Monday June 6th. We arrived by Flixbus from Frankfurt to the North Station after 10 pm. That post can be found here: More of Germany. Moving North from Fussen to Munich and Frankfurt
I was a little nervous about walking to our hotel at that time of night but it was less than a km and it worked out fine. The Max Hotel turned out better than I expected. The area’s not the greatest but the room was clean, we had our own bathroom and the beds comfy.
Tuesday. We made the most of the one full day we had in Brussels by walking everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. I think we managed to see all the highlights including a lot of the funny statues. The most famous is Manneken pis. It’s a boy peeing. You can read more about it here as it’s actually an interesting story https://www.brussels.be/manneken-pis. Here is an excerpt from that page.

“Manneken-Pis was at first a fountain that played an essential role in the former distribution of drinking water since the 15th century. The system was well-known in all of Europe.

Towards the end of the 17th century, the statue became more and more important in the city life. It was also a survivor of the bombardment of Brussels in 1695. Manneken-Pis became a precious good and enjoys a ceaselessly growing glory.

During big events, we adorn him with luxurious clothes. We know that in the 18th century, Manneken-Pis was dressed at least 4 times a year. Since he lost his main function in the network of water conveyance of the City in the 19th century, Manneken-Pis gradually became an image and symbol of the Brussels folklore, the joy of the inhabitants and their capacity of self-mockery.”

Of course we had to find Jeanneke pis and Zinneke pis too 😉

The Grand place is a central square with lots of beautiful buildings and all the old city streets branch out from there. There’s a beautiful shopping street called The royal gallery of St Hubert. We had a waffle at Mokafe on that street but the wares in the stores were out of our league.

I’ve seen a LOT of churches on this trip so it takes a lot to impress me now but St Michael’s in Brussels is beautiful. The stained glass is amazing.

The Royal castle is a bit further out of town but worth a visit as it’s huge. There’s a really nice park to walk in as well.
We had lunch at Boenje’s cafe as we wanted something healthy and different. It really is good. Check it out!
Back in the old city it started really raining so we found a shopping mall just outside and …. bought nothing. Oh well, it’s just interesting to see what stores are available here.
For dinner we had to have one last order of Belgian fries. I got mine with tartar sauce. YUMMY

That’s it for the European journey. Wednesday morning we packed our backpacks for the last time and headed to the train to get to Brussels airport. The airplane pictures are approaching Dublin. I’m going to have to go there…..SOON.

This map sums up our route through 9 countries in 9 weeks. Twas a good trip and I can’t wait to go back and visit the places I missed. Happy travels!