Belgian break (4) : Brussels
On the last day of our Belgium break, we had to travel back from Antwerp to Brussels for the Eurostar and we decided to do so straight after breakfast so that we could see a little of Brussels and make the holiday a tale of three cities: Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels. I have been to Brussels many times through my work in the trade union movement but it was the first visit for Vee. This is, of course, the capital of Belgium and the European Union – a city of some 1.1 million.
At Brussels Midi station, we deposited our case at left luggage and walked into the city centre. We took the Avenue de Stalingrad, a reminder that – in spite of the current adventurism of Putin’s Russia – the West was once allied with the Soviet Union.
Our first stop was to observe the Mannekin-Pis, the world famous statue of the little boy urinating. It is much smaller than people think and today was wearing one of the many costumes which have been designed for him. A little further on, we admired the Grand Place surrounded by splendid Gothic and Renaissance buildings including the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall), still topped with the original spire, and the Maison du Roi (King’s House), which houses the city museum of Brussels.
We spent quite a while in the museum. It always displays a selection of the 700+ costumes designed for the Mannekin-Pis which this time included a John Bull outfit and an Elvis Presley outfit.
The museum currently hosts a special exhibition to mark the commencement of the First World War. Of course, every nation sees the war differently and, for the Belgians, it was a time of German occupation and food shortages, all graphically illustrated in the museum. There was a reminder that in 1914 the Germans managed to blame the British for their disregard of Belgium’s neutrality by claiming that they had to invade Belgium in order to prevent the British using the country to invade Germany.
The rest of our time in Brussels was spend eating, drinking, strolling and window shopping.