I'll Meet You in Brussels

We met my husband's parents in Brussels for a weekend of sightseeing.   Brussels has a few things that, of course, it is very well known for.  Chocolate:

Heaven!!!

 Beer:  

Giant beer!  Ironic that it's Guinness

And handlebar mustaches.

There's even a society for men with them!

A view over the town gives a great view of the Basilica.

Walking through one of the many parks in Brussels.

The church of Notre Dame du Sablon (yet another Notre Dame we have visited!  That brings the count up to 15 or so.) 

Inside had a nice collection of stained glass windows.

I especially liked this one: a very well-done rendition of Mary.

It also had some stunning artwork.

Jake and Sissy in front of the Royal Palace in Brussels.

We then made our way through another garden.

Looking back, we could see the Palais de Justice through the trees.

Lots of crosswalks!  The Beatles would be happy here.

Some of the interesting façades, which were used before homes had numbers to tell homes apart.

Modern art?  I actually have no idea what this was supposed to be, but people donned hard hats and climbed to the top.

It's all in the interpretation...

One other thing Brussels is apparently known for: flat cows.

Moo?

The Cathedral of St. Michel et Gudule.

Inside the statues were very neat - each held something in  gilt gold.    

In front of the church.

In my opinion, the highlight was the central town square.  The buildings were each gilt in gold.  When we got there, the sun was going down, and was making all the buildings sparkle.  Sorry, photos don't do it justice.

Check it out.  All the buildings in this square were amazing.

 

Some even had sculptures on the façades.

Signs of the Scottish invasion of Brussels.

One of the weirder things in Brussels is the statue it's known for.  The Manneken-Pis is a statue of a little boy who, well, the picture says it all.

Why, you ask?  It was originally built in the 1600s.  There are many legends.  One is that a father was looking for his son who went off missing.  The father was so distraught he promised that if he ever found his son, he would build a statue of his boy doing whatever he was doing when the father found him.  Well, the father found the son, and, well, I am sure you can guess the rest.  

It's such a crowd drawer that you can see replicas in other places, for example, selling waffles.

Yes.  This makes me want to get a waffle now.

Buildings built on the side of a church.

Another attraction of Brussels: the Atomium.  It's a building shaped like an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times.  (I guess Brussels like it's random sculptures...) 

And yes, you can go to the top.  If you ever wondered what being at the quantum level feels like:

It was built for the World's Fair in 1958.   Now, it's another symbol of the city, and obviously, they can't take it down now.  So what to do with it?  Put a museum inside, and charge tourists 15 euros to go to the top.

Inside, the museum was dedicated to immigrants.  Being an immigrant of sorts myself, I could identity.  For example, this flow chart shows how to get a green card.  Ok, I don't need a green card, but I've felt the same way trying to get my residency permit.

A larger version is available here.

Our final vision of Brussels lets us know what will happen when giants finally take over Paris.