Europe 2019 - Day 11

17 May 2019, Friday

In the morning I had Sri Lankan coffee courtesy of our lovely host, and we then washed our clothes although today was not a very sunny day. We left it out to dry and then we made our way to town.

First we went to the City Town Hall which is also known as the Gothic Town Hall. It is a magnificent building built in the 15th century, and which also had a tourist information centre inside. The personnel there was quite rude and I did not appreciate that as it was completely unwarranted. We obtained a map for 1 Euro (!!!) and asked the personnel to mark for us the places we wanted to go and see.

Next was the Grand Place, which was just around the City Town Hall. It is the central square in Brussels and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was a market place for merchants to trade their wares in the 14th century. It is probably the most memorable sight in Brussels. 

Then we walked to the Manneken Pis, a bronze fountain of a peeing boy and Jeanneke Pis, a statue of a peeing girl. The Manneken Pis is dressed in costumes several times a week. When we saw him he was in a sort of sports jersey with a cap. Whereas Jeanneke Pis was naked and in a cage. Around here I bought some souvenirs and ate a hot chocolate waffle as it was a very cold day - 12 degrees Celsius! I think it was because the sun wasn’t out today. In Paris it was nice and sunny so that we didn’t really feel all that cold. But here because of the gloomy weather it became extra cold and of course, triggered my sinus. 

Next we went to the St Michael & St Gudula Cathedral, a Roman Catholic Church which is dedicated to the cities’ patron saints. The original church was completed in the 16th century. As usual it was big and beautiful. Then we made our way to the Royal Palace, the official residence of the King and Queen of Belgium.

Thereafter, we went to see Atomium which is a steel structure and a remnant of the 1958 World’s Fair. It is 102 metres tall and is a representation of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Lastly, we saw the Memorial of King Leopold I and the Castle of Laeken which was not open to the public because this is where the King and Queen of Belgium actually reside. So we could only take pictures from outside.

On the way home we stopped at a supermarket to get some groceries for tomorrow’s trip, and some beers - Leffe Blond. Our host cooked dinner for us which was white rice together with a tuna and leek dish which was nice. We had the beers we bought and then to sleep. My sinus was pretty bad so I had to take a piriton. The shower in the house is weird - it’s either too hot or too cold, never just right so that I’m always frozen and then burnt when I shower.

But I’m not complaining. At least I have a roof over my head.