Brussels with David and Di

Friday morning we said goodbye to Asterix House and Bruges, and caught a train to Brussels. We wandered down the main shopping strip to Grand Plas, which the Lonely Planet rates as one of the most beautiful and impressive streetscapes in the world and we have to agree. Surrounding you are the guildhalls of 15^th-17^th century Belgium, complete with carvings, statues and gilding.

David, Dianne and Sarah in the main square

A close-up of one of the guildhalls

Just down the street from the Grand Plas is the most famous fountain in Belgium, the Manekkin Pis – follow the trickle of tourists going one way to the pool of (sometimes confused) people looking up at the life-size boy statue. Don’t be disappointed though – the artist was obviously convinced that size doesn’t matter…

No caption required here - this is the Mannekin Pis

At this point David and I split off to visit the Parc du Cinquantaire, where King Leopold spent the treasures he won from his conquests in Africa to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of independence for Belgium. The park also features the three arches of the Arcade du Cinquantaire (like the Arc de Triumphe x 3), as well as four giant exhibition halls holding artworks, historical artefacts, weapons of war and classic cars.

David in Parc du Cinquantenaire

Predictably, we made a beeline for the cars, and were greeted with a cornucopia of motoring history. It was fascinating to trace the evolution of cars, and see the steady progression through to the 1950s (from where cars of today do not differ so greatly), as well as the dead-end branches which seem to be attempted again and again (the concept of the Smart car, for example, is nothing new…)

Although they look like matchbox cars they are actually all originals

A very early version of the Smart car - though this one perhaps lacks some of the 'cool' factor of the newer ones

The Detroit Electric - a fully electric-powered vehicle from 1916

We met up again for dinner at a cute little restaurant opposite the Bourse (stock exchange) before heading to a nearby café to watch Angleterre get trounced 34-0 by Afrique du Suid. Interestingly, the only other people in the café were what looked like 15 year old French kids, smoking and kicking back with a few beers. Next door was an Irish pub packed with drunk Anglophones – quite a contrast!

Something is wrong with this picture...oh, thats right, Australian Icecream isn't that special...

The following morning we said goodbye to Mum and Dad (who were off to Italy) and to Belgium, and headed to the station to catch our 10:05 train. Unfortunately, 10:05 was the time the train was supposed to arrive in Paris, not the time it departed from Brussels! We rushed to the ticket office, who were able to sell us an upgrade on 1^st class on the next train (there were no more 2^nd class tickets until 2:30 that afternoon) and even this we caught with only seconds to spare. I’d managed to make the weekend start a lot more stressfully that we would have preferred.