Brussels

 A few days after we left Belgium, but here is my Brussels blog.

As we left Brugge, I was able to get some pictures out the window of the train

At first we were just seeing the edges of the town

Then we headed into the country

Fields just getting harvested

And green pastures yet

It is probably a good thing I do not understand French as our cab driver from the train station to our hotel was using what I think was some pretty colorful language at the bikers and the street work going on

After we arrive at our Brussels hotel and got settled in, we walked from our hotel down to the city center

We had a beautiful cold day

Some of the city still has many of the older buildings still

We saw a few painted walls

Lots of traffic, especially the parts out of the old city center where there are more pedestrian walkways..

Statuary is seen often

And center of squares have bronzes galore 

These are some of the museums on an upper square right before you go down to the old city central area and city hall square

There is a lovely garden walkway between all of these cultural building

When Dale first saw this, he commented that the tin man from OZ had visited

Brussels winter fair was marked as one huge market and activities, but there were several sections that were blocks apart. This was one of their interactive exhibitions. A adult gliding swing

One of the logos for the fair

This square is very near the old center of town

This is the first “booth” we saw that belonged to the winter festival. You will hear more about it later. These picture are in the order they were taken. This is still that first afternoon we arrived

On the way to the town center, we sidetracked into this mall

Treats were everywhere 

Each store did it’s own decorating

Windows were fun

Each chocolate store trying to do something a bit different from their neighbors 

Which was interesting as there were so many chocolate shops

Each trying to lure you in

With their displays, but no one offered samples😏

All of these shops are still in that same hallway style mall

It was just over a couple of normal blocks long

And I think 1/2 to 1/3 of the shops were chocolate shops

Even Godiva chocolates had a storefront there. 

We are now back on the street leading to the old town center. These shops in Belgium selling chocolate are awesome.

And shops selling chocolate keep appearing. This one also offer waffles 

More Chocolate shops

Finally made it to the main square, which was only really about six blocks from the first “booth”

This is a very impressive square towered over by these original buildings

The Christmas tree in the square

This is their full size nativity scene build upon the square area

Another look at some of the gilded building of the square

The Christmas tree in the square was decorated with bulbs representing the 11 indigenous tribes of Quebec that were the guest of honor for this years winter festival

Another look at the nativity scene in front of the building

So we went off to try and find the rest of the festival. It seems we went the wrong way

And found some unique chocolate sculptures for sale 

And some interesting covered alleyways 

We were tempted by the crepes and waffle display, but a bit turned off by the shops that had them on ledges and counters right by the street. Why you ask? I think it was watching the pigeons walk over them and eat off them. I was not interested in sharing something the pigeons had sampled first

This is the famous statue of the little boy peeing 

They had dolled him and his fountain all up and even dressed him, though he was still peeing into the basin below. This statue and fountain was created in 1388. The chocolate models of it I showed above is what the little boy looks like when not dressed up for Christmas 

This store reminds me of my boys, especially Shawn and Erik, who painted a lot of warhammer model once upon a time

We finally wound our way back to a piece of the fair

This part had mostly products

It wrapped around three sides of this museum, of course the streets were close to auto traffic for the duration of the fair 

Loved this building facade near the end corner of this market

We walked totally around the museum to see where all the booth were

And started back down. One of the coolest things I think this fair did was have special jurying and then signs for those booths that qualified as unique handcrafted items

This booth was awesome. We bought some of his stuff. Those are hand carved flowers. He carved them all himself from blocks of soap. You could use them, but they are really decoration and air fresheners. He had perfumes from his area of France that you could mix with water and mist the soap with.

This is the museum the booths were set up around, it was original Bourse Palace

We walked down another couple of blocks, but these booths were primarily all food or drink booths

Now we’re were off to find the next section of the fair. We had not seen any of the rides yet

At the next one, they had the indigenous tribes area

When we were there they were singing some of their songs and playing instruments 

Also they were building a canoe

Banner for the tribes. Most of the other booths were food again in this area

We were again off looking for the next set of activities and booths

We found this awesome steampunk carousel 

So impressed you get two views of it. The booths here were mostly drinks around this set with a couple of food stalls

We walked a few more block and saw another area

This one had a lot more booths. It was the largest yet, about 2 to 3 times bigger than the area around the museum 

It was a long area with two walking paths that had booths on both sides of the red carpets

There were two statues in glass

Both looked sort of tortured to me

Lots of food here too, but also some of the juried crafts among mass market stuff.

The Ferris wheel is at the end of this section of the fair and the underground had a stop in the middle of this area

I think each booth did their own decorations 

The red carpet only went a little ways down each aisle, then it went back to the cobblestone 

Another of the crafters. The left gentleman was selling  teas that he had collected, dried, and package himself. The one on the right, was a beekeeper with his honey. I got one bag of the teas, but I have so much honey at home, plus I already bought a small jar, from a shop that sold their own honey in Greece

They had these nooks up and down the outside aisles. Most had tables to eat at in them. This one was just empty

Down near the Ferris wheel was this huge candy booth

It was very decorated 

They had this igloo also, drinks were served inside

The carpets started up again near this end of this part of the fair

I will admit this is unique, but not quite what I was looking for. This is not how I picture my reindeer

Finally arrive at the ferris wheel

The tree at this end of the booths

Another look at the candy shop

Not really a crafter since most were made in china, but very in the spirit

Final shot of the candy shop

This is the ice monster. Not sure what it was, but you needed tickets so I did not investigate it

Another festive area

We found another area when we were walking around from the large area we just left. Dale had gotten cold so he headed back as I continued on from here by myself to try and find the rest of the spots

After Dale left I continued to wander. 

This spot only had a couple of places mainly food

One of their promo posters

Back at the largest area

Just showing some of the booths and the variety of goods

More looks at the booths I encountered as I walked a few other areas

Food 

And drinks were everywhere

This booth sold candle and potpourri 

Air plants and macrame 

This is at one of the last spots I found that first night. It is a VR experience

The sun was just setting as I started to wind my way back towards the area with the ice skating rink

This is one of the rides near the rink

Sign designating this part of the fair

These are the booths leading to the rink. All food and drink 

The ice skating area

Each one of the skating areas we have seem has been so differently set up

Again the sun going down as I was leaving the skating rink area

Though the sun was setting, I could not really capture any of the lights down this way

As I went back toward the old city center some of the decorations became more illuminated 

This was on me way back

As you can see it changed colors, what did not show up in the pictures are the crazy eyes, which were like kaleidoscope images of red. Very freaking, but also cool

Many of the streets had flocked greenery on the corners

And every so often these candle type displays

Things were still in full swing as I made my ways along

I ended up retracing my way towards the central square

As I cut through a street, I came on this shop. Not sure why it drew me in instead of some of the others, but they had these hot chocolate spoons in a bunch of different flavor. I picked some up for when I have company at Christmas 

Finally was heading back toward the square.

 

I looked across the street and just had to take this picture. If you look closely all the shops in this picture are chocolate shops. There were two more right besides these, but they would all not fit in one picture. They all seemed to be doing a brisk business too

As I headed back into the square, the holiday lighting became a bit more visible 

Here is a picture of the square from the opposite far end away from the nativity scene 

On the square, this building is the Brussels town hall

This was the King’s House

The giant tree

The houses around the grand palace

Just another fun shop selling chocolate as I was walking back towards our hotel

Festive frosted greenery

It is hard to see, but this square had the trees covered in those meteor shower lights

Decoration varied from street to street

More trees with those meteor shower lights

This was painted in the 1967. The story is below.

If you want to read about it. Click and enlarge this picture. English is on the bottom

As I was passing the museum area, I snapped this picture of a modern stone piece by the walkway.

More museums 

This is Place Royal-Koningsplein. Built in 1775

This is Portiques de la Royal de Buxelles

I liked how this was lit

Some of the overhead decorations were more visible as I made my way towards our hotel. Most of these places were closed for the day as I walked back. The streets were more empty

This is as I was nearing the big street I had to cross to get to the part of town our hotel was at. It was about a 30 minute walk from the town city main square

This is dawn the next day from our hotel window

A few minutes later the color was gone and some clouds were there. I ended up taking another nap as I have been having some issues sleeping well

After my nap we headed back to the winter fair. It was late afternoon around 3pm. The skies had pretty much cleared and the rain was done. This is the arch walkway into the oldest part of town. In yesterday’s pictures I showed the bell and the tin man up top, but here is the total thing. It is a clock. The guy at the top is the bellman who rings in the quarter of the hours. I am not sure who all the figures are, but who ever the person at 7 o’clock is, he is headless. He is actually hold his head. I may have to research and see what more I can find out about it.

This is the Charles Buls fountain

This is the menu and interesting reading of the place we had dinner at. It was the place in the picture of the first “booth” I put up earlier in the blog.

Here is a bit about the name Ommegang

This page tells about a painting on the back wall and the stilts hanging from the ceiling

Here is the stories of the statue of the peeing boy

This place was pictured earlier in the blog, we sat inside the permanent restaurant, but it had the “booth connected to the front for extra seating

Dale reading the history in the menu book

Our dinners that night. Totally good food and fun place. It is also a brewery 

The tree in the dining area

The placemats were maps of the old city (the part in green)

One wall at the back by the bar. The lower section is the painting and the upper shelves are done up for Christmas 

One side of the restaurant has tables in huge beer barrels that people can sit and eat at

Santa has been making merry there it looks like

This part is the extra seating area in the “booth” for the festival 

When we got done with dinner it was dark, so we went out to enjoy the lights.

I showed Dale areas I walked after we went different ways last evening and he showed me an area I missed in my wandering

While walking we spied this wall painting

This is a marionette museum and theater 

The lights were visible and there were several different styles overhead

Depending on what street you were on. Also rental bikes and scooters were everywhere 

A better look at one of the market areas at night

The booths really add festivity with their lights

Another of the streets between fair areas

Once in awhile you would come across a random light display

Back at the indigenous peoples of Quebec area

The candle light look even more impressive at night

This is one of the other juried booths we shopped at. Her jewelry she made all herself. It was sterling silver very fine wires worked into lacy patterns taken from lace designs handed down from her family and ones she found other places 

Here is the woman and in the back is a sample of lace that she has based her jewelry off of. She used the same techniques to create her jewelry as she uses to create fabric lace

This is another juried booth. The artist was not there when we stopped by, but his friend told us all about how he makes his kaleidoscopes and spyglasses 

Here is a picture of the artist at work

Our final purchase from one of the juried booth was from this couple. They have made all these themselves. They are both retired and started making things during COVID to have something to do. 

They personalized what we got while we were there

Really liked the decorations on this restaurant 

Back down by the VR experience

And nearer the skating rink

The reindeer ride at night

It is amazing how much the lighting can add to the experience

There were a few of the festival light signs over streets. I did not notice then during the day

This candy place was probably the best decorations on a booth

The Royal Theatre was very impressively lit up

Behind one of the food booth, they had created this sitting area using ski lifts, chairs, and gondolas 

We enjoyed walking between fair areas and checking out displays businesses had up

Even the narrow walk roads had some fun stuff

Some of the restaurants had the best displays 

The main tree in the town city square

This shop claimed to have invented Belgium Pralines. I went in, but never found out what they were exactly. One of the few shops I had been in where I felt like the guy really just wanted everyone to leave. He was almost rude. Maybe it was time to close or something, but I was willing to buy some to try, if he would have helped us.

That ends the pictures of our time wandering in Brussels. Thanks for joining me and may all of you be merry and bright. London  is our last stop on this Europe expedition. Blog for there hopefully will be up in a  few days