Day 7 - Brussels

March 20 -

I conquered a lot of Brussels in one day. I was all museum'd out from Paris and so wanted to be as leisurely as possible during the rest of this stay.

Grand Place & Agora Square
I explored Grand Place a bit more, stopped in Agora Square to check out the vendors selling jewelry, bought a few inexpensive pairs of earrings, and paid another visit to Mannekin Piss and the surrounding area for daytime photos. I did not want to leave Grand Place; the beauty was incredibly surreal. If I ever get back, I'd like to hang out in a chair in the middle of the square for the day and people watch.

Marolles District
My guidebook mentioned a flea market in the Marolles district on Place du Jeu de Balle and I found it after a metro ride and walking past the Palace of Justice, whose gorgeous dome was pretty much covered over for renovation. I arrived at the market at tail end, but managed to rummage through some of the quirky junk on sale, finding nothing of real interest. I meandered along the twisting streets to a different metro to carry on to the Uccle district to one of my must sees for this trip. The Brussels metro turns into a tram once it emerges from the underground. I learned this the difficult way trying to reach the Russian Orthodox church.


St. Job Russian Orthodox Church
I couldn't go overseas and not see something Romanov! The church of St. Job in Brussels was built specifically to honor the last Tsar and his family. I'm assuming that it was named as such because Nicholas II was born on the day of Job. It was something he always lamented and resigned his fate to, especially when death looked him in the eye at Yekaterinburg. What you cannot see are the supposed relics of the last Imperial family, donated by Nicholas' surviving family. Built in the wall of the church is the box containing various items and some pieces of human remains found at the first dumping site, Four Brothers Mine, after the family and their retainers were murdered. The investigators collected all that was left behind, including one of the deceased fingers.

Also inside was the bible the family used while in captivity. What was unfortunate, was that the church was closed and wouldn't be open for service until Saturday night or Sunday morning, both inconvenient times to visit. Sadly, I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably not get to see the inside.

Grand Palace
Belgium has a royal family, though not as illustrious as some of Europe's other dynasties. Like other Benelux royals, they stay low key. The palace too is low key, with a park across the street that once was reserved only for the King, until it was open to the public. Next to the palace is the BELvue museum, which honors all things Belgium. There, I stumbled upon a Brussels art nouveau book and remembered reading somewhere about how Brussels was the capital of art nouveau. Gleaning some information from the book, I decided to find Ambiorix Square where tons of these nouveau homes are located.

Ambiorix & Gutenberg Square
Using a bad map which only highlighted the city centre, how I managed to make it over to Ambiorix square, I don't know. I walked up and down several streets in the immediate area, hoping to stumble upon what I was looking for. Once I reached Gutenberg Square, which rivals Ambiorix, I knew I was in the right place. Gorgeous! However, cars obstructed the homes and so many of my snapshots look like surveillance photos instead. Everything about the area was pretty, including the pond at Square Marie-Louise. Unfortunately, number 11, Villa Saint-Cyr, the most famous home on Ambiorix, was under construction, so I couldn't get a good look.

Hema
No visit to Belgium was complete without a visit to Hema. I had first discovered this cool department store on my trip to Bruges a few years before. Brussels closes shop early, so I arrived at Hema as it was closing and didn't have much time to dilly-dally. I did walk away with some goodies though. Nieuwstraat (New Street), a pedestrian street, was like a scaled down version of Herald Square, but Hema was the only store that interested me.

For dinner, I ate at Pizza Hut for a sit down meal of salad and a personal pan pizza. Yes, I bowed down to the Big P. At this stage of the vacation, I was craving carbs and familiarity, two things I love. This happens on every trip I take. I've learned not to beat myself up over it considering I do sample the local cuisine, keeping my mind as open as possible, despite the fact that I'm not food adventurous. That said, it was delicious and I ordered a Belgian beer on tap. I'm not a beer drinker but this was absolutely lovely and I'm finding the blond beers more agreeable to my palate.

This was such a long day. I packed so much and got back to the hostel in a tired mood. I wanted to explore a bit more, but Antwerp was scheduled for the next day. Still, I saw a lot and loved Brussels, despite losing my bearings so much.