2014 in Belgium (Brussels)

On August 28, 2014, the Europe bus tour brought me from Amsterdam to Brussels, Belgium for the afternoon.

Visit

Before making our way into the heart of Brussels, we visited the Atomium (built in 1958 for the World's Fair) in the suburbs. This space age structure was massive and awe-inspiring for my modernist interests. Half a century old, it still looked like it came from a distant future!

Next, Grand Place catered to the shoppers on the trip: lots of shops offering cheese, chocolates and craft beer. Anyone not into the whole consumerist frenzy could still admire the classy architecture of the square. Plenty of buildings had shiny gilded embellishments on their façades. The ground was paved with discrete stones instead of flat, continuous concrete. Flowers and fountains dominated the middle of the square.

It stayed classy even as one walked away from Grand Place, a few blocks southwest to Mannekin Pis, a 17th century fountain-statue of a "small man" urinating. Were people not told about it, they would walk pass by the micturating sculpture without noticing what it was doing!

An afternoon visit, this sojourn would end when the tour group herded us to the Gare de Bruxelles-Central to take the Eurostar to London. Unfortunately, we would not spend the evening in Brussels. At the Subway sandwich kiosk, I was amazed at the staff at the preparation line who had to understand and speak in French, Dutch, English and perhaps other languages.

While on the train looking at the platform, I saw a distressed woman, carrying all sorts of baggage (both physical and emotional) crying her eyes out. Perhaps she did not have her ticket, who knows, but the train left without her. Oh well!