Brussels

In the spirit of just going wherever I had the opportunity to go for the cheapest price, I chose to go to Brussels for my first 15 in 2015 adventure, not because it was somewhere I'd always longed to go, but because it was €34 return on the Eurostar - can I get a BARGAIN?!  Woop woop!

I didn't really know much about Brussels to be honest, other than that it was the capital city of Belgium and that it was one of the homes of the European Parliament.  Other than that, I was pretty clueless!

Some quick researching told me that Belgium had been a Flemish stronghold in the 13th and 14th centuries, mainly in Ypres, Ghent and Bruges.  They'd become prosperous through the cloth trade, but towards the end of the 14th century English competition in the market proved too much, and the Belgian trade wasn't able to keep up.  The more interesting period of Belgian history began in the sixteenth century, in particular, with the advent of Protestantism throughout Europe.  Belgium, together with Luxembourg and the Netherlands, embraced the concept, but it was ruled by the fanatically Catholic Philip II of Spain who was - fairly predictably - horrified.  His response was to send the Spanish Inquisition to crush the Protestant movement but unfortunately the Protestants weren't so easily beaten.  The Iconoclastic Fury rose up, with the Protestants sacking the Catholic churches and generally running riot.  Philip II thought he could quell the Fury by sending troops into the Benelux countries, leading to the outbreak of war in 1568. The Revolt of the Netherlands lasted for the following eighty years, but ultimately ended with the Netherlands expelling the Spanish and retaining Luxembourg and Belgium under its own rule.

Central Station

For the next 200 years or so, the Austrians tried to help themselves to Belgium but were significantly less successful than the French, who managed to occupy Belgium until 1814 when the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created, including all of the Benelux countries.  After Napoleon was beaten at Waterloo the following year, the Belgians decided they weren't quite so keen on being part of the Netherlands after all and, in 1830, Belgium won its independence from the Netherlands.  Although there was significant tension between the French and Flemish speakers (which ultimately led to the country being divided by language), Belgium remained as its own country.  Despite technically being neutral in WWI, it was nonetheless invaded by the Germans in 1914.  Ypres became one of the bloodiest and most famous battlegrounds of the entire war, with the first battles taking place there as early as October 1914 and two major salients occurring in 1915 and 1917.  In the interwar period, Belgium maintained its independence, but in WWII it was invaded and taken over within three weeks in May 1940 in a surprise German attack.  The Belgians were deeply unhappy about this (not too surprisingly) and blamed the then king, Leopold III.  As a result, Leopold III abdicated in 1950 and his son, Baudouin took over.  Baudouin was extremely popular and reigned until his death in 1993.  During his reign, Belgium was also chosen as the unofficial capital of Europe due to the fact that it lay between the Latin and Germanic halves of Europe, had excellent transport links and communications with the other member states, had few issues with housing or congestion, and an open economy.

Armed with this new knowledge, I set off for Belgium on the Eurostar!  Unfortunately for me, the day I chose to do my trip was the day after the fires had broken out in the Chunnel, so I was a little later getting over than I thought I'd be which was a shame, because I only had four hours as it was.

Being January, it was absolutely FREEZING when I did finally arrive about lunchtime - really, properly, bone-achingly freezing!  My merino-wool coat and Ugg boots, which were perfectly capable of coping with an English January day, had no chance at all against the cold in Brussels.  In an attempt to get warm, therefore, I took the first opportunity to jump on a Hop On/Hop Off bus tour to get my bearings and, more importantly, to GET INSIDE!  I'd already planned to do this, plus I'd planned a self-guided walking or cycling tour of everything else I wanted to see after that, so it worked out well.

I'd booked my tickets in advance to save money through City Sightseeing.  The The bus tour was actually really good, and consisted of two separate tours which each took about an hour.  I took the Central Europe tour first for no reason other than that the bus happened to be there when I got to the stop!  This was the one I'd recommend if you're into architecture or art, because it goes through the middle of Brussels and tells a lot about the architecture of the city and, in particular, points out a lot of Art Nouveau buildings.

Atomium

The second tour that I took was the Atomium tour, which was my favorite because it went out of the city and let me see more of what the outskirts of Brussels was like.  I also liked it because it stopped at the Atomium, which is the craziest thing you'll ever see!  It designed by Andre Waterkeyn and built by Andre and Jean Polak  for the Universal Exhibition (aka the World Fair of Brussels, aka Expo 58) in 1958.  It was built as both the main pavilion and also the icon of the Fair, and the idea behind the design was that the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes embodied the themes of the Fair - namely, maintaining peace amongst nations, faith in progress, and an optimistic vision of the future as a super-technological world.  To that end, the shape is that of an elementary iron crystal enlarged 165 billion times.  What, you didn't recognise it?!

It's awesome though and I'd highly recommend a visit.  The views from the top on a clear day would be fantastic, although I didn't get to see them because it was such a foggy grey day.  Not all of the spheres are open - there's a permanent exhibition on the history of the Atomium on the first two floors, and then the viewing platform on the seventh floor.  Otherwise, temporary exhibitions are set out throughout the Atomium.  I didn't have much time here because of the late-running trains, but it was definitely the highlight of my trip and I'd 100% recommend it.

Brussels City Bikes

After I got back to the centre of town, I decided that I'd walk my walking tour rather than cycling it.  I had really wanted to check out Brussels' city bikes - check them out!  Aren't they the happiest bikes you've ever seen?!  Unfortunately though, it was so cold and wet that it didn't seem worth it for the short distances I'd be going, especially since I had to read my map and navigate myself through town as well.

Brussels is a funny place, because it's a sprawling city and the majority of it (as far as it seemed to me) is all new - loads of big (huge) buildings made of concrete and glass with no real consideration for aesthetics.  However, in the very middle is the old town and it's gorgeous!

My walking tour was designed to take in all of the main sights of Brussels in the teeny time that I had, which was only a couple of hours.  Luckily, the old centre of Brussels is TINY!  That made it loads easier.  I started off in the Grote Markt, which houses the Grand Palace and the City of Brussels Museum, as well as loads of very shops - including chocolate shops!  It's absolutely gorgeous in a chocolate-box, can't-quite-believe-its-real kinda way, although due to the terrible weather I wasn't able to take any pictures.

Mannekin Pis

From there, I headed just up the road to the Mannekin Pis.  I'd heard rumors that he was tiny ... he's not just tiny, he's totally a newborn!  He's only about 60cm high (which is small enough when its at ground level, but this guy is up quite high which makes him look even smaller).  Luckily though he has more personality than you would imagine possible from such a lil guy.  No-one really knows why he's there, to be honest, though there are loads of rumors and fables about him.  These include the suggestion that he's a representation of Duke Godfrey III of Leuven, who was apparently hung from a tree in a basket in order to encourage the troops who were battling over certain land.  According to the story, the Duke urinated on the opposing troops, causing them to lose the batter.  Duke G was only two at the time, which makes the story a little easier to understand, but there are loads of other tales and legends abotu the Manneqin Pis if you don't like that one - that it is of a different child who urinated on a fuse and thus foiled a plot to blow up the city with explosives in the 1300s, the one where it is of the missing child of a wealthy foreign dignitary who was eventually found weeing in a garden (the child, not the dignitary, no matter how stressed he was at the time), and yet another where it is said to be a child who was awoken by a fire and urinated on the flames to put them out.

Whatever you believe about the origins of the Manneqin Pis, he is definitely worth seeing because he's totally iconic as well as being pretty unique!

From the Manneqin Pis, I headed up to the Central Station to have a look.  This is such a beautiful building, full of marble and statues.  My favorite is the one that overhangs the entrance down to the subway, set out here.  As well as the lovely architecture, it's a bustling and happening place, full of atmosphere - I loved it!  It also has excellent loos - they're not only functional in the usual way, but they've also got a full train map on the doors so that while you wait, you can plan your journey!  Practical eh?!

Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula

From there, it was more of a wander around the newer parts of town, as like I said, the old town is TINY!  I passed the European Parliament building, which is strangely flat, but impressive looking, and then headed up past the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula which is GOR.GEOUS.  I was gutted I didn't have time to look inside, but the outside was lovely enough.  Strangely, even though it was completed in the 16th century, it was only given cathedral status in 1962!  That seems a bit harsh for such a lovely and impressive building, but there we are.

Cartoons

Having seen the cathedral, I worked my way through town, past the coolest ever cartoon on the side of a building - check this out!  Belgium is famous for its cartoons - the Smurfs and Asterix and Obilix in particular, but also TinTin, Spike and Suzy, Spirou et Fantasio and Lucky Luke, in amongst hundreds of others.  Therefore, as well as being a lovely bright spot of color in the grey weather, it was also something that seemed truly Belgian to me.

Right near to the cartoon wall is another unique facet of Brussels life - the outdoor lift!  Brussels is quite hilly, and there are two distinct parts to the town - the bottom part, which contains the old town, the European Parliament, the cartoon wall etc, and the upper part, which contains the Palais de Justice which is gorgeous, and the Avenue Louise, which is Brussels' oldest and most impressive shopping street.  In order to make getting from downtown to uptown a little easier, there is an outdoor lift which is completely free, and drops you right outside the Palais de Justice in uptown.  It was the perfect place for me to check out Avenue Louise, as that leads off the same square.

Hallepoort / Porte de Haal

Avenue Louise was lovely but, in all honestly, not so special.  It was just a street really ... but I'm glad I went as it's so famous.  From there, I realised that I only just had time to get back to the station to catch my Eurostar back, so I had to scuttle back as fast as I could.  On the way though I did pass this gorgeous building which turned out to be the Hallepoort or Porte de Hal (everything has two names in Belgium!).  It's absolutely gorgeous - it was built in 1381 as part of the second set of defensive walls that surrounded Brussels at the time.  Originally it had a portcullis and a drawbridge, the drawbridge being set across the moat which surrounded the city.  Now, however, it's just the building itself which survives and it's the only part of the defensive walls and gates to have survived.  It's been used for all kinds of things, from a prison to a customs house, a storage facility and a church, so it's certainly got a varied history!

From there, I really had run out of time so I got to the station as quickly as I could in order to stock up on chips and waffles before I got on the train back.  YUM!

I really liked Brussels and I felt that I did get to see almost everything that I'd wanted to see in a day.  Obviously I didn't get time to do any museums - which was just as well, as I was there on a Monday and they were all closed! - but that was absolutely fine as I just wanted to get a flavor of the city and how it felt to be part of it for a day.  I would definitely recommend it!