Brussels

My overnight bus ride to Brussels was not any better than Basel; I only managed to sleep for 2-3 hours again. But just like in Basel I dropped my stuff off at the hostel, got a coffee, and started walking around. The city center was absolutely stunning. When I walked into it, it took my breath away. The buildings are gorgeous: they all have magnificent carvings and gold leaf and they're huge! My pictures of the buildings didn't turn out very good. The sun was still rising so I don't think the lighting was good for pictures, but trust me when I say it was stunning!

Then I went to St Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral. That was gorgeous as well. Construction was started in the 13th century and lasted for 300 years! You could also go under the church and see the remains from the previous church on that site from the 10th-13th centuries. 

The beautiful confessional

They had a lot of really pretty priest's robes on display

Next up was the Royal Palace. It's only open for tourists in the summer so I couldn't go in, but the outside was really pretty. In the front of the palace there's a big park that I walked through which was nice. 

Front of the palace

Back of the palace

Then it was off to the Judicial Building. I had a map of Brussels that had little drawings of some of the big, important buildings and it looked neat so I decided to walk there. It was under construction so you couldn't see much of it but from what I could see, it looked cool. 

Judicial Building under construction

WWI and WWII memorial by the Judicial Building

Then I went to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart which was on the outside of the city. It was so big and a gorgeous building. You're supposed to be able to go to the top and have a panoramic view of the city which I wanted to do. But I got there at the beginning of the hour and half (!) lunch break for the visitors center. The self service machine to pay to open the door to the top wouldn't accept my credit cards and didn't accept cash. So that was disappointing that I couldn't go up.

The Basilica

Then I went to the Atomium. Here's the description of it from the website since it describes it better than I could:

The Atomium was the main pavilion and icon of the World Fair of Brussels (1958), commonly called Expo 58. It symbolised the democratic will to maintain peace among all the nations, faith in progress, both technical and scientific and, finally, an optimistic vision of the future of a modern, new, super-technological world for a better life for mankind. 

The peaceful use of atomic energy for scientific purposes embodied these themes particularly   well and, so, that is what determined the shape of the edifice.  At 102 metres high, with its nine interconnected spheres, it represents an elementary iron crystal enlarged 165 billion (thousand million) times. It was dreamed up by the engineer André Waterkeyn (1917-2005). The spheres, though, were fitted out by the architects André and Jean Polak. 

It's such an unusual building and so cool looking! I went in it to see the exhibits and see the city skyline. It's at the very top of the city so you can't see the main part of the city very well. I walked around the nearby park which was very peaceful. 

The Atomium

View from the top

The second day in Brussels was much slower. I went to see Manneken Pis, the fountain of the little boy peeing. The boy was only about 2 feet high (I thought it would be bigger) and it's just on the corner of a street. It's not that impressive so it's funny that it's become such a symbol of the city. But I don't think you can leave Brussels without seeing it! Some history about the statue can be found here.

In front of Mannekin Pis

Outside of a waffle shop by Mannekin Pis

I went to Belvue which is a museum right next to the Royal Palace. It's a museum of Belgian history and also had a lot of exhibits about the history of the royal family. I also walked around the ruins of Coudenberg which are under the museum and surrounding buildings. Coudenberg was the former royal palace built in the 12th century and destroyed in the 18th century. The ruins were so big and there was a lot of rooms to walk through! Although, all that's left is some of the walls and support structures it was still neat to walk around down there. 

I also got a delicious waffle topped with Nutella and Strawberries. It was so sweet and big that I couldn't eat the whole thing. 

My delicious waffle!!

Then I went to the Jewish history museum of Belgian which was interesting. Their exhibit on the Holocaust was of course very sad. 25,000 Jews were deported from Belgium (mainly to Auschwitz) and only 1,200 of them survived. About 40,000 Jews weren't deported at all either because they went into hiding or they weren't called up for deportation. Even though I've read so many memoirs and listened to survivors speak, it never gets easier hearing the stories. They had a short documentary showing at the museum and one thing a survivor said really choked me up and has stuck with me. His wife and young children were all murdered at Auschwitz and in the documentary he said, while standing next to the train tracks they were deported on, "Every day I calculate how old my children would if they were alive. And I think about the children they would have and the family I could have had." Sorry to include that in the post and make it sad but I think it's important to keep talking about the stories and what happened, especially since soon there won't be any survivors left to speak about what they went through. 

Early that evening I took the train to Antwerp and I'll put up a post tomorrow about my day there!