16^th – 18^th August 2005

Our Belgium trip was for 3 days. We went to Brussels by bus from Lyon as we could get the package of travel + stay at very cheap rate. It was an overnight journey of about 10 hours.

We visited Brussels, the capital of the country and also known as the capital of Europe because there are numerous institutions of the European Union in this city.

First day, we visited the Parc du Cinquantenaire, where there is the Arcades du Cinquantenaire, just 5 minutes by walk from our hotel. It’s a park with huge arcs at entrance signifying some battle victory. Then we visited the Parc de Bruxells, crossing the Parlaiment of Brussels, Palais de la Nation, to the Palais Royal. We could not go inside the Palais Royal, as it gets closed at 4.30 p.m. So we proceeded to the Eglise Saint-Jacques-sur Coudenberg, Sablon Church and a garden opposite to it called Kleine Zavel, Place Poelaert and Palais de Justice. We then visited the most popular Cathedral of Brussels, Cathédrale des Saints Michel et Gudule (close to the Grand Place). Later we went to the Grand Place. It is the most busiest and popular square. It is also quite big. On one side of the square is the King’s house (now converted to museum) and opposite to it is the Hotel de Ville (tallest building in the square). It is has a very beautiful architecture. Every 2 years in summer, this square is decorated with a flower carpet and also there is beautiful “light show”. Atleast 8-9 lakh flowers are used for making the carpet. On enquiring in one of the restaurants, we got to know that there is no flower carpet this year but there is lighting everyday in the whole square at 10.30 p.m. in summer (May – August). So we decided to have dinner in a close by Indian restaurant and come back to see the lighting. We imagined that all the buildings would be lit up or something very beautiful. The show started and all the lights were put off. Then there was some music and the Hotel de Ville building was light up only in parts. It went on for some 15 min. We kept waiting for more lights, but they didn’t appear; and the how ended with only that building being lit up. The light-show was not upto our expectations and we (as well as other observers) laughed at ourselves over the disappointment. It was just the hype that the country tourism had made about it in the tourist guide books.

Next day, we visited the Atomium and the Mini-Europe, the symbols of Brussels.

The Atomium building is constructed in the shape of a MOLECULE. We could not go inside as it is closed in 2005 for renovation work (Many buildings / structures in Brussels were under renovation; looks like they have got lot of money from the EU for it!  J ). The building looks very unique and beautiful from outside. Later we went to the Mini-Europe. It is a park with replicas of the popular buildings/structures of the European Union member countries, on a scale of 1/25. Visiting the park is like visiting whole Europe!! Here you can see the Eiffel tower and the Big Ben of London, quite close by. It is an excellent place to visit. If you are in short of time and / or money, just visit this Mini-Europe park to have a feel of Europe.  After our lunch, we proceeded to visit the Chinese Pavilion and the Japanese tower. Both the buildings are beautiful, typical Chinese and Japanese architectures. Then we went to another famous symbol of Brussels, the Manneken Pis. It’s a small statue of a small boy pissing in one corner of a street! One would surely miss it had it not been for the numerous tourists who crowd over there and take photos. We also took some! I don’t understand why, but statue appears on most of the souvenirs, picture cards, key chains, toys, etc in Brussels (like the Eiffel tower of Paris).

The third day, we went to a small town, Waterloo; 30 minutes by train from Brussels city. (We had to walk for about 15 min from the station to find a ‘tourist information centre’! Even at Brussels station we couldn’t find any such information centre. We had to move around asking people. But in Zurich it was very easy!) Waterloo battle is regarded as one of the greatest battles in European history and symbolizing the fall of Napoleon. In Waterloo, we visited the Wellington museum and then took a bus from there to the battlefield of Waterloo. Here we visited the Lion Mound. Atop the mound stands an enormous cast-iron Lion. The lion protects the globe and symbolizes the new-found peace in Europe. After climbing down the mound, we visited the Boutique du Panorama and the Wax museum. There was also a small hall where they had an audio-visual presentation of the battle using a 10 sq. m model and animation. This battle had enormous impact the world over. 124 towns or sites now bear the name, Waterloo.

We then returned to Brussels and lastly visited Parc Leopold.

Click HERE to see the pictures.