A Quick Peek at Brussels

My travel to the Netherlands in 2002 allowed me to visit one of its neighbour-countries i.e., Belgium. I travelled with three of my friends (two Indonesians and one Sudanese). We took a train in Rotterdam, which travelled some 75 miles (a little under two hours) to get to Brussels (the city capital of Belgium). It was raining (like it “always does”, as remarked by a local resident) when we got there but we managed to take a quick look around. We first went to the Grand Place or de grote Markt, a central market square famous for its guild houses and buildings that date back to the 17th century and for its huge Town Hall, which was built in the 1400s. As I stood at the centre of this place, I could not help but marvel at its Gothic and Baroque-styled architecture. Flower merchants and artists (painters) abound in the area. As it kept on raining, we went to a coffee shop not to drink coffee but to taste Belgium’s hot chocolate. When the rain finally stopped, we browsed the many shops and bought some souvenir items and a few boxes of the renowned Belgian chocolates. I could not find any Brussels sprouts though.





As we only had a few hours left (we needed to catch the train to get back to the Netherlands), I thought we might as well look for “Little Julian”. It was actually the moniker of the famous “Manneken Pis”, a bronze statue of a little boy (just 2 feet or 61 cm in height) perched on top of a ledge and “urinating” into a fountain. I know you have seen its replicas elsewhere but the original sculpture dates back to 1619. When we finally found this naughty statue, I could not comprehend why it became famous. Well, it must have been very unusual in the 17th century to see such a work of art. Anyway, because it is a traveller’s habit to pose for a picture with a famous landmark, I did not hesitate to do so. We were not able to explore other places in Belgium due to time constraint but my short visit to Brussels was surely worth it.