussels, Belgium.

My daughter Andrea and I had visited Belgium last year for a couple of days. This year I decided it would be a good spot to begin our adventure. We didn’t want to fly into Paris right away, and Belgium was close enough that we could take a train ride there for the wedding.

Planning for our trip was a bit challenging. Over all we are staying in Seven hotels and have just as many train and bus trips to reserve. Then, of course, France had a political crisis before we left, and the word of strikes and garbage in the streets concerned us. However, the wedding was planned and reservations made so the trip was on. Over the next weeks I’ll share with you our adventures, the good , the bad, and the ugly. I hope you will follow along and add your own insights into the places we visited if you have experiences to share along the way.

Our trip from Seattle to Brussels went pretty smoothly. Upon arrival we had to figure out the train trip and then the subway to our hotel which was not in the downtown area. Then things went awry. After we got off the subway, we tried to figure out the direction of our hotel. Not wanting to pay for phone service each day, we did not have GPS. We were trying to use an offline map. The problem is it didn’t do a good job of tracking where we were.

We took off in the direction we thought the map indicated we should go. We walked, and we walked. It seemed much farther than I had expected. It was also no fun dragging a suitcase and carry-on over the sometimes rough sidewalk. Just as we thought we were getting close according to the map, our location on the map took a big jump, and we were farther than ever from our hotel. We ended up going in an almost two mile circle before getting to our hotel. If we had turned the other direction from the subway station, the hotel would have been about two blocks away. Ugh. At least we got in some exercise after sitting on a plane for nine hours.

After a long nights sleep we woke up to cloudy skies. It was not going to be a good day for visiting a city, but we were there so there was no point in sitting in the hotel all day. We decided to check out Brussels on this day. Brussels is not a city high on most people’s list of European cities, but it does have some interesting spots to check out.

Some people are completely organized when they travel. They know exactly what they want to visit and lay out an itinerary to see it. Our day was not like that. In fact it was just the opposite. There were some things I did want to see, but getting there was another story.

The Grand Place seems to be the iconic location that everyone wants to visit in Brussels so when we got off the subway, that was my plan to visit first. However, as we were walking in the direction I thought we needed to go, I saw a church down one of the side streets and decided to check it out. As we got close to the church, we saw a number of police around. We determined that a funeral was going on. However, the outside of St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral was really quite nice. We decided we would make an attempt to come back at a later time so we could see the interior of the church.

After taking photos of the church we tried to go to the Grand Place again. We were still trying to use Google maps off line, but it seemed that the map was backwards. When we thought we were going in the right direction, it would seem to take us farther from our goal.

I also have a tendency to get sidetracked. As we were walking along, I again saw a street that looked like it had some interesting architectural features. It turns out that this was the Belgium government area. We walked pass the parliament buildings with entrances for the senate and the house members. Much of this was old brick buildings, but there was an interesting reflective pedestrian overpass between two buildings that looked very modern.

As we continued back on our original path we came across a large park, Brussels Park. We should have walked through the park, but we didn’t. There were joggers running along the perimeter of the park on a nice trail. I did take some pictures along the edge of the park and of its entrance, but missed the details inside the park.

Across from the park was a large building, The Royal Palace of Brussels, which was being renovated so the front was covered with scaffolding. From there the wandering became less focused. We tried to figure out where we were and felt we had been heading in the wrong direction so we tried another direction. We couldn’t tell if we were headed in the right direction or not. In the meantime the rain was continuing. It was more of a medium drizzle which would occasionally get stronger. The real challenge was the wind. it could blow quite hard and bring a real chill.

We finally came across a small park called Square du Petet Sablon. There are statues of historic figures along with a fountain and a well maintained garden. The park was across the street from the Church of our Lady of the Sablon. The church had some beautiful stained glass windows along with statues high up along the center columns.

As we continued looking for the Grand Place. we ended up at the Palace of Justice. Again we were confronted with a building covered in scaffolding so we made no effort to go inside. Apparently it is the largest courthouse in the world. Near it was a statue that seemed to focus on justice. Beside it was a surprise, a Ferris wheel. This whole area is on a hill so one can look down over Brussels. The Ferris wheel is apparently meant to offer even higher views for visitors.

After checking our map again, we realized we were still not close to the Grand Place so we set off again in an effort to find it. We thought we were now walking in the right direction. First we came to a square in front of the Place Royale, Koningsplein. It was a large building but not sure what it was used for. From here a sign pointed down hill saying Grand Place. As we approached the bottom of the hill we thought we had perhaps finally found it.

We hadn’t. However, we had come across a very nice garden laid out in a symmetrical, formal pattern. This is the Mont des Arts garden. Nearby is the Royal Library of Belgium. As beautiful as it is, it was not Grand Place.

At this point we were getting tired and just wanted to sit and rest for a while. We found a nearby mall with a little lunch place and had something to eat. We also had wifi, and we were able to look at the map and figure out how to get to Grand Place from where we were. It wasn’t far.

So we set out to find it, and using the directions I had, we made it. Getting to it took us through some of the older parts of town, and the place was very busy. It seemed there were a number of schools out on field trips on this Friday, especially high school students. It was crazy.

I have read that Grand Place is considered by some to be the most beautiful square in the world. While the buildings that surround the square are unique, one has to like the style of architecture to consider the place so beautiful. What makes the buildings unique are the splashes of gold that are on the buildings.

Surprisingly in the middle of all these historical buildings sits a Starbucks shop. It’s small, but very obvious. We stopped by for a cookie and some coffee to warm us up.

At this point we were almost done with wandering around for the day, but I still wanted to return to St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral which we had visited earlier. We started off in the direction I expected the church to be. Sadly we soon became lost again. The dot on the offline map stopped moving again. This time it stuck at a location called Manneken Pis. This is a statue of a boy peeing. Some have called it the most overrated sight in Brussels. We didn’t intend to see it, but our wanderings took us by it. We were surprised at the number of people crowded around it.

Our wanderings also led us to the Notre Dame Church. It was a different style from many of the cathedrals in the area. We didn’t stay long, but it was another great but brief architectural experience.

As we continued walking, we saw a Metro station, which is the subway. We decided to take the subway back to where we knew we could get to St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral. It was only two stops away. We were able to get to the church and go inside this time and see the amazing architecture of the church as well as some of the art pieces throughout the church.

With that we got back on the subway and headed back to our hotel. During the day Silvette had tracked our walking on her phone. It said we had walked a little over eight miles today during our wanderings of Brussels. No wonder we found ourselves so tired at the end of the day. The next day the weather doesn’t improve, but we head out again to see what we can discover as we wander around Antwerp.

Have you spent any time in Brussels? What was your favorite site to visit? Did we miss any important places as we wandered around in the mist and rain? I’d love to hear any insights you might share. Thanks for those who have taken time to comment, like or share my posts. I appreciate the interaction.