A day in Brussels
On Thursday, our first full day in Belgium, we had another "bludge day", aka a non-sightseeing day of relaxing, grocery shopping, blogging, life admin, trip research, etc (in other words, there's not a lot of bludging involved for the adults!). It was good to make the most of our Airbnb by actually spending some decent time there, since it was a particularly spacious one!
Then, on Friday, we set off to explore Brussels. We parked at a free carpark recommended by our AirBnb host and took the metro into Gare Centrale (Central Station). Here are some of the sights we saw in Brussels that afternoon...
We also discovered an amazing bookshop. At first we thought it was a Tintin/souvenir shop as that's what the front part of the shop contained. But it turned out to have lots of other bookish products as well, and AN ENTIRE ROOM FULL OF GRAPHIC NOVELS!!! For all ages!!!
Unfortunately they were all in French, but there were so many wonderful-looking ones! I only saw four I recognised. Can someone please start up a publishing company in Australia that specialises in bringing English-language translations of all these books to our shores?!
Once we eventually tore the boys away from that store, we continued on to the Mannekin Pis statue. This statue of a peeing boy is apparently a very famous tourist attraction! There was a crowd of people around him. Every day he's dressed in different clothes, and a nearby museum displays his past outfits.
Later on we found the Zinneke Pis statue, which is a peeing dog. (There's also a Jeanneke Pis statue of a peeing girl, though we didn't see her.) Apparently they're quite keen on street-peeing in Brussels, as we also saw some street urinals (partially enclosed). There was a standalone one on a street corner and a row of them against the outside wall of a huge old church!
We had Belgian fries for lunch (which are pretty much just regular hot chips, usually served in a cone and with a choice of toppings)...
...and then explored part of the Plaisirs d'Hiver Christmas markets. They had just opened at noon that day and were the actual destination we had been aiming for in our wanderings.
We then explored another section of the Christmas markets around the side of the church. The markets were spread out over various squares in the city centre, but this one had the main/biggest collection of stalls as well as a Ferris wheel.
We then headed back to a Warhammer shop that F had spotted earlier and set his heart on visiting.
A final few sights as we headed back to the metro to go home...
And that was Brussels! Amusingly, we didn't end up getting to the number one spot I had thought we would visit — the Grand Place — but B and I have actually been there before (and at Christmas market time, too!), so not to worry. We enjoyed our wanderings!