Brussels, Day 2

The easiest way to see any new place is to take the conducted tour or, in our case, the hop on and hop off bus trip.  This was basically divided into two parts, the old city and the modern city.  First, a word about the modern city.The European Parliament has three places of work: Brussels (Belgium), Luxembourg and Strasbourg (France). Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices (the ‘General Secretariat’). Meetings of the whole Parliament, known as ‘plenary sessions’, take place in Strasbourg and sometimes in Brussels. Committee meetings are also held in Brussels. In addition to being one of the centres for the European Parliament, Belgium has a weird and wonderful system of government which divides it into three separate regions.  Then there are three other groupings based on language lines.  In addition to its own Parliament, there is a Royal Family.  All too complicated, but it seems to work.

The newer part of the city seems to be characterised by government buildings.  Many of which are quite interesting architecturally.  As well there are some government offices in much older buildings.  The single most outstanding structure, however, is the Atomium which is based on an iron crystal cell magnified 165 billion times.

But it is the old city that has the greatest charm.  Brussels' Main Square is breathtakingly beautiful.  Largely rebuilt in 1700 it has no fewer than 40 listed buildings standing either side of the majestic Hotel de Ville and the Maison du Roi.  Brussels Grand-Place has recently been voted the most beautiful square in Europe. This comes as no surprise.  We've never seen so much wonderful architecture in such a small space. The  Hotel de Ville, a magnificent structure, stands 96 metres (315 ft) tall and is capped by a 3 metre (12 ft) statue of Saint Michael slaying a demon.

Maison du Roi

Hotel de Ville

Old Guildhalls

We knew that Brussels was known for its beer and its chocolates.  There are approximately 125 breweries in the country producing about 800 standard beers. When special one-off beers are included, the total number of Belgian beers is approximately 8,700.

Belgian chocolate is considered to be the gourmet standard by which all other chocolate confections are measured.. What makes Belgian chocolate unique is the quality of ingredients and an almost fanatical adherence to Old World manufacturing techniques. Even in today's world of automation and mass production, most Belgian chocolate is still made by hand in small shops using original equipment. I have set as my goal to sample every type of chocolate found here and expect to have completed the task sometime around the year 2110  or die trying.  What a way to go.  All around the square and all through the city there are magnificent chocolates.

Where to begin?

Like many if not all the countries of Europe, Belgium is multi-lingual.  Go into any shop or restaurant and you will find that salespeople and waiters will speak French, English and Flemish as a matter of course.  Many also speak German, Italian and Spanish.  It is a great and wonderful gift to be multi-lingual and when you live in a region in which many different languages are spoken, it is natural to be conversant with more than your own tongue.  This is something truly missing in Australia and the United States where the great majority of people know and speak only their own language.

Of course, lunch on the square, in the open air, comes at a price.  But why wouldn't one enjoy the moment in such beautiful spring sunshine.  After all we may never be here again.  Carpe Diem.