Holland & Belgium Viking River Cruise
Day 3: Sunday, October 27, 2024 - Brussels, Belgium
The day's statistics:
- Weather: upper 50s
- Steps: 16,874 Linda; 18,306 Steve
- Miles traveled (approximately): 24
Gooooooood morning Brussels!
After waking, and getting ready for the day, we headed to breakfast.
While the breakfast buffet was pretty good, it wasn't €39-each good. It was included each morning with our stay,
and we only know how much it cost because yesterday we arrived so early, breakfast was still being served and the clerk
told us it would be that much as we hadn't spent the night. Yet.
This meal was our first since 3:00 yesterday.
This morning we had an excursion called Brussels Walking Tour - though we began the journey on a bus.
We boarded in front of our hotel. As we began, there was this particular window display with slices of wood.
On this bus ride, we learned some history and facts about Brussels and Belgium.
- Belgium is about the size of Maryland and has a population of about 11.5 million people
- Brussels has a population of about 1.2 million people
- Brussels is built atop seven hills
- The healthcare system is very good with almost no out-of-pocket expenses for residents
- Attending a univerity, for anyone of any age, only costs €1,000 per year.
- The income tax rate is very high at 45-50%, and there are no mega-weathly in the country (not due to the tax rate)
- There is an excellent support system for the needy and anyone that is homeless is so by choice - either they don't
want the help, or they are working for a gang
It turns out we pretty much headed right back to the church area.
This government building has had scaffolding around it for quite some time, we were told.
We also passed the park, the previously mentioned church, as well as the palace (including some close-ups),
a shipping container sculpture, and some architectural highlights.
The highway median had a couple scultpures on it, including a highheel shoe one honoring the "red light district"
prevelant in the area and considered a part of the history and culture (and currently legal).
I originally thought this was an interesting collection of four similar looking buildings - like the old communist buildings
we saw Poland last year. However, it turned out that they were all part of / connect as one large building.
We were told that there was supposedly a brothel in the basement of this church. We were told a humorous story about it,
but after a month, we don't recall the exact anectdote.
We approached then finally passed this church.
As we got closer to our first destination, we passed a tiny one-pump gas station that was located in a cut-out on the
bottom floor of an apartment building - but it passed too quickly to capture it.
The bus eventually arrived at the site called Atomium.
This was a structure built for the 1958 World's Fair. It is shaped like an iron element, however, it is considerably
larger than an iron element. The highest sphere is a restaurant, large enough to hold dozens of patrons.
This was also the site of our first selfie.
Behind the camera in the selfie above was this fountain.
The structure was truly larger than it may appear in the pictures.
We proceeded on to our next stop and collected some more sites along the way, including a palace and greenhouse.
Each year at the greenhouse, it is opened for tourists and hosts the largest collection of camellias in greenhouses
in the world with 296 different varieties
We spotted a rare "test-vehicle" in the wild.
This "flying saucer" shaped building was actually a Starbucks®.
The bus finally stopped, near the national cathedral, and let us off for a bit of walking. We headed toward Grand Square.
Our walk eventually led us to an indoor mall passage way.
Down the middle of the mall were a collection of sculptures.
In the mall, we came across a number of chocolate shops.
The bonbon was invented in Belgium. By a pharmacist named Neuhaus. The story is that people didn't like to take the medicne.
So he covered the medicine in chocolate - and people really like it. He realized that if people liked medicine covered in
chocolate, what else might they like. And thus was born the bonbon.
As the oldest confectioner in the country, it can probably justify its price a little... at €99 for this 1.8 pound -
800 grams - 62 piece box of chocolates runs $55 per pound.
Today, the Belgian chocolate - though called a bonbon looks a lot like a round truffle ball - on the outside of the treat
is controlled by law. Confectioners are free to put whatever they want IN the bonbon - the filling - and that is where the
variety comes from.
We continued through the mall and out the other side, continuing on to the Grand Square.
Down the road a piece was another indoor strip mall sort of place. At the very beginning was a waffle store - you know,
selling Beligian waffles. Some are presented such as this while other are lighter, fluffer waffles with powdered sugar.
We finally arrived at the Grand Square, including City Hall (the one with the tower).
The below contains three slices from three images above from around the Grand Square. The story is that the king's daughter
got pregnant. He approached the knight and asked if he was the father. He said "no, it was him" and pointed to the merchant.
The king approached the merchant and asked if he was the father. He said "no, it was him" and pointed to the Bishop. It
supposedly WAS the Bishop, and he hangs his head in shame.
After seeing the architecture in the square, and some history, we crossed the square, and proceeded
down an alley on the other side. It was lined with restaraunts and stores.
We came across a marker for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Most of the other markers we saw were a scallop
shell, but this one was a little different.
Down the street a little we passed a La Friterie, a frites - aka fries - shop. There was a line out the door. This
is when we learned that French Fries were invented in Brussels. Well, they weren't "French" fries as much as they
twice fried potatoes that were eaten by the French who liked them. Or something similar to that.
Also, the Smurfs® are a Belgian invention too.
On the corner of two streets was this stat3e of a little boy peeing. The story is that a young boy used to pee on
the side of this building. He was eventually caught and a statue was made to try to shame him for doing that.
After hearing about the peeing boy we were given some free time.
We decided to have a light snack, so we headed to a café for a Belgian waffle, and stopped at one on a corner.
We ordered the waffle and two coffees Americano at a kiosk, and took a pager like device to a table. When the device
buzzed and flashed, our order was ready. It really was a light pastry sort of snack, rather than a heavier cake-like
item. And one does NOT put maple syrup on a Belgian waffle.
As we ate our snack, we happened to talk to a couple at the table next to ours. They were also travelers from America
that were on a separate non-Viking cruise. We relaxed a bit, enjoyed our snack, and then headed back to the square and
our meeting point.
On the way, we saw a couple more sights, as well as
We returned to the bus and made our way back to the hotel.
After returning to the hotel, we set out on our next adventure.
We decided to go to the Royal Fine Arts Museum.
Near the driveway entrance to the hotel was a toy store that we stopped in for a quick visit.
We started out heading in the direction of the church we visited yesterday, but we made a stop along the way.
I got up the gumption to take a ride in the ferris wheel...
OK, admittedly, after the fact, it wasn't that bad of a fifteen minute ride.
We took a number of pictures of the city, and could actually see Atomium from up there too. These are mostly zooms
of various structures rather than just a bunch of big landscapes.
Of course we grabbed a selfie too.
After getting off the wheel, we found a World Wars memorial next to it. The crown in the last photo in the group above
is part of this too.
We walked the same route the rest of the way to the church and went inside to retake the pictures from
yesterday using the camera (not that the phone doesn't do a decent job).
We left the church and continued on as the RFAM was essentailly next door.
We eventually arrived at the museum.
Just after crossing the road back to the RFAM, a Porsche 911 4S passed by.
We decided to visit the [Rene] Magritte Museum. Due to time, we realistically couldn't do two museums as a combo ticket.
Magritte made his money in advertising and posters.
We admired his work and read about his life. Some of it was interesting...
In one round of Celebrity Jeopardy!®, Neil deGrasse Tyson got this question as a Daily Double®:
"Its French text says it's 'not' this but Popeye & Frosty would disagree; a 1929 René Magritte painting literraly
depicts this object."
The French text on the painting below reads "This is Just a Pipe".
Had I finished this chronical in time, and Mr. Tyson read it, he would have gotten the answer of "pipe" correct.
This last piece was above a staircase.
Our visted lasted more than an hour as there were four floors and additional works by other artists too.
We exited the museum at the far end from where we started, and were near the statue in a picture above.
After the visit to the museum, it was time to return to the hotel.
We, of course, had to take the same route back.
Behind the church, though, was a market.
And behind the market were a number of restaurants.
We had previously looked up a couple places to eat, and used the Google machine to try to find one.
It was a little early, but it was after daylight savings and it was closer to winter than summer - so it was
getting dark earlier.
The first stop only had light fare available, and we wanted a meal. So we left and looked for somewhere else.
Essentially two doors down was a pensieri - pretty much a pizzaria, but the dough is pre-cooked and then baked again
with various toppings on it.
We sat, and reviewed the menus.
We ordered two glasses of wine, some calamari, and a bufalona pensieri. The calamari was served at the same time as the
pensieri. Linda had the idea to eat it first because calamari gets rubbery if it cools too much and the "pizza" would hold
up better if it sat for a bit.
Our meal was complete and we finished our walk back to the hotel, passing by the ferris wheel which had a contunuously
changing round display in the middle of the wheel.
We saw this weird sculpture in the distance.
We were back in our room by about 6:30.
We got a head start on our luggage, relaxed a bit, and went to sleep.