Europe & UK Tour - Belgium

Belgium is a small country and I visited my ex uni friend who is doing his further studies over there. It was good to have a friend who knows well about the places and languages over there. He took me around his campus in Leuven and had my first Belgium beer. It was the best beer I ever had. Early the next morning, he took me to Bruges and then Brussel.

Bruges

Bruges is a well preserved medieval architecture in Europe and is a great place to tour around by foot.

The Beguinage is a place of peace and silence in the middle of the town. Till now the Benedictine sisters still living in these houses.

My first time visiting the beer factory. It was a good experience but I couldn't wait for beer tasting after that. Another best in class beer.....

Collection of beer cans in the beer factory.

I was attracted to the creeping greenery growing onto the building wall. It showed a balance between nature and man made concrete.

Intriguing architecture.....

Brudges building seemed to have a step type roof top structure.

1-2-Smile.

Mmmm...So nicely decorated. Could not resist the famous Belgian chocolate and randomly bought one packet. How delicious!

Bruges Town Hall. Very classy decoration...

Town hall stairs. I liked the spiral stairs and took two shots. One from top and the other one from bottom. Photo (above) taken from bottom appeared to be a better one.

Brussel

Brussel is a capital of Belgium. I spent most of my time at the Grand Place enjoying the daily routine life over there.

The Grand Place town square is one of the most beautiful squares in Europe. I liked the natural colour of the buildings. Many stalls can be seen in the square..paintings, flowers, food stalls etc.

Gypsy do not have permanent home and job. Some peoples do look down on Gypsy probably due to thief related history and using their creativity to trick people for money. I came across a gypsy carrying a child. She was sitting at the stairs entrance to St Michael Cathedral. I was quite touched as she really look pitiful and genuine. I hope she has a better life by now.

Inside the cathedral, I saw this beautiful caring motherly figure sitting in front of the stained glass.

St Hubert Gallery. It consist of two sections. The ground level occupied by shops and the upper level is for habitant.

Just like the Eiffel Tower, Colosseum etc, the 'Mannekin Pis' is the famous landmark of Brussel. It located at one corner of a building, not far from the Grand Place. To my surprise, I was not expecting to see such a tiny bronze status standing at only 61cm.

There were many stories about this little boy. One of the story has the boy went missing from a wealthy nobleman but was found unharmed when he was peeing against a tree. As a result, a statue was built to honor the way he was found. On some special occasion, this little bronze boy will be put into different dresses.

Finally, I stopped over a cafe selling Belgium's famous waffle. To be honest, this was the best ever waffle that I tried to date. The butter aroma coupled with the slightly crunchy waffle base and special topping (took the strawberry with chocolate topping) summed up the delicious Belgium waffle.