Over the third weekend of September our busy month continued with a trip to Brussels, Belgium. The reason for our trip was to visit our friend Britt Sieber, who was an exchange student with Melissa’s aunt in high school, and currently has a short internship with the European Union. In addition to hanging out with her we crisscrossed the city by sightseeing bus, sampled delicious Belgian waffles, and tasty Belgian beers, and also made a day trip on Sunday for more sight seeing in the town of Bruges, Belgium.
To get the cheapest tickets, and maximize our time away, we bought Saturday’s earliest flight out of Geneva, which left at 7:05 a.m. This meant that Melissa set her alarm for 4 a.m. so that she, (and I), could be ready in time for the 5 a.m. train to the airport. Despite the airport being more crowded that usual it was still a breeze making it through security, and was also a breeze loading onto the plane because we had learned how to pack smart. European budget airlines make having carry-ons difficult, but on this trip we finally learned how to pack all our things into bags that fit under our seats.
After an hour long flight our plane touched down in the “Capital of Europe”. We then made our way to Britt’s apartment in the European Quarter neighborhood by way of bus and a short walk. Riding along in the bus the first things I noticed were how flat the country was, and also how modern looking everything was. Unlike other European cities there seemed to be lots of skyscrapers, and recent construction. The name of Britt’s neighborhood comes from all the European Union offices being located in it, including Britt’s office which is within walking distance of her apartment.
At the apartment we spent some time catching up over bowls of cereal, then left around 10 a.m. for our day’s sightseeing. Melissa and I were starting to crash from our early morning, so as we walked along being shown the various office buildings of the European Union headquarters we didn’t linger, because we needed coffee. After getting our caffeine infusion we wondered through a large park called, Parc du Cinquantenaire, which featured a grand archway celebrating Belgium’s independence. This archway called, the Arcades du Cinquante was constructed in 1905 and looks similar to the Brandenburg gate of Berlin.
Our tour then continued by hopping on a “Hop On, Hop Off” sightseeing tour bus. With our tickets we were allowed unlimited rides for 24 hours on the tour company’s two bus lines, and given ear phones to listen to recorded messages about the sights we rode past. On the second level of the double-decker, roofless, bus we saw the mix of old and new architecture slowly give way to a medieval neighborhood as we drove into the heart of Brussels. Then, just after passing the royal palace, we stopped at the central train station and got off the bus.
At the central station we switched to the company’s other bus line, which took us far away to the outskirts of Brussels and to the Atomium tourist attraction. The Atomium is a 165 billion to 1 scale model of an iron crystal (looks like a big cube), which was built for Brussels’s 1958 World’s Fair. It is marketed as a famous symbol of Brussels, so we figured we should get out and have a look. Before walking to the 335ft tall structure we each grabbed a sugary, warm, Belgian waffle from a street cart. Once underneath the Atomium we felt like we got a good enough appreciation of the impressive, large structure, that we decided not to pay to go up and into rooms located in all the corners of the cube. Instead we walked toward a different nearby scale model tourist attraction called Mini-Europe.
Mini-Europe’s models are of famous European buildings all at the identical 1 to 25 scale. We grabbed some sandwiches for lunch before entering the model park, then spend a little over an hour seeing all of Europe’s highlights in miniature form. Walking along the sole path that snakes past all the models we had fun pushing the frequent buttons along our way that corresponded to the models. Most of the times the buttons would just play the national anthem of the model, but sometimes the button would cause something to happen in the model—like pushing the button on the Berlin wall model caused a backhoe to knock down a section of it. With 350 buildings showcased in Mini-Europe Melissa and I feel like we’ve seen it all in Europe after our visit.
From Mini-Europe we walked back to our bus and continued its tour, returning to central Brussels. We then hopped off the bus to look around the old central city. First we wondered through the narrow streets until we found a famous statue of a peeing, naked, boy titled “Manneken Pis”. Oddly the statue was clothed in a little costume, but a nearby ice cream shop had a gigantic replica out front in all its naked glory. Next we walked to the huge central square of Brussels called the Grand Place. This square, surrounded by intricately designed guildhalls, with the city hall, and Breadhouse notably sticking out from the rest, is the most iconic tourist destination in Brussels. We jostled through a crowd celebrating some kind of festival, as we marveled at the views. Interestingly most of the buildings in the square were destroyed in a 1695 war then re-built with the complementing architecture styles that have survived to the present.
After picking up more coffee in the square, we returned to the Hop-On Hop-Off bus to complete the tour line we had only partially taken. As we rode along, the audio guide constantly talked about history, the Art Nouveau architecture style, and the points of interest we passed. It was easy to only half pay attention to the audio guide, but one time it caused Melissa and I to both sit up and wonder if we heard it correctly. Talking about King Leopold II of Belgium, paraphrasing, it said, “The Belgians new him as the Builder King, but the rest of the world knew him for the genocide of approximately 10 million Congolese.” Both Melissa and I were surprised to learn that fact.
Around 6 p.m. we had completed the bus tour and found ourselves back in central Brussels. We then made our way to a brewpub called Delirium Cafe, that advertised serving over 3000 different beers. In the crowded, noisy bar even Britt found a beer she liked. With our appetites sated by beer, Melissa and I had an were indifferent to dinner. After leaving the bar we stopped at one of Brussels many French Fry stands, while Britt grabbed some quick to go noodles. We then made a nice long walk back to Britt’s apartment where we went to bed early to rest up for the next day of sightseeing.
