Brussels

Nathaniel, his girlfriend Maria, and Aaron.

After spending the morning in Amiens, the afternoon and early evening in Lille, our ultimate destination for Easter Saturday was Brussels, the capital of Belgium ("the Canada of France"). Lisa has a friend from OSU, Nathaniel, who lives there and with whom we could stay for a couple of nights, which was very nice of him. The high-speed train ride from Lille lasted about a half-hour and I think it was one of the more international trains we've been on - I heard English, Dutch, French, and what I think was Portuguese.

Braderie in Brussels.

Shortly before our arrival, Nathaniel informed us via text message that there was an impromptu transit strike in Brussels. Apparently, there had been a minor accident with a bus and a car, the bus driver called his route supervisor, the car's driver (who may have been intoxicated) called a couple of his friends (who were intoxicated), and one of the friends beat the route supervisor to death. Nathaniel said there's a whole host of issues with public transit in Brussels and the workers aren't very well respected, but regardless, the death caused all transit workers in the city to almost immediately go on strike for at least four days; they were still on strike when we left Brussels on Tuesday. That meant that for our entire time there, there were no buses and no trams in service. Fortunately, Nathaniel and his girlfriend, Maria, live relatively near a commuter rail station (commuter rail was unaffected by the strike) so we were able to get a local train from Brussels' central train station to his neighborhood train station where he met us and walked us back to his apartment. The apartment was very lovely - one floor of an old three-story row house with high ceilings, hardwood floors, and French doors between rooms. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any pictures of it to share with you!

Grande Place.

On Easter Sunday, we got a tour of central Brussels from Nathaniel and Maria. Because we had tour guides who knew where we were going and because we didn't really have a determined itinerary, it's hard to keep track of what we saw and in what order (in contrast to most of our previous blog entries!). But I remember we started in Brussels' Grande Place, which is similar to Lille's, but even more over-the-top with a mix of late Gothic architecture and 17th-century brick guild halls.

Mannikin Pis and Lisa.

We walked to see the Mannikin Pis, a famous fountain in the shape of a little boy peeing (it was surrounded by tourists, which I suppose should be no surprise). We also tried to get into the church of Notre-Dame de la Chapelle, but it was closed (surprising on Easter!) and then walked through an antique-dealer area to a Sunday flea market, which was cool but we're not really able to buy much more stuff to bring home! We had lunch there at a little greasy-spoon kind of place. I tried stoemp, a good Belgian/Dutch dish consisting of mashed potatoes and carrots served with a sausage on the side.

Sablon interior.

Belgian Waffle and Lisa.

After lunch, we walked through more of the central city and tried Belgian waffles from a little mobile food van. They were good and different from American Belgian waffles; these were almost caramelized on the outside but were still soft on the inside. We then went into the church of Sablon. It was a late Gothic church with no ambulatory, choir, or side chapels off the aisles, which meant that all the stained glass was much closer to us than any French church we've seen. There was also a cool aristocratic funerary chapel on one side, too.

Cathedral.

Cathedral interior.

We then walked past the national art museum, the royal palace, and a big park to get to the cathedral. The cathedral was full of tourists but was pretty nice. The stained glass was fairly new (mostly 19th-century) and so it used very vivid colors. We also went down to the crypt below the cathedral where we could see part of the excavations showing the original Romanesque cathedral from the 11th century. It was all very nice but I didn't think it was that fantastic of a church. Perhaps I was just spoiled by seeing the Amiens Cathedral the day before!

Cathedral crypt.

Stained glass from the cathedral.

It was now about six o'clock and Nathaniel wanted to introduce us to a couple of his French friends. We took a commuter train to the Brussels South station and walked from there into the Saint-Giles neighborhood (which was a bit grittier than central Brussels). We met them at a bar and they were very nice people - one had family from near Rennes. Meeting them at a bar also gave me an opportunity to try Belgian beer. It was lighter and wheaty but quite tasty. We stayed about an hour or so then went back to Nathaniel and Maria's house for a delicious meal of fajitas before bed.

Brussels reminded Lisa and me a lot of Chicago, with a very clean, touristy central area then dirtier, more immigrant neighborhoods with a large mix of architectural styles. All of this is in contrast to the next city we visited, Bruges.

Bonus picture: Detail, Sablon interior.