Brussels and the Mannequin

After planning our European trip with advice from our friend who lived in Brussels for seven years, we were looking forward to our time in the capital of Belgium. We had all heard of Belgium chocolate and their famous waffles, so we also knew that there were a few treats in store for us. We began our time in the Grand Place, the central market square. We oohed and awed at the Gothic architecture that we fell in love with during our prior days in Belgium's Gent and Brugge, trying to capture ourselves in a photo with all of it. 

We stopped at lace stores and chocolate shops and found our favorite street performer, a man that was a cross between Willy Wonka and a time traveler . When money was dropped in his can, he slowly came to life, sneaking a candy into the kids hands before he became still again.    

Chocolate covered olives were popular in the chocolate shops

We then wandered over to the Queen's Gallery, a shopping arcade that was made famous in the 1800's as an exquisite shopping area. It was built under the reign of Kind Leopold and preceded other exclusive shopping centers across Europe. It's glass ceiling enabled people of fashion to wander the shop fronts and even "street cafes", protected from Brussels' inclement weather.

Later in the day we were reminded that there is often a discrepancy in value per dollar spent in traveling. Our favorite spots in Europe were many times free and, on the contrary, sometimes we found ourselves in places like the Comic Strip Museum of Brussels with the heftiest entrance fee of the day, wondering why such a place was created. This museum of smurf figurines and recreations of Tintin was on the list of top five must see museums in Brussels and multiple travel advisers pointed us in it's direction, but we left wondering if we may just be a little too no-nonsense for such a place.

We made our way over to Brussels Park and then past the Royal Palace. The King and Queen actually live outside of the city, but it was fun to see their ceremonial palace and the gardens in which it sits.

Since we were on a huge walking loop of the area, our next stop was the Grand Sablon, a square in Brussels that houses upscale shops, hotels and museums. It had been recommended by more than one friend to duck into the Pierre Marcolini chocolate shop. Each of us chose a small selection of bonbons to fill a communal box. They seemed to be more like small works of art than simple chocolates, which made the choosing more fun.

Our next stop proved to be fodder for the family joke of the day. We found the unassuming Mannequin Pis behind a crowd of international tourists, gleaming in the flash of cameras. Since this statue is such a icon for Brussels, it seemed like every turn we made, there was reason to refer to the Mannequin Pis. In an effort to stay within my comfort zone, I referred to this little boy as simply "The Mannequin". I couldn't bring myself to utter his full name. The kids quickly picked up on this quirk of their mother's and Jonathan, especially, teased me each time I mentioned him. There are several legends derived from the copper statue that has stood in Belgium since the 1600's. Some refer to a small boy saving the city from vicious intruders by urinating on the soldiers, while others imply that the little guy put out a fire at the Grand Palace or was a lost boy found in a garden watering the flowers. The statue has been stolen various times over the years so the original is actually in the Grand Palace, leaving a replica to be revered by the crowds from around the world. 

Each week the Mannequin Pis is adorned in an elaborate outfit. All 600 costumes are kept in the Grand Place, with a large collection on display. I am not sure if it is the common tourist destination, but thanks to Roz, we knew that it was there and that it would be interesting to a group of kids. The costumes represented traditional attires from around the world, which was a worthy cultural experience in itself, but the added astonishment that the little urinating toddler is ceremoniously dressed each week as Elvis, a Japanese Emperor, an African Farmer, a Tour de France winner or Mozart to name a few, added to the intrigue.

Nearby we found an entire street full of Belgium waffle shops, which enabled us to check off a must enjoy culinary delight from our European list, as well as a reason to find a set of stairs back at the Grand Place to take a break.

We searched for and found the Greek Street which is lined with Greek shops and restaurants. For dinner we ate at a little Greek cafe, munching on gyros. Jonny and Jenny back packed around Europe several years ago, covering some of the same areas that we did. Whenever Jenny mentioned that we were at one of the same unique destinations that they found, I knew that we were in a good place, since they are such detailed trip planners. This was the case with our Greek find.

One of our highlights in Brussels was Mini Europe. Mini Europe is a park with reproductions of over 350 buildings in the European Union, some with a price tag of up to 350,000 euro, such as the Grand Place below. The buildings are at a scale of 1:25. Many of the displays are interactive, which of course was a big hit with the kids. Some favorites were racing a policeman after a thief stealing the Mona Lisa by running in place on a mat, an event from 1912 that we learned about in Paris, and erupting Mount Vesuvius, which we learned about in Naples, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Our last stop in Belgium was King Leopold Belgium Museum of the Congo. This was another favorite of Jonny and Jenny's during their trip to Belgium. Prior to visiting Europe we studied about almost all of the countries that we were planning on visiting, but we ran out of time for Belgium and her years of Imperialism. Fortunately this is what we learned about during our visit to this museum. It was the perfect was to wrap up our time in Belgium.