Angharad Dowse

Set the alarm for 9 because we wanted to be out of the house by 10 but were realistic about our sleep requirements after such a long day yesterday.
I ate the provided breakfast, Will was a pain in the bum and did not.
We had so many options - she has provided yogurt, bananas, bread, jam, cheese spread, juice, ham and cheese.
I had the most delicious and obviously homemade blueberry jam on bread 😋
We left at 9:50 and began our 3.5km walk to the city center. Will got a croissant near to home.
On our way I saw an African man lying down, passed out on a bench with his belly hanging out. I just glanced at his belly and to my horror the head of his penis was popping out the top of his pants hahahaha
Too early for that shit.
It's a long way but we could do with the exercise haha.
I like the buildings here.
We walked past a lot of fresh fruit stores and one giant, extremely random clam on a stick - it didn't appear to relate to anything around it..
They LOVE comics here and have murals all around the the city of things such as Tin tin.
Our tour started in Grand Place - it was spectacular- its a 4 sided area of old gothic style buildings.
Our tour guide was Simon and he was fantastically engaging.
He told us about each separate building in the square before we walked past some Karl Marx building ( I missed the story because of noise levels but he is the founder of communism)
Next up was Mannekin Pis which is Brussels main point of interest. The mannequin has 937 different costumes. There are many replicas of the fountain all around the world but this is the original. It was smaller than I expected it to be honest but still awesome to see. Apparently the statue has been stolen many times in the past but the original is in the museum we planned on visiting after the tour.
Before we went to visit our guide yelled " now let's go see a little boy peeing! " it's one of the only place I can think of where that sentence is acceptable and doesn't stir suspicions of pedaphilic intentions hahaha
We next came across one specific cartoon mural which marks the beginning of the LBGTG community. Belgium was, I think, the 2nd country to legalize gay marriage. The mural has been designed as such that it could be 2 men, 2 ladies or 1 man and 1 woman.
Along our walk Simon pointed our shops he recommended for Beer, chocolate and chips etc.
We saw the stock exchange building which was supper impressive but is now empty - he said there were talks of making it the palace of beer - he sounded deadly serious but not sure if he was joking or not. We saw the Opera house - ours is 1000 times better, walked through a glass gallery - there's was the first and then has a 20 minute break.
Our guide is so very insistent that we shouldn't J- walk because it's a 60€ fine. Ouch. Our group was 34 people big and so it often took 2 turns for everyone to Cross lights but he always waited.
They must police is pretty well because he really stressed the point not to do it.
We walked on and found a St James walk shell on the floor - one of few I had already noticed. They act/acted as a sort of GSP for pilgrims - they point towards the nearest sanctuary which in this case was the "our lady of assistance" church which we also saw mid tour. It's also related to the St James walk in Spain.
We saw the Cathedral of St Michel and St Gudula. It reminded me of pictures I have seen of Notre Dame - very large and of gothic style.
There was a wedding inside and like 1000 Africans came spilling out of the church, some in the most ridiculous outfits.
The refugee situation is blatantly obvious here. There is a very very large African and middle eastern population. The Muslim community also are easy to spot because a lot, including the men have been in traditional dress. We went to the Royal Park or as they call it "park" because it's the only one 😂😂😂
It's close to where the metro bombs went off. He made a big speech thanking us all for coming and ignoring others opinion on Brussels and for giving it a chance. Apparently tourism has declined rapidly. We too were told by many many people not to bother with Brussels, not because of danger but because it's an ugly city - they all need to go to the optometrist. It is awesome. We are liking it very much and will go away and spread the word. You could tell Simon was really bummed out by Brussels new reputation.
We saw the Kings place. - super impressive but what surprised me was the lack of fence and/or obvious guards. Apparently it's only his smaller residence but still, I expected more security.
He sat us out the front and told us of the history Brussels had with the Congo and how at one point Belgium was the 4th richest country in the world - unfortunately this was because of slaves and rubber and in essence it was all blood money. He said he finds great shame in his country regarding this because in Germany there are memorials for the terrible crimes of the 2nd world war - as there should be.. but he said that he didn't even learn about the mutilation/slaughter of the millions of Africans until he researched it himself and that there isn't a single memorial in all of Brussels.
We walked on through a section full of museums until we came to our final stop in front of a pretty garden.
We gave a 10€ tip - he deserved more but I'll give him a 5/5 star on trip advisor which will hopefully help generate him more work.
We walked back toward Grand Place toward the museum and came across an Australian made ice cream shop... we didn't realize we made ice cream... Will asked what made it Australian and without batting an eyelid the man answered "Kangaroo milk"
We of course had to try it for it's ridiculousness. We went with an Aussie flavor and got Mango. It wasn't very nice lol.
We went inside the main building - which isn't symmetrical - which apparently the designer killed himself over but jumping off the top..
The outside was better than inside - just stone walls really.
We went in the museum - it cost 8€ each - more than we were expecting. I thought I read somewhere that it was only 4€
To my great disappointment there was no English signage..
So we just wanders looking at everything not really knowing what it was. On our entry tickets is a picture of asparagus. We found the item in amongst some other China looking food. Don't know it's significance or why it got such an honor of being on the ticket. lol, I feel there was worthier things inside.
Some of the paintings were cool especially one of the city on fire - I'd like to learn more about it but it didn't really offer me the chance. There TripAdvisor review isn't going to be the best..
Upstairs it did have the original mannekin pis which made me feel a little better about the entry fee.
The building itself was lovely and had stain glass windows with what looked like family crests - we each picked which one we would like to have as our own. I picked a blue back with a yellow lion thing. He picked something similar only yellow. I wouldn't want the fish crest.
We started the long walk home.
I don't remember the journey there being downhill but the journey home was definitely uphill -.-
We walked past this lady singing and a bunch of strangers doing a dance they all obviously knew. Kind of like us and nut bush at a wedding haha. We stayed and watched it for a while.
We saw a dead falcon on the way which was different.
We managed to find 95% of the journey home without a map 🎉
I did a load of washing and then hung them up then we both crashed until 9pm ( fell asleep at 5)
I went down and had toast for dinner - Will went out and got a kebab.
I have a mozzie bite on my foot and it's realllllly annoying me.
I also have a headache again :( so I'm gonna smash some panadol and hit the hay 👋🏻
Jokes, we facetimed Jess first and I smashed my head on the ceiling and feel down the stairs ✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼Baca lagi