On the morning of Friday the 8th I headed out to catch a train to Brussels where I planned to spend the rest of that weekend. The trip in to Amsterdam went as usual, and I got a ticket to Brussels with a change in Rotterdam. I rather like Rotterdam Centraal as a train station. The layout is nice, it's quite bright, and it's easy to navigate. Also, the Starbucks is really easy to find. On the train from Rotterdam to Brussels I had a lovely conversation with a Belgian man who was on his way home from what sounded like a lovely vacation in warmer climes who had a couple of very good suggestions for language learning aids, so that was fun.
Upon arriving in Brussels my first order of business was to find the tourist info center so I got directions to Grand Plac and headed over. The first thought through my mind on walking in to the Grand Plac was "My God. The Dutch have no romance in their souls, but the Belgians surely do!" It was gorgeous. Not just in Grand Plac, but all through the center of the city. Even the more recently built buildings (i.e. only a couple hundred years old) were beautiful. So after staring and taking a few pictures I wandered in to the tourist info center and said "Could you help me find a place to sleep for the next two nights?" and they found me a very nice hostel about ten to fifteen minutes walk away called the Sleep Well youth hostel. I quite liked it. After checking in I went for a bit of a wander, grabbed something to eat, and went to Le Cercueil to try a fruit beer. Le Cercueil is a bar who's decor is made up primarily of coffins, blacklights, and fake skeletons. It was cool, but I'd recommend going with friends otherwise you'll be bored out of your skull, like me. The beer wasn't bad though.
After the beer I went back to the hostel and did some research for the following day. The Herge museum was a bit further away then I thought it would be, so I decided that was going to have to wait for another trip, but I did discover the Belgian Comic Strip Center. That looked good. So, decision made, I went sleep and actually got some, much to my surprise.
Saturday i woke up about 9:30 and was out a half hour or so later. I decided breakfast was not a bad time to try waffles, so I picked one of the likelier looking waffle stands and got one with whipped cream and chocolate. It was really good. Also a lot of sweet. And it happened to be right next to Manneken Pis, so I got a couple of pictures of it in one of it's costumes. I decided to explore a bit before I went looking for the comic center so I did a half circuit of the streets around Grand Plac and then decided I needed something that was food that didn't have sugar in it as I was feeling a bit sick. One thing that pretty much all the restaurants in Brussels have is mussels, so I decided now was as good a time as any to give them a try. I got the appy size pot instead of the big meal size, and it was quite tasty.
At this point I decided I should probably head to the comic center so I pulled out the map and picked the most likely looking route. Turns out, the street I picked didn't go straight through like it did on the map. I had to detour up a few streets but as that got me up near the cathedral, which is as stunning as much of the rest of the city is, I didn't mind. It also took me past a couple of statues that I probably would have missed otherwise.
The Belgian Comic Strip Center is in a building that started life as the Waucquez Warehouse, an Art Nouveau building designed by Victor Horta, so not only is the stuff inside absolutely fascinating for me the building is as well. The first floor has a restaurant and the store, and a small gellery that I didn't end up going in to. I started with the store. I have come to the conclusion that I have to learn to read French, if not speak it, simply to have a chance to read the wealth of comics and graphic novels that come from Belgium that haven't been translated and likely won't be any time soon. I had to keep repeating "You can't read it, so don't buy it" while I was in there.
After torturing myself by browsing, I went up the stairs past the bust on Tintin to the main exhibit floor. The first section you go through is the history of the comic strip, starting with cave paintings and Egyptians, moving through Saxon and Japanese to the more modern and discussing the ones that were examples purely of art, the political cartoons, and the entertainment variety. The next section goes through how a comic is made, from the initial design concepts through the rough draft, final draft, inking, and printing process with about five or six exhibits which showcase a particular comic artists creative process in the area that's being explained at the time. Then you move into the section on genres. They have the panel explaining the particular genre and then six to ten single page examples from different comics in that genre. Fantasy, comedy, sci-fi, mystery, etc. It was all absolutely fascinating. The other side has a small gallery. The show that was there when I went was about a comic called Murena. here's the link. It was one of the ones I wished I could read. http://www.comicscenter.net/en/exhibitions/the-gallery/murena-jean-dufaux-and-philippe-delaby
The next floor up is the floor where they showcase particular cartoonists who were particularly well known and contributed a lot to the art of comics in Belgium. The first section is, of course, about Herge and his comics. Then you can wander through an area that talks about eight or so others from the recent history of Belgian comics. The top half floor is dedicated special exhibit space, with two going side by side. One half was a Will Eisner exhibit, and the other was an Olivier Grenson exhibit. Olivier Grenson is yet another author I'll have to learn French to read. Bah.
At this point I was getting a bit hungry so I decided food might be in order. I went to a little place just off Grand Plac and tried Vol au Vent, which was really good, but I couldn't finish it. Too much rich food.... But it's soooo good!!! After which I wandered back to the hostel. Turns out, the route to and from my hostel took me behind the Opera House and straight through the Plac des Martyrs. So I have both daytime and night time shots of both.
When I got back to the hostel and ensconced in my room, I heard a couple of the other girls talking about having to get up early and I was thinking "Ok, so there'll be some noise sometime around seven or eight. I can deal with that." Turns out, early meant three in the bloody am. So from about three in the morning to about quarter to five, there were two people clattering about packing, showering, and generally fussing. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep.
When I finally did decide to get up I got everything squared away and headed down for breakfast. Oh yes, did I mention that the hostel also provided breakfast? Very nice. At this point I realised I should head out if I wanted to make the free walking tour in time, so I checked out and made my way to Grand Plac. It had rained the night before, and the sun was out with force that morning, so the Plac was absolutely stunning. Just wow.
I was more than in time for the tour so I got on no problem. And the funny thing with me and Sandeman's? When I went on the tour in Amsterdam my tour guide was a Dutch Canadian originally from Ontario. In Brussels my guide had moved to Belgium ten months ago from Amsterdam. Go figure. The tour is well worth it. The history of Brussels is fascinating, and my guide was also a highly entertaining storyteller, so he could tell you the facts and then pull out one of the stories or urban myths as well, which made the whole thing even more enjoyable. Another funny thing was that there were at least three other Canadians on that tour. Again, go figure.
After the tour one of the other people, a very nice Aussie who'd been living in London for two years and had decided to go exploring, and myself decided that as we were both hungry we should go find dinner together. We had some good food and good conversation, and then I went off to get the the things I'd decided I couldn't leave Brussels without. That being some Tintin items and chocolate. And oh my word is the chocolate good. I've decided I'm going to have to back right before I go home just to stock up on truffles.
After grabbing my goods I headed to the train station to go home. The trip this time was longer as I ended up on two milkrun trains going through Belgium, and a slightly faster one through the South of the Netherlands. And I ended up with another Canadian. She's a teacher, also originally from Ontario, and she's teaching English in the Netherlands now. we had a nice chat and she helped me figure out a slightly faster way of getting home which was extremely helpful as I was getting tired and a bit grumpy at that point. After that, it was fairly standard the rest of the way home, where I set up my alarm and collapsed.
All in all, it was a very nice trip. That's all for now. Peace out.
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