Brussels

19 to 23 May 2025

Yes, Anthony did wear a jersey advertising United on an Air France Flight,

Sunday, 18 May 2025 - Julie and Anthony start or European adventure at Raleigh Durham :International Airport. Thanks to Kevin for dropping us off at the airport, and talking us down from being stressed out.

Monday, 19 May 2025 - After a surprisingly comfortable flight (we paid a little extra for seats in the bulkhead, with extra leg room) we landed at Charlie De Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. Julie and Anthony breezed through immigration, no questions asked. After shopping around, we settled on an e-Sim from Orange, which seems to be working great so far.

Julie waiting for our train at CDG station

Anthony built five hours into our schedule between the plane landing and when the train departed for Brussels. On top of that, there was an accident on the tracks and the train was delayed another hour and a half. This gave us plenty of time to get lunch and chill at the train station.

Magritte Painting on the side of a Hotel - this was the view from out hotel room window.

Sign for Hotel across the square from our window

(Lots of pictures of hotels other than the one we stayed at. Ours was pretty boring looking)

We had a 2 hour 15 minute train ride to Brussels Midi Station and a 10 minute subway ride to the Double Tree in North Brussels. We came out of the subway station about a block away from the entrance to our hotel. We found a restaurant really close to the hotel, Anthony got a pot of Belgian mussels.

20 May 2025 - Tuesday was Julie and Anthony’s day to check out Brussels. First stop was the Belgian Comics Art Museum. Belgians are very proud of their contributions to comics, including TinTin, Spike and Suzy, Blake and Mortimer and THE SMURFS. Belgians are crazy about graphic novels, more of the artsy than superhero variety.

In the Middle Ages, Monks developed many of the techniques used by modern day comic artists: dividing the story into panels, movement, foreground, narrative in panels and dialog in balloons..

The museum was a light hearted way to kick off our first full day in Europe. After the museum we walked down to the Brasserie Ommegang for lunch. On the way we pass the St. Michael & St. Gudula Cathedral

With Lunch, Anthony had a Mas (100cl) of Ommegang Trippel. My friend, Cyril, was dismayed that it was served in the wrong glass. We think that NOBODY buys a Liter of Ommegang Trippel, so they don’t have the appropriate glassware.

After Lunch, Julie and Anthony walked through Central Brussels on the way to the Grote Markt

Grote Markt (Grand Place, not to be confused by the Grand Palace)

Anthony had to get a picture for his buddy David at the Frietmuseum. Belgians are serious about their Frites (French Fries).

Nearby was a must see tourist attraction for Brussels, the Manneken Pis. It is announced by a neon sign with letters 3 feet high.

For scale, the soccer ball is about the size of a Ping-Pong ball.

Julie and Anthony with the Manniken Pis, an (in)famous tourist trap in Central Brussels

Obviously, the Belgians have a great sense of humor about tourist attractions. There were other MP related murals in the vicinity.

On the way back to the Hotel, we walked up the hill through the Museum district.

We cut through the Park of Brussels, on the way back to the Hotel.

Some things you aren’t supposed do in the Park.

Anthony was fascinated by the set of two tall hedgerows that encircled the park. At first he thought they were grape vines, but realized they were live trees, whose branches were trained to look like a tall vinyard.

Aboretum, across the street (and up the hill) from our hotel.

Modern looking Church, up the hill from the Arboretum

That evening Julie and Anthony walked down to St Cathrines’s church and had dinner at the Crush restaurant. The food was great, and Anthony had a yummy Dupont Saison beer with dinner.

On Wednesday Julie and Anthony took the train south to Waterloo. They visited the Wellington Museum, which contained lots of Wellington and Battle of Waterloo relate arrifacts.

The Waterloo Battle field was a 15 minute bus ride further South. We took the guided tour, lead by a young man in an authentic French uniform. We learned a lot about the events leading up to the Battle, and how the battle played out on that fateful day of 18 June 1815. We also learned the gruesome explanation of what happened to ALL of the bodies (people and horses) after the war.

After the war, there was a sugar shortage. In response to this, (we think) Napolean (if not him, somebody around that time) encouraged farmers to use sugar beets for sugar. The problem was that the sugar from the beets was brown and not as refined as white sugar. It was discovered that using animal bones to filter the beet sugar was the best filtration process, creating the white sugar everyone wanted. Coincidentally, bones from several battlefields of that time have totally disappeared and sugar factories had opened up close to the battlefields.

After the tour, we walked through the hugely underwhelming panorama of the battle in the large round building next to the hill. Next Julie and Anthony stopped for lunch at the restaurant next to the battle field. Julie had the Westmalle Dubble, while Anthony sprung for the Trippel.

As a memorial to the Battle, King William I of the Netherlands built a conical hill overlooking the battle ground. Julie was thrilled to climb the 226 steps to the Lion monument at the top.

Julie sharing her thoughts on getting her picture taken

The view from the top was impressive, you could imagine where the key events happened during the battle from here.

Julie, “Is this museum going to go on FOREVER!?”

On Thursday, our last full day in Brussels. Julie and Anthony went back to the museum district to visit the Magritte / Old Masters Galleries. Because there was so many amazing paintings to see, we broke the museum tour out into a separate entry.

To end the day, Julie and Anthony explored the ruins of the Coudenberg palace, which lies under the current museum district. They were uncovered in the 1980s and refurbished to preserve the history. We found this to be one of the coolest things we saw in Brussels.

Friday, 23 May 2025 - Anthony took the subway to the Midi-Train Station to pick up the car. Picking up (and dropping off) a car at a train station in Europe has its benefits and draw backs. On this day the benefit was the Train station is a short tube ride from the Hotel.

The Atomium was a 102m high structure built for the 1958 Worlds fair. It is one of the tallest structures in Belgium. Its nine 18-metre-diameter stainless steel clad spheres are connected in the shape of a unit cell that could represent an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Steel tubes connecting the spheres enclose stairs, escalators and a lift (in the central, vertical tube) to allow access to the six visitable spheres, which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere includes a restaurant with a panoramic view of Brussels.

J and A had lunch at the restaurant at the top of the Atomium. The views from the top were impressive, the food was good, the service was not.

Mini Basilique du Sacre-Coer de Montmartre, Paris

There were escalators and stairs leading in to 6 of the atoms. Three contained information about the Atomium while another three had psychedelic light shows.

Groovy light show inside the spheres

Next stop Brugge.

19 to 23 May 2025

Magritte / Old Masters Museum