Brussels is certainly a curious place, not as beautiful as Bruges, but a functional city with lots of lovely streets to wander through as well as quite a few oddities I just wanted to check out. Of course it ddin’t help that I was unwell for my time in Brussels, but at least my hotel room was comfortable, the hotel had a much needed laundry and their were plenty of waffle and pancake places for me to have a birthday breakfast!
My first oddity ion Brussels was a visit to the Atomium. Built for the 1958 Brussels World Fair. Back in the days where dreaming about the future was possible without risk of politics getting involved. The atomium looks like a atom and inside the spheres are exhibition spaces and a restaurant and viewing deck in the top sphere. The exhibition spheres had artistic light installations in them. Some of the balls have escalators between them and others have steps. I guess Paris has the Eiffel tower and Brussels has the Atomium…..
Another oddity is a trio of statues dedicated to pissing. Two of which have working pissing action! Mannekin Pis was the original one and often easy to find in the streets of Brussels due to the crowd on the corner of 2 street taking selfies. Jeanneke Pis is hidden down a small laneway and a little girl having a piss, also with working water action. The last one is a dog, Zinneke Pis without functioning water action. Oddly enough this statue gets a higher rating in google reviews! The main thing is you can get a Mannekin Pis fridge magnet in fact its hard to find a Brussels fridge magnet without a little boy pissing on it.
On my actual birthday in Brussels I went to a museum of illusions for the afternoon and followed it up with a delicious meal of ribs for dinner. I was still feeling quite sick, I wanted to visit Ghent or Antwerp, but just chilled in Brussles. I will be back in Europe and can visit Ghent and Antwerp another time. I jumped onto the Eurostar that spent about 24 minutes under the channel in a dark tunnel, which in itself is an experience, only because you know you are under the sea! Arrived in London 2 hours later. Such a convenient service that you probably wouldn’t get anywhere outside of Europe or Eastern Asia!
