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Last Updated: 03. Mai 2000
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Belgium
Discovering Chocolate, Waffles, and Tintin
Bruges, a Quaint Medieval City
Finding Our Way
The Markt and Belfry
Groeninge Museum
Windmills in Bruges
Brussels
Comic Strip Center
La Grand Place
The Mannekin Pis
Bokrijk Open Air Museum
Camping in Belgium
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We got lost in Belgium frequently. Bruges, Brussels, and the entire country of Belgium have very poor road signs for directions to popular tourist sights. So, even though I was getting better at reading maps and giving directions to Chris, we still got lost. Of course, sometimes getting lost is an interesting way to discover a new city.
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Bruges, a Quaint Medieval City
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Bruges is one of Europe's medieval treasures, a wonderfully preserved town with numerous picturesque canals, quaint narrow streets, heavenly chocolate and waffles, and a museum filled of Flemish Primitives (or Renaissance) paintings. The old city of Bruges is a small area surrounded by canals. Nearly everything of interest is within easy walking distance on cobbled streets.
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Finding Our Way
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Our first story about getting lost in Belgium is when we were trying to find parking in the city of Bruges without Belgium money. We needed to find a bank machine or a parking lot that would let us pay for parking as we exit.
Bruges is such a small town that we breezed through it at least twice before we realized that we just drove through the Saturday Farmer's Market at t'Zand. After the third time through the t'Zand, we decided to drive through Bruges to find parking or the Tourist Information Center to find a map of the city. Of course, with narrow cobbled streets that are perfect for walking, it was impossible to find parking within the city or to spot an ATM cash machine. Finally, we found a TI (Tourist Information) office near the train station with a small short-term parking lot. We proceed to ask the local TI about a map, or parking, or an ATM cash machine but it was very crowded with people looking for a hotel or pace to stay at night.
We decided to take our chances on the large parking lot near the TI and the train station because it was reasonable close to the old city of Bruges. Fortunately the payment method for parking was similar to many other European parking lots - which is, basically, you pay as you leave. The parking meter machine accepts coins or bills and even returns change, if necessary. After paying, one receives a payment receipt ticket that needs to be validated by an "exit machine". It's an easy system to use and one does not need the correct amount of money.
Since we drove through the t'Zand and the Farmer's Market, we decided that the t'Zand was a good place to start looking for an ATM cash machine. Our instincts were correct and we found a cash machine. However, we arrived at the t'Zand market as the merchants were closing down the vegetable and bakery stands. So, as we started our walking tour of Bruges, our first task was to find a place to eat lunch. Fortunately, as we walked into town, we found a small food kiosk stand that sold tasty Belgium waffles.
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The Markt and Belfry
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Bruges is a quaint city and is considered one of Europe's best-preserved medieval cities. The Markt and the neighboring Burg are medieval squares. The Markt is more colorful than the Burg with many cafes and numerous colorful flags. An 83-meter high belfry tower rises from the Markt and the 47-bell carillons chime seep through the cobbled streets. It is a fun city to just walk around! As we walked around, we ate our tasty lunch of Belgium waffles that were coated with cinnamon. The waffles were very yummy.
We climbed the 366 narrow steps of the belfry tower, so we could more closely inspect and hear the carillon bells. It was possible to see the mechanism working as well as hear the loud and melodic carillon bells chime at the top of the belfry. It was interesting to see how the player piano method was used to play various chimes and tunes. At the top of the Belfry, we stayed quite a long time, so we could enjoy the magnificent view and the sounds of the bells. With a seven-year old, we had to stay to listen to bells play the half-hour, quarter-hour, the whole hour chimes. Watching the carillon bells was fascinating for Erika.
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Groeninge Museum
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We continued our walking tour of Bruges and visited the Groeninge Museum. This museum has a large collection of Hans Memling, one of the early Flemish Primitive (or Renaissance) painters. His lines are incredibly clean and pure - as simple and elegant as Albrecht Dürer. In addition, this museum also has a famous triptych by Bosch called "The Last Judgement" in its collection. So, we explored the museum until we found the Bosch and then we quickly move through the remaining portion of the museum's collection of Flemish painting.
Along the canal, we observed an artist painting a quaint scene of Bruges. We watched him for quite a while, before we could pull Erika away and continue our walk. Later that night at the campsite, Erika decided to draw a nearby scene that included a neighboring house and tree. It's delightful to see Erika imitate the things that she sees.
As we finished our walking tour, we had to indulge in some excellent Belgian chocolate. We decided that it is perhaps the best chocolate in the world but only if you can taste it fresh, that is, in Belgium! But even tasting Belgian chocolate that is not made that day is still wonderful.
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Windmills in Bruges
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After camping in Bruges, we visited a few windmills, so we could compare the differences between Dutch windmills and Belgian windmills. At least the windmills in Bruges are generally smaller that the Dutch windmills but they are just as quaint.
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Brussels
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After visiting the windmills in Bruges, we headed to the capital of Belgium. While Belgium is one of Europe's best kept secrets, Brussels is one of Europe's great cities and the capital of the European community.
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Comic Strip Center
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Since Chris is a long-time fan to the comic strip character, Tintin, we started our visit to Brussels at the Comic Strip Center. Of course, this is not a typical place to start when touring Brussels. One can think of many typical places to start such as La Grand Place or Mannekin Pis. To find the Comic Strip Center, we passed by the street about 4 times before we figured out the street name and the exact location of the Comic Strip Center.
The comic strip character, Tintin, is created by Georges Rémi Hergé a Belgian artist and storyteller. Belgians have a strong interest in comic strips. Of course, it would be useful to understand a little bit about Belgian sense of humor - which is a little sarcastic at best. Belgians poke fun at just about anything - nothing is reverent. If this type of humor were not understood, then the comic strips would appear to be of interest to perhaps only Belgians. Comic strips are, after all, a very visual means of communicating. So, our entire family enjoyed the comic strip panels, even though we did not understand the language.
Part of the exhibits at the museum were devoted to explaining how a comic strip is produced, so it was an enjoyable learning experience in newspaper or magazine production methods for Erika. We, of course, spent many hours browsing through the museum and the bookstore. Chris found many new Tintin comics in both English and German. In addition, to an interesting museum, the architecture of the Comic Strip Center is fascinating. It is located in an Art Nouveau building designed by Horta. It's a good example of the Art Nouveau style, a turn-of-the-century architectural movement.
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La Grand Place
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La Grand Place is the heart of old town within Brussels as well as the main square of the downtown district. Many people think that La Grand Place is the greatest sight that Brussels has to offer. Obviously, our family preferred the Comic Strip Center. La Grand Place is surrounded with craft guilds, whose rich guild houses line the square and are topped with ornate golden figures and elaborate statues on its facade that represent the trade or craft for the guild. These golden figures glisten by day with sunlight and lights shows by night (between April and September). By day, we enjoyed troubadour concerts, flower stands, and people watching.
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Mannekin Pis
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Brussels is also known for the Mannekin Pis fountain and it is located near La Grand Place. No one knows the origins of the statue of Mannekin Pis but it's a statue of a little boy who is, well, you know, you get the idea... This fountain has become the symbol of the city of Brussels. Many countries and dignitaries have presented the city with costumes for the Mannekin Pis statue. So, the Belgians have a collection of over 665 costumes for this fountain statue. Some of the costumes date from the late 18th century. The collection of costumes includes a Mickey Mouse costume as well as an Elvis Presley costume. There are many other costumes including the traditional dress of many countries. Unfortunately, the statue was not wearing a costume when we saw him, so we purchased a small book about the interesting costumes.
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Bokrijk Open Air Museum
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Finally in the Brussels area (actually in the Brabant region), we visited an open-air museum in Bokrijk. This museum has many historic buildings from the nearby farming communities. In the Brabant region, we saw old churches, old farmhouses including the bake house, old merchant's residences and an old school house.
Near the open-air museum, there is a really large playground. There are some 3-story high circular tube slides and a unique merry-go-round. Now, this playground is Erika's favorite playground. The slides were so long that it was actually fun for Chris and I to go down the slide alongside Erika. It is a playground for adults too!
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Camping in Belgium
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In Belgium, we were disappointed with the campground facilities. Many campsites were closed or below standards. Our general impression of camping in Belgium is to forget about it. It would be better to find an inexpensive hotel near good transportation such as a train or bus to visit Brussels or Bruges. So, as we left Bokrijk, we decided to drive straight to the Netherlands and find out favorite campsite in Boxtel.
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Die Fotogalerie von der Belgien
You can contact us by email to either Chris or Pat.
We will try to respond as soon as possible.
See you all later.
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