Europe, day 40: To Brussels

A Gate on the field by Bremen Hauptbahnhof

As planned, Dad and I headed off on our own way Wednesday morning. I had stayed up late packing (again!), and thought that I needed to get another rail pass stamped, so I left around 7:45, arrived at the station at 8:00, then waited for a while. I debated going to get Dad from his hostel, but I decided against it; the weather was cloudy, with bits of rain, and I thought he would realize the situation and meet me at the station. I thought about how hastily I had left, leaving a full bottle of Franciskaner in the fridge without willing it to anyone...

As it turns out, Dad showed up around 8:40, within 10 minutes of our train, and reassured me that our pass was a two-person pass that was already validated. But at least I was ready! Some of my clothes were a bit wet yet, but that can be fixed later. I was amazed that everything fit between my backpack and my suitcase.

As I have come to expect, the train ride was smooth, and our transfers worked out, as we expected. Our hotel in Brussels was rather close to the train station, but it did not have free WiFi. It charged by the hour, with a maximum of 12 Euro for 24 hours. One hour was 6 Euro, though, so we thought it better to avoid paying, so blog updating was not possible.

In Grand Place

After partially unpacking and hanging up my wet clothes, I went with Dad to Grand Place, the ever-alive square where tourists thrive.

Inside the Belgian Brewer's Museum

Right off the Grand Place is the Belgian Brewer's Museum, which cost five Euro apiece for entrance, but included a beer at the end. Apart from the old brewing equipment, there was a room with a very long film that documented many aspects of brews, brewers, and breweries. One memorable note was, “Please, when drinking beer, respect the brewer: serve the beer at the proper temperature and in the glass bearing the name of the brew.” The beer from the museum was served fairly cold, as it was a Pils, and in a specific glass, and I must admit that it was very refreshing.

We went to the tourist office, also off the Grand Place, and asked for the location of Manneken Pis.

Manneken Pis

Manneken Pis is the statue of Manneken, who is... yeah, you get it. The story goes that Manneken, the son of a wealthy family, ran off as a child. His father set guards to find him, saying that, were he found, he would erect a statue of the boy at the spot. Evidently, Manneken was found, relieving himself, hence the statue we know today. There are, of course, a great many souvenirs of Manneken Pis, not all of which are in good taste.

Snack: Belgian Waffles

Belgium has a few signature foods, one of which is the waffle. One can find waffle vendors, most of whom have a variety of fruits and sauces to accessorize the waffle. When they have a table out, you can point and choose your decorations, even though pretty much everyone in a store is at least trilingual.

Avery: Full of Mussels

As our waiter pointed out, there is “no Brussels without mussels!” This brought me to reconsider the lines from Men at Work's “Down Under” about a man in Brussels who was “six-foot-four and full of mussels”, which I thought was “muscles”. Or it could be intentional ambiguity. Either way, we had a gigantic pot of Curry Mussels, and a collection of seafood in rice, called “Paella”. It was very good, and decisively expensive. The beer was good, though.