August 15 – Travel to Brussels

Travel today went off without a hitch.  We arrived in Brussels mid-afternoon and caught a taxi to our hotel.  The hotel is very nicely located on a square just around the corner from the Grand Place, the main square in Brussels. 

After settling in our first order of business was to head over to the Grand Place to see what was happening with the Floral Tapestry.  

We are here for the Begonia Festival.  Every two years a massive floral tapestry is laid out in the center of the Grand Place.  This year the tapestry is in honor of Guanajuato, a region in Mexico with a rich culture and flower tradition.

However, today the only thing laid out was the design (on large sheets of plastic upon which the design was printed.  Then they had laid out the strips and piece of grass that are to be part of the overall design. 

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Watch video of the Grand Platz.
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From there we decided to wander the old town.  Mary has been here many times on business but this is Paul’s first visit to Brussels.  We first found the Manneken Pis, a fountain with a small boy peeing.  The story behind the fountain is that the small son of an important person in Brussels was lost and a massive search party was out to find him.  The father vowed the if the boy was found safe he (the father) would commemorate this by erecting a statue of the boy doing whatever he was doing when found.  The boy was found and he was peeing at the time.  

So pilgrims all over the world come to see a very small fountain of a boy peeing.   And there was the usual mob around the fountain, taking pictures and selfies.  The fountain is quite small. Paul wasn't impressed.

Right next to the fountain were several shops specializing in Belgium waffles topped with just about anything you might want.  We decided that it was stack time and we each had a waffle with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.  They were amazing.  The whipped cream is far better than anything used in the US.  Only down side was they gave use itty, bitty forks with which to try to eat the pile of food.  After working our way through the fruit and cream we just had to pick up the waffle to eat it…the forks were pretty close to useless.

We next wandered through more streets and over the Rue Boucher (Butcher Street) that is lined with restaurants, most specializing in mussels, a local specialty…

And then to the covered shopping street of St. Hubert. 

We finished the day with dinner at a restaurant just across from our hotel.