The Pissing statue and mussels.
Leaving Antwerp, I had another issue with taxis. What is it with me and taxis? I ordered one, they promised me it would turn up. It didn’t. It’s one of those hotels with no one onsite so I texted the woman and she rang the taxi and he’d gone to another hotel. She ordered another but I had a train to catch. Not long after that exchange, a glamorous BMW turned up and the owner said: “I’m going to take you.” just as I was about to start walking (having added extra time in case this exact scenario might happen as you do as an anxious traveller). The car had buttons on it in the form of fake diamonds! Truly, I seem to be always looked after in these circumstances.
I arrive to the beautiful Antwerp station and am on time for the train. Then a taxi ride and I’m at my Art Deco hotel which unfortunately is having work done on the front so I can’t see the beauty of it that the owner assures me is there.
Then I’m off to the main square to find what I can do in the two days I'm here. I walk down a long street without cars that houses all the department stores and the crowds are unbelievable. Such a diverse group of migrants.
Coming around the corner and seeing it, I am blown away. I have read that it is one of the most beautiful squares in Europe and I have to agree. It’s stunning. Later I find out it was originally built from the 11th to the 17th century but was burnt down in 1695 by French troops and then rebuilt. Its Baroque facades with gold highlights glint in the afternoon light.
I find a restaurant, Le Roy D'espagne built in 1697, originally the baker's guild headquarters and it still has a statue of St Aubert, patron saint of bakers over the entrance. It's been a cafe since 1952. It has such an interesting interior. I have the endive gratin. I think of endives as lettuce but I think this is more like steamed witlof, wrapped in ham on a base of mashed potatoes and covered in cheese. The waiter, who whispers to me that he’s French, (as if that’s a crime here) has travelled the world on cruise ships and has settled here. He tells me he loves endive served raw with gorgonzola, walnuts and vinaigrette.
Then I become a tourist (which of course is what I am, although tourists never like to think they are) and go to the Museum which originally was the Bread House building. It’s beautiful inside with amazing tapestries, wooden 3D religious scenes, beautiful ceramics and porcelain and leadlight. It also has the dubious honour of housing the original ‘Little Pissing Man’, a 55.5 cm sculpture from the 15th century. The statue has been stolen or damaged so many times that the last remaining one is in the Museum. The figure is regularly dressed up and has around a thousand different costumes from around the world. There are statues of it in all the souvenir shops and they have added more to the town in various locations that you can get a map for, I think I'll pass.
Then I’m off to find the oldest shopping arcade in Europe, the Royal Gallery of Saint Hubert dating back to 1847. It’s huge and beautiful and full of chocolate shops! Here there's a famous shop, Maison Dandoy that serves waffles which are a big thing here. The Brussels waffle is light, soft with a crispy exterior, the Liege waffle is rounded with more sugar. I tried both but the Brussels one is for me, the best.
After booking into my room at three, I venture out in search of dinner. When I was out in the middle of the day/early afternoon, the place looked empty. A friend told me that Brussels was a small Paris, it certainly didn’t look like that until around six that evening. Restaurants spilled out onto the streets, bars were everywhere. After checking out different restaurants I ended up at Chez Leon, a restaurant since 1893 and there I had a memorable meal of mussels with different toppings and topped with cheese! The top half of the shell removed, there was a tomato sauce or herb, butter and garlic and other varieties, covered with grilled cheese. It was amazing. The only issue was that an older man sat down at the table next to me and said hello, recognised my Australian accent and then never stopped talking as he’d been in Australia in the eighties selling Swift banking products and he was full of stories.
He was also eating eel in a green sauce which he insisted I try and...it wasn’t bad, just tasted like fish. He told me he used to be able to do an Aussie accent but had forgotten and that his wife had died due to using some sort of youth enhancing technique that destroyed her kidneys so much so that she had to have a transplant but didn’t live that much longer after that. He said twenty other women had the same procedure and there was a class action against the Doctor. As interesting as he was (he also said he was a investigative journalist and had solved a few political issue), I was glad to escape but he did tell me that I had to try the cherry beer here which was a good pointer.
So the next day, I went for a walk up to Place Royale and looked at the beautiful art nouveau buildings and then saw a building with windows covered with surrealist art by an interesting artist, Magritte. And so I ended up seeing floor after floor of his fascinating art.
That night I worried that the old guy would visit his favourite restaurant so I looked for others but I really wanted to quietly enjoy the mussels again. I snuck in and looked around but he wasn’t there. They took me and another solo female upstairs to a long bar table where during the next half an hour, they bought another few solo females! I started chatting and we all had a laugh. We told our various stories. One woman was coming to live here as she worked for the UN; another woman from South Korea who had a vegan patisserie shop and travelled when she could to try different foods; another woman from Romania who was on a business trip; another from Turkey also on business. Most of us had the mussels and we quietly got into them until a single male from LA was directed to our bench! His grandmother had made him promise on her dying bed that he would visit his German relatives that she hadn’t seen since she moved to America before the war. He was having a wonderful time and volunteered to take our photo. We all exchanged instagram names and when I was talking to the Romanian woman, whilst she was looking at her phone, there was a photo of a baby on the screen and I asked her about it. Sadly she had trouble falling pregnant and finally did only to find out both her and her husband had a gene that would cause early death to a child they might have and their little one only lived briefly. Now they were in the last stages of adopting from Romania. Everyone has heartache in their lives.
Next day I did the art gallery which went down five floors, the last being early twentieth century which was so wonderful.
Went for a cherry beer and some lunch interesting bar called Chateau Moderne. Stunning architecture.
Later that day, I found another lovely old bar and had a Negroni.
Then I ate in the Grand Place at a restaurant underground, I had rabbit in a creamy beer sauce which melted in your mouth. They certainly love their beer here.
You can do a lot in Brussels in two days, it's an interesting city and I could have stayed longer.
Wandering back home, I went to a chocolate shop for an ice cream which they dipped in chocolate and you could have different sprinkles of freeze dried raspberries, or candied nuts, I chose the latter and then went to pay and she said it was free as it was a summer specialty and they were just using up the last of the ice creams.
When I arrived home, my little hotel’s small bar was open with a few people so I asked for a special drink of the region and the lovely girl at the desk made me a blackberry (cassis) liquor and white wine drink which was delicious. My last night in Brussels…perfect.
Ps. If you ever get to Brussels, go to Marys chocolate shop, it’s one of the oldest and has beautiful boxed chocolates with a design from the twenties. A must.
Comments