Mai Tai Tom Stays On Track Through Belgium, Paris and Strasbourg

Chapter Two:  Underrated & Underappreciated Brussels

Day Two: Under Construction, Corner Park, Meeting Our Quotient, Fight Fight For Old Notre Dame, “Miraculous” Boat Ride, Missed Waffle Opportunity, Ain’t It Grand, A Port In The Storm, Flower Power, El Bosco, Soulless, Gotta Pis, Checking In With Mike (Again), No Reservations and Butter Me Up!

One of the great things about a flight to Europe is that when you wake up early the next day you can’t get back to sleep. Much to the chagrin of my travel companions, that meant an early start. The forecast had called for rain, but the skies were clear as we exited the hotel.

Nearby (about a ten-minute walk) would be the Palais de Justice de Bruxelles on Galgenberg Hill (Mont Gallows), which got its name because it was where crowds would gather to see people get hanged.  I was really interested in seeing this building, which was reputed to be the largest building in the world when it was constructed from the 1860s to the 1880s (it’s still considered the largest Palace of Justice in the world). It also has a dome supposedly even bigger than St. Peter’s Basilica. As we approached, we saw cranes and scaffolding. Had I researched more before leaving, I would have known the structure has been in disrepair for decades.

There was a sign indicating it was open to the public, but before entering was something that was hard to miss … La Grande Roue. The View (as it is known) ferris wheel reaches 180 feet up, and for €9 this relatively new attraction takes its guests to the highest point in the city.

Fortunately for my cohorts, it didn’t open for a few hours. Just in front of the ferris wheel is the Belgian Infantry Memorial dedicated to Belgian foot soldiers who fought in World Wars I and II.

             

We checked out the city view before entering the Palais de Justice.

We decided to go in and check out the interior. Good to get those first stairs early.

Tours don’t start for another 90 minutes, so we didn’t see any rooms. Kim, Mary and Tracy were ready to fire their tour guide.

     

We walked around the interior and second floor, but with no rooms to see, we were on our way toward other Brussels’ sights.

                               

A few blocks away we walked by and through a Flemish neo-Renaissance style flower garden, Square du Petit Sablon/Kleine Zavelsquare.

                                     

It’s a picturesque square and garden surrounded by 48 statues representing Brussels’ numerous guilds, and another ten that highlight the renowned humorists of the 16th century.

The ornate fountain and statue near the back of the park was erected to honor the resistance fighters, Counts of Egmont and Hornes, who were decapitated during the Spanish siege in the 16th century. An intriguing church (here we go again) across from the square was calling my name, but we really needed some caffeine and sustenance. 

 

             

We spied a sign for Le Pain Quotidien, which we have dined at in many cities in the U.S. I was kind of disappointed we didn’t find something more authentic, but then I discovered that Le Pain Quotidien was actually founded in 1990 … in Brussels. And, by the way, we have never been disappointed with the food, no matter what the city.

                                         

I had planned for our next stop to be Notre-Dame du Sablon (Church of Our Lady of the Sablon), but was having trouble finding it, so I said, “While were are here, let’s check out the church across the street, and find Notre-Dame afterward.” Much to my surprise, as we entered Tracy whispered (with that “Tom, you idiot” look in her eyes), “This IS Notre-Dame du Sablon.” I should have had an extra cappuccino.

Seems this church has lots of names including Église Notre-Dame des Victoires du Sablon, but in any case, it’s a beautiful Gothic church, which actually began as an Archer’s Chapel (a bunch of straight arrows, I presume) in the 13th century. And to think, it all started with stolen property.

                                                    

The legend is that a woman named Beatrjis Soetkens had a vision. In that vision, the Virgin Mary told her to steal a “miraculous statue” in Antwerp. (It’s the first I have ever read that Mary was also a crime boss.)  Well, old Beatrjis, not one to argue with the Virgin herself, stole the statue, surreptitiously (and “miraculously”) made her way back undetected to Brussels by boat and then put it in the chapel. There are a few statues recreating the event in the church. We never saw the real statue. Perhaps we needed a miracle.

   

Once the church’s cathedral was completed in the 15th century, the rich and famous flocked here. We started our mini self-guided tour … from the left is a marble sculpture from the 17th century, a font and a sculpted effigy of Claude Bouton, chamberlain of Emperor Charles V, and his wife Lannoy.

                                                      

The stained glass here …

                                     

… is extra colorful (and clean as were nearly all the stained glass windows we encountered on this trip).

This painting was ordered by four prominent members of the Great Serment of the Crossbowmen of the Sablon, and has been recently restored.

Continuing around the interior we passed by a tomb of someone who must have been important, a Pieta and a painting of the Annunciation.

           

The church includes two Baroque chapels, financed by the wealthy Thurn and Taxis family. The family set up a postal service in Brussels in the early 1500s, and we gave both chapels our stamp of approval (by the way, the family actually did create its own postage stamp. The first chapel commemorates the little known Saint Marcouf, who had a lot of duties, including protector of the French crown, while also being the patron saint of apothecaries, cloth merchants and aiding people with swollen glands. A busy man, indeed.

Quite a magnificent entrance to the Chapel of Saint Ursula, which is thought to be the mourning chapel of the Thurn and Taxis families.

Famed Brussels sculptor Jan van Delen (and a few of his friends) created the most spectacular area in the church. Poor St. Ursula has an arrow through her, proving once again it’s tough being a saint.

         

The tomb of Lamoral is particularly striking. Various artists contributed to the sculpture that “shows how the fame of the dead prince will outlive him, illustrated as a lively battle between Virtue and Time, while Fame sounds the praises on her trumpet.”

van Delen also created these two allegorical figures representing Charity (Caritas) and Truth (Veritas).

              

Another ceiling for Tracy to photograph was captured before exiting the church.

Église Notre-Dame des Victoires du Sablon was quite a surprise as I hadn’t read much about it before leaving, and I was glad we stopped in.

     

A sign helped us with directions …

… and as we headed toward the Grand’Place, flowers …

     

… and macarons piqued our interest.

The Caffe Leffe in Sablon Square looked of interest, and it was still a little early for the wine store …

… but Belgian Chocolate Makers really had us savoring some sweets. The woman at this store touted their waffles as “the best in Brussels,” but unfortunately the waffle maker (the person, not the machine) was out for an hour, and sadly we did not return. We probably would have spent the rest of the day eating waffles and chocolate had he been there.

   

Look up on the wall. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s SuperSmurf. Seems Smurfs are a big deal in Brussels. (Editor’s note: I subsequently found out “The Smurfs were created and introduced as a series of comic characters by the Belgian comics artist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) in 1958, wherein they were known as Les Schtroumpfs.”

The Place Saint-Jean / Sint-Jansplein.

Shortly, we arrived in arguably the most famous square in Europe, the Grand’Place. It dates mostly from the late 1690s courtesy of Louis XIV, who had his troops demolish the square (except for the Town Hall Spire). Four years later, a square even more more grand than the first one was completed. Take that Louis!

     

I never like seeing horses forced to haul tourists around town, so these horseless e-carriages were a welcome sight.

And Mary stopped by a chocolate shop named just for her (or at least that’s what we assumed).

The Maison des Brasseurs (Brewers House) dates all the way back to the late 1600s (all the brewers financed the reconstruction of the house after Louis destroyed it). Today, it’s a national museum of the brewery industry. By now, I knew we should have planned for an extra day here. The equestrian statue up top is of Charles of Lorraine.

There are a number of guild houses. The Chaloupe d’Or (Golden Boat) is the old headquarters of the tailors’ guild. On top is a statue of St. Homobonus of Cremona, the patron saint of, who else? tailors. It seemed like a good fit. To the left is Le Pigeon (not named for the droppings on St. Homobonus next door). This was the painters guild, but is more famous for housing author Victor Hugo when he was exiled during the coup d’etat of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in 1851.

The highlight of the Grand’Place is, in my opinion, the Town Hall. In the mid-1400s a weather vane was placed atop the tower of my good friend St. Michael, patron saint of Brussels (and me). The original was replaced in 1993. The façade of the Town Hall has something like 300 sculptures, and fortunately for you I don’t know anything about them. It is the only remaining medieval building on the Grand’Place. 

We entered the courtyard, and just after snapping photos of a couple of statues, the skies opened up and it started pouring. The four of us scurried inside, and, voila, there was a museum.

                       

Price of admission for the tour including audio guide cost €15, however for the three oldsters, it was only €6 euro each. I have an expensive wife. We were greeted by St. Michael. Looking at this piece, I’m glad I’m on his good side (the original St. Michael weather vane is in the Brussels City Museum in the King’s House on the Grand’Place).  We picked up our audio guide.

According to legend, the architect who designed the building jumped to his death after realizing it was asymmetrical. I guess it was too much of an undertaking. Some of the rooms of interest included:

The Portrait Room

                             

The equestrian painting of Marie Therese was the main focal point.

You would expect the hallway of a Town Hall to be beautiful.

The Council Chamber is a “wow” room.

The ceiling painting is Assembly of the Gods.

Tapestries adorn the walls.

         

The Maximillian Room was named after a portrait of Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian and Mary of Burgundy.

                               

The David & Bathsheba Room had a nice fireplace and an interesting clock.

             

Fortunately, nobody stole anyone’s wife here.

The Belle Chamber was quite lovely.

       

The Wedding Room was, not surprisingly, setting up for a wedding.

                                 

We reached the oldest part of the building, the Gothic Hall, which, in reality, is neo-Gothic.

                             

There are statues and tapestries everywhere.

                               

We had wanted to see the Staircase of Honour, but it was closed on this day. We did, however, see the Corridor of Honour, and its magnificent wall and ceiling paintings.

                                            

I thanked Michael for the visit and asked him if he could keep me safe the rest of the trip. He said, “You really are asking for miracles.”

Back out onto the Grand’Place, the sun was shining again, as we walked the cobblestone streets and soon arrived at our next destination. 

             

Arriving there, we gazed up at the equestrian statue of King Albert I, the beloved king of the Belgians from 1909-1934, who died in a mountaineering accident in 1934. The statue was erected 17 years after his death.

At the top of the stairs, we admired a garden signifying we were at the Mont des Arts, an area that has numerous museums.

The garden connects the lower and upper parts of Brussels and was landscaped for the 1910 Brussels World Fair.

And just like that, the rain started pelting us again, so we dashed under an allée of trees, up more stairs, catching a quick glimpse of a cool relief and sheltering at a nearby self-serve bar/restaurant. Château Moderne. 

                                                                   

To be kind, it was not very good, from the sub-par sandwiches to the weird tasting croquettes to whatever awful white wine they were serving. On the plus side, they were consistent, and it was indoors.

When the rain stopped, we admired the splendid view from the terrace out toward the Town Hall, and in the far distance, the Basilique Nationale du Sacré Coeur.

Next up on the agenda, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Along the way we checked out some street art by a Welsh-born street artist who goes by the unusual (and unappetizing) name of Phlegm, which he created on the side of KBR, Royal Library of Belgium. ‘The World of Bruegel in Black and White’ is a tribute to painter Peter Bruegel who had died 450 years earlier. Phlegm was commissioned to do “a modern rendition of Bruegel’s Seven Deadly Sins series.”  Phlegm has coughed up a lot of interesting art.

Heading to what we thought was Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, we discovered we were staring at the Royal Palace of Belgium. Unfortunately, you can only tour the palace during August.

Turns out the Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique is four museums in one, but on this day we were really only interested in Musée d’Art Ancien (Museum of Old Masters), which covers the 15th to the 17th centuries.

       

I was particularly intrigued in a painting by Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (El Bosco). Later in our tour, he would be “out Bosched” by another artist’s painting in the gallery.  In 1801, the museum was founded by none other than Napoléon, who seized the art during the French Revolution. Some of my favorites as we meandered along were:

I started to sing the music from Les Miserables when I saw this painting, but it’s really The Belgian Revolution of 1830, 1835.

The 1675 Fountain of Neptune had some weird stuff going on. It’s similar “in type and composition of Bernini’s Triton Fountain in Rome.”

We took a look at The Beheading of the Innocent Count”by Dirk Bouts.

Jan Verhas painted The Parade of the Schools of 1878 in the presence of King Leopold II.

Then it was time for my guy Bosch. The Temptation of St Anthony Triptych is a Bosch copy from the very early 1500s “Wait,” I thought, “Haven’t I seen this before?” Sure enough, I had seen the original in Lisbon and another copy at the Prado in Madrid.

                 

Peter Paul Rubens and Rogier van der Weyden were featured.

 

van der Weyden’s famous Portrait of Laurent Froimont was also on display.

As was Lucas Cranach’s Adam and Eve.

There was one painting that I would have bet my easel was a Bosch creation. The Fall of the Rebel Angels was first thought to be by Pieter Bruegel the Younger. However, it was then attributed to Bosch until 1898, when a date and signature was found in the left hand corner. It was actually the work of Bruegel the Elder. Always respect your Elders is the moral of the story. The Fall of the Rebel Angels is an homage to Bosch. According to Wiki, “Painted in 1562, Bruegel’s depiction of Lucifer falling with his fallen angels is taken from a passage from Revelation 12, and reveals the artist’s profound debt to Hieronymus Bosch. This is shown through the grotesque, ugly or distorted, figures painted as half-human and half-apocalyptic creatures.” I loved it!

Bruegel also had a much calmer winter landscape.

             

After walking by the original The Death of Murat by Jacques-Louis David, we had a decision to make. Where to next?

Deciding between the Atomium or Basilique Nationale du Sacré Coeur, we choose the latter. It was a decision that I believe we can now all admit was a mistake. The journey to the basilica took ten minutes by Uber.

Basilique Nationale du Sacré Coeur touts its dimensions as the fifth largest church in the world, however upon further review when I got home, I found it is really #14. In any case, it is quite imposing from the outside.

Inside, the words that came to mind were sterile and stark, without much soul.

                                     

Construction started in the early 20th century, but it was not consecrated until 1951.

      

 

We made our way to the second level. Yes, it’s big. We rode the elevator to the top, and reviews saying it has a great view were spot on. All was not lost.

We looked out at what might have been, a modernistic structure constructed for the 1958 Brussels World Exhibition. The Atomium is also the #1 tourist attraction in Brussels. 

All in all, the basilique was a disappointing experience for us.

Back in Brussels, Kim and Mary headed back to the hotel for a little R&R, while Tracy and I continued exploring. At one corner there was a large crowd of people taking photos, which could only mean one thing. We were at the Mannekin Pis, a tiny bronze statue of a boy peeing. Supposedly he has more than 1,000 costumes that are changed frequently.  I read that he also has his own dresser (and obviously a very good press agent).

One of many legends surrounding the statute is that it resembled the “son of a nobleman who attempted to seduce the virtuous Saint Gudule. Heaven’s punishment was to condemn his son to remain always a child, and always relieving himself.” That gave us the idea to see Cathédrale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule next.

Along the way we saw street art from Sarajevo artist Rikardo Druškić near the Grand’Place celebrating the BalkanTrafik Festival, which celebrates musical artists from the Balkan countries.

Work on this cathedral began back in 1216.

 

The Anointment of Jesus in the tomb.

Just like in every Brussels church we visited, the stained glass windows glowed.

                      

The Great Organ was, well, great, complete with 43,000 pipes.

Another part of the church that really stood out was the pulpit depicting Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden, which happened because they were the apples of each other’s eyes.

We could have stayed longer to admire more of the artwork, but by now we were dragging, so back to the hotel we trudged for one of our patented 15-minute naps.

                       

Earlier in the day, after a unanimous decision not to return to the Grand’Place for dinner, Mary recalled a nice looking restaurant near our first night venue. She texted and got reservations at a restaurant called Colonel. I asked Mary about it, and she assured us it wasn’t Colonel Sanders. We arrived at the appointed time at Colonel Louise and were told they didn’t have reservations for us.  After some discussion, we discovered that Mary had made a reservation at its sister restaurant Colonel Fort Jaco. Who knew? They took us anyway.

Dinner was a mixed bag. Mary and Kim enjoyed their filet and flank steaks. Meanwhile Tracy and I, who were very hungry and decided to splurge, ordered the prime rib-eyes at €44 each. It was a steak house, after all, and our lunch had been underwhelming. We ordered the steaks medium rare, but they were really undercooked, gummy and seemed a long way from prime.  A double-header of disappointing meals on this day.

But it wasn’t a complete disaster. Before dinner, we enjoyed the Colonel’s house-baked bread with a salted butter sent from the heavens. It was incredible, so much so we ate it with a fork (don’t tell my cardiologist). My apple tart flambée was terrific, as well.

As for Brussels … I had read so many negative comments about it before leaving, so maybe that’s why I subconsciously screwed up and only planned for one full day. Everyone we met was completely cordial, and we could have easily spent an extra, non-rushed day or two. I’d also forgotten that Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union, and the city is replete with museums and attractions to keep you busy. Plus, how can you go wrong in a city known for beer, frites, waffles and chocolate?

Yes, I left out Brussels sprouts. Nobody’s perfect.

Tomorrow, we’d hop a train for the short ride to Brugge (Bruges), where we would spend three nights. We’d admire the lovely canals and town square, visit a church with mysterious relics, walk over a bridge with a legend, see the only Michelangelo statue that was sold outside Italy during his lifetime, sample some Belgium brews, watch Tracy gun down predators by the dozens and have dinner where a well-known movie was filmed. Oh yeah, we would also have our first encounter (but certainly not last) with bicyclists in Belgium and France, plus I would get the opportunity to dance with some friendly frites.

CHAPTER THREE: In Bruges

Day Three – Wandering Aimlessly, Canal Zone, Dodging Bicycles, Old Relics (Not Us), Skipping The Palace, Eyes On The Fries, Tracy The Terminator, Beer Break, Please Don’t Stand On The Cow, Marry The First Person You See, Captivating Kerk, Only Michelangelo Statue Outside Italy, Monuments Men (Part One), Due Diligence To Do Diligence and Blue Markt