Iconic Brussels

What comes to mind when you think of Brussels? If you said any of the following you would be right:

• The Grand Place
• Home of the European Union
• Mannequin Pis
• Specialized foods including Chocolate, Waffles, Mussels, and Beer.

We experienced them all and more! Here are our highlights.

The Grand Place

We have seen a lot of squares in Europe but this is the grandest of them all! It is about the length of a football field and about half again as wide but size is just part of it. Many of the buildings ringing the Grand Place date to the 1600s and were originally guild halls for various trades. These guilds used ornamentation to identify their purpose and to compete with each other for status. The result is spectacular!

This square is the heart and soul of Brussels. While we were here, it was the home of an event called Taptoe, a celebration of music that included a marching band concert on Saturday night.

European Parliament

Brussels is home to European Parliament, the ruling body of the European Union. We spent an afternoon touring the complex and learning more about this complicated and vital organization and the people it governs. A few fun facts:

• There are currently 28 member countries speaking 24 different languages.
• The population of the European Union is about 500 million.
• During plenary sessions, each member speaks to the group in their own language and each member hears the debates in their home language. This requires an army of translators to manage 522 combinations of languages spoken and languages heard in real time!
• The chamber organizes members, not by country, but by political idealogy. There are eight identified groups that include members from over 160 political parties.
• Like the U.S. House of Representatives, countries’ representation is based on population. Germany has the most members, followed by France and (for now) Great Britain.

Because we come to Europe so often, we felt it was well worth our while to better understand how the EU works.

Mannequin Pis

The Netherlands have their boy with his finger in the dyke and Brussels has a little boy peeing. This little bronze statue stands in a niche on one of the side streets coming off of the Grand Place. He has been the mascot of Brussels for centuries. One visiting dignitary brought him an outfit as a gift and that tradition is still going strong. Mannequin Pis has collected so many outfits that there is a museum where you can see them (not all are on display at any given time). During the day, he is clothed but by nightfall, he is standing naked, peeing into his fountain.

More Than Mussels in Brussels

You can’t go more than a few steps around the Grand Place or on any of the nearby streets without finding the iconic foods of Brussels.

Mussels

I’m not sure why these are all the rage in Brussels but they are on just about every menu in town. They always come in a black kettle-like bucket accompanied by frites (french fries). You can get them plain or cooked in wine, cream and garlic (kind of like clam chowder) or several other ways. And, always pair them with a fine Belgian beer. We are not usually mussels lovers but … when in Brussels, eat mussels!

Speaking of Beer …

Belgium is famous for its beer. We heard of a place called Delirium that allegedly had 2000 types of beer always available but we never went there. Instead, we just focused on the few that we learned to like. These included Grimbergen Dubel, Leffe Brun, and Affligem Brun. There are a lot of fruity beers but we are not fans of those though I did try the Leffe Red. Dave was most disappointed to read on a bottle of Leffe Blond that it had been brewed and bottled in Seattle.

Belgian Chocolate

They do make wonderful chocolate here. Every other shop seems to be a chocolatier so there are many to choose from. We sometimes just went shop to shop for samples as a little dessert after dinner. Godiva, though owned by a Turkish company now, still holds to its Belgian roots and has a shop on the Grand Place. Leonidas mass produces its chocolates and has shops all over town but the chocolate is very good. Others have master confectionaires creating unique chocolates. If you like chocolate, you can have your pick and your fill in Brussels!

Belgian Waffles

The other item you see a lot of is waffles. If every other shop has chocolate, the in between ones have waffles. Some places are serving them hot off the griddle. Others just throw already prepared ones on the griddle for a warm-up. Others just serve them cold or in pieces in a cone. However you get them, there are a variety of toppings from fruit to chocolate, ice cream to whipped cream. Yum!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little trip through some of the things Brussels is famous for. Brussels is also a city of neighborhoods and we experienced several. For more on that go to http://europeyourway.net/brussels-neighborhoods.