Brussels, and pee

Yesterday, we went on a walking tour through Brussels with Belgo Tours. Our guide’s name was Mariano. He was from Venezuela and came to Brussels to study a Masters Degree in music, but works as a tour guide on the side. We started the tour in the main square called “Grand-Place de Bruxelles” which was built in the 11th century. The main square is where the richest Guild Houses, Town Hall, House of the King and Grand Market were located. It was destroyed by King Louis XIV in 1695, and rebuilt with the money of the guilds.

Baker's guild

Guilds are an association of people with the same trade or produce. They would all work together to make sure everyone was charging the same price, but more importantly had masters who taught apprentices to pass on the skill and keep the association going. The richest guild was the Bakers Guild, since people needed bread every day. My favourite was the Archers Guild, since they were the unofficial day to day police force.

The 4 main things Belgium is famous for are chocolate, waffles, beer and fries. Out of those my favourite is waffles. We had really goodaffles next to the Mannikin Pis, the famous statue of a peeing boy. The waffles were a little crunchy and had fresh cream. The best part was that they had real melted chocolate on top instead of fake chocolate flavoured sauce.

We also had some amazing fries at Café Georgette. Belgian fries are double fried in beef fat rather than vegetable oil.

Mariano said Brussels was a city of “chaotic beauty”. One example was that after the Palace of Justice needed refurbishment they put up scaffolding all around it. However, after 40 years they never used the scaffolding and so they needed more scaffolding to repair the old scaffolding. They never used the new scaffolding either!

The city went over 500 days without a government, and the economy grew. They have 19 political parties, so when they don’t all agree on a leader, they just go without one until it works out.

Our guide said there were only 2 places in Brussels you shouldn’t go to or stay at. Gare du Nord and Gare du Midi, which is where we are staying. When we first walked outside of Gare du Midi the first things we noticed were broken glass, graffiti, drunk people doing whatever drunk people do and also that everything smelled worse than a theme park porta potty.

Brussels was a very interesting city. My favourite part was the scaffolding story, but the fries and waffles were also great. I’m happy we tried most of the famous Belgian food, but fine that we didn’t try any beer.

Thanks for reading! And until next time, if everything smells like pee, you’re probably not in a nice neighbourhood.