Maison Communale

I've been staying in a hotel in Brussels throughout this trip but in all honesty I hadn't explored any of the city besides the hotel and three train stations! Since today's activities were cut shorter than expected, I decided to spend a bit more time than I'd initially planned looking around the city I'd chosen to stay in.

Most of my time was spent in the House of European History. It immediately felt different to the other museums I'd visited on this trip since it had airport-style security, presumably because of its location immediately nextdoor to the European Parliament.

This museum was deceptively large, cramming a huge amount of history into a relatively small building - fitting for a museum that strives to summarise the history of an entire continent! I think there's enough in there to fill up half a day.

Following that museum and a stroll through the grounds of the European Parliament, I reflected on that question I came here to try to answer - what does it mean to be Belgian? And from my experience of this city so far, I feel like Brussels' answer, really, is that it doesn't matter. This city feels like it is filled with citizens of the world living in the capital of the European continent rather than Belgians living in the capital of Belgium. It actually contrasts quite sharply with the other Belgian cities I've visited, all of which feel like they have a bit more pride in their respective heritages.

I finished the day on a brief tour of the city centre with the aim of finding all three of Brussels' "Pis" statues - a boy, a girl and a dog all charmingly urinating - followed by a quest to find a nice looking restaurant that served Moules Frites, or "Brussels Mussels". Here's hoping my experience with this Belgian classic is less severe than Harry's!Read more