Brussels for the Morning

On our way home from Ghent, we stopped over in Brussels with our friends to do some sight seeing. How did we feel about Brussels? I give you our reaction in picture form:

Was ist das?

Our first mission was to see the Mannekin Pis, or the more eloquently put "peeing boy" statue. As we walked through streets lined with gift shops, we saw numerous recreations of this display. Large duplicates outside of shops, small pictures on magnets, and souvenirs of all kinds to take home. As it turns out, the gift shop recreations would have been better. We rounded a corner, excited to see this famous sight, and were immediately confused. The four of us intensely examined the map, thinking we surely went in the wrong direction or it must be just around another corner somewhere. No, this was it! If you're ever in that area of Brussels, visit the statue, take a sarcastic picture, and move on.

Indeed, we did move on and walked through the overwhelmingly scenic landscape of the city to get to the European Parliament location in Brussels. We walked through a square completely surrounding by historical buildings with grand architecture and a long, tree lined park where the leaves were just beginning to turn to their fall colors.

The Parliament building was just about to open, so we fought our way though a huge crowd of students and got to security just before they did. Audio guides were provided, I initially had a great deal of difficulty scanning each exhibit to hear the narrator, but I eventually succeeded in figuring it out! The stories of the evolution of Europe, the surrounding countries, and their policies was interesting. However, I felt the pictures in each display area were the most powerful. By far the best part of the tour was an interactive area set up in a large open space. A map of Europe was painted on the floor, each country was represented, and at least one city in each country was linked to a story about an influential policy, act, or piece of research performed there. To hear the stories, you didn't point and click/scan your audio guide over it, you selected a large podium looking device that was placed on wheels with a tv screen for you to watch the section over the top of the city of your choice. The real reason I enjoyed this display so much was because of my overwhelming desire to grab onto a podium and just go sprinting across the room with it, taking out whomever and whatever was in my way. I imagine this must be similar to the feeling all great politicians get as they stand behind any podium. Probably not, though. 

Overall, I am so incredibly glad we stayed in Ghent for that weekend as it was so much more historically magical. Brussels was fun, we had a great lunch before we left, but if I ever return it would simply be to fulfill my dream of organizing a great race of podiums on wheels.