Belgium #Brussels

September 12, 2016

Our trip to Brussels was a rather short and bleak one. Despite gorgeous weather in Bruges, Brussels greeted us with grey skies and then a lot of rain.

We boarded a train from Bruges to Brussels and then hopped on the line 6 metro to the Belgian Comic Strip Center.

The Belgian Comic Center building itself is pretty fab, designed in 1905 by Victor Horta it has the art nouveau style that I love and apparently it once served as a textile department store. On the ground floor there’s a restaurant and a comic store (there was little point trying to keep Matt away) and then there’s three further floors for the museum itself. The first floor boasts original comic book pages by various artists, taking you through the history of comics from the monks to modern marketing and political scandal. The second floor is more specific to Belgian comics, of course Tin Tin and an area for Smurfs.

After Matt purchased a few French Astrix comics we headed on foot through Brussels to the Grand Palace – and how very grand it is. Before this Brussels had seemed very grey and well run down and to be honest I felt like I was in a bit of a location deja-vu with Coventry – hidden through six sideways with cobbled streets is this massive square that boasts this palace. You just cannot fit it into a picture.

We walked around the square looking at each point, the spired 15th century city hall and the gilded statues. We then sat in a cafe listening to the big band and rock band play in the square.

Then back to the train station to catch our Eurostar home.

Tazscribbles and Belgium out.

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