The 9th Art

Belguim is known for a lot of things: Beer, Chocolate, Waffles, Frites (ok, the last is incorrectly attributed to the French but I will cover that in the next post).  What I didn't know until I was recently researching our trip to Brussels was that they are very well known as the capital of the 9th Art - Comics.  In fact, many consider Belgium the home of the comic strip.  Having given the world the Smurfs, Tin-Tin, Asterix and Obelix, I might have to agree.

In 1989, The Belgian Comic Book Center was opened (which we visited yesterday) and offered visitors a place to see the art and marketing behind some of the most famous comics in Europe.  Two years later, a commision was formed between the Brussels government and the Comic Book Center to embellish the empty walls that dotted the city and remind people about Belgium's role in the comic trade.  Today, there are over 50 comics depicted on walls all over the city, most located inside the city center (called the pentagon) and Brussels provides a detailed map and route of the murals at its information centers.  Of course, we picked one up and spent a couple of hours each day searching them out in between eating, drinking and our other sightseeing duties.  I have compiled a selection of some of my favorites...

"Broussaille"

This is the very first mural painted in July 1991.

"Victor Sackville"

"Tin-Tin"

"Ric Hochet"

"The Angel"

"Nero"

"Asterix and Obelix"

"Lucky Luke"

"Nick's Dream"

"Cori the Ship Boy"

"Cubitus"

The furry dog takes the Manneqen Pis's place and the Manneqen doesn't seem too pleased.

And we can't forget the comic statues that pop up at the top of stairs...

Atomium

Day 2 dawned bright and sunny which is always fabulous but even more so when you haven't seen the sun in what feels like months.  We wanted to get out in the fresh air so decided on a trip to the Atomium.  

Built for the World's Fair in 1958, the Atomium has become a symbol of the European Capital.  On 8 different levels in 5 of the spheres you can see the permanent exhibition on how the Atomium was constructed and what the World's Fair grounds looked like when they opened; you can see 360 degree views from the top; and you can visit the temporary exhibition, in this case, the Magritte exhibit on surrealism.  Located just on the outskirts of the city and easily accessable by public transport off we went to see the most visited tourist sight in the country.

 The elevator takes you straight to the top...And to these views...

 Strangely, we had to go all the way back down to the ground floor before we could go back up through a series of escalators and stairs to reach the exhibits.  Our favorite of which was the Magritte.

René Magritte, a Belgium icon himself, was known for using ordinary objects in not so ordinary ways and making us think about our preconceived ideas of reality.   The girls had a great time looking at the exhibits and trying to figure out what it all meant...

This one made us giggle.  Painting the egg as the bird it will be in the future was inspired.

My favorite.  The painting on the easel is supposedly what would be seen behind it if you took it away (an uninterupted landscape) but in reality who knows what is behind the easel?  Is it barren land?  Is there a fire?  Is there something hiding that we are not supposed to see?  Very much like how our lives can be...

 Souvenier time!  This one decided to pay 2 euro for a 0 euro note...(it is kinda cute)

While B actually bought the picture that they snapped of us with Belgium's comic book character, Marsupilami.  Don't have one with Santa but I am getting quite a collection of the photos from everywhere else :)

 

Back out in the sunshine we stopped for a truly Belgian lunch - French Fries (yes, they are Belgian) and then went off in search of the Comic Book Museum.  Which it seems like eveyone else was looking for too since there were no less than 4 huge school groups lining up when we got there.  Quickly getting in ahead of them all we walked in and spent a some time perusing the history and the artistry of the comic book.  But let's not sugar coat it, the girls were really only there to see their favorite - the Smurf's (once again, Belgian).

 It wasn't hard to figure out where they were hiding the Smurf village.

We thought the museum was ok but nothing spectacular.  We had wanted to see more of the comics and less of the technical side of things.  But it was worth an hour of our time and we were glad to have done it.  But we had some more wandering to do so we stepped back out into the sunshine and off to find a place for dinner before it was actually dinner time.  We actually stumbled upon a great pub so we though we would sit and have a drink and just enjoy the time together.  The girls got virgin drinks while B and I tried some of the famous Belgian beer which is every bit as good as the hype.

We found them handmaking pizza right across the street from the pub and suddenly we knew we had dinner!

 This one found some street art and spun a tune or two on our way home after a long day of sightseeing and dreaming about our adventures for tomorrow.

Ski Week Begins

Ski week.  For those that don't live in Europe, ski week is an obsession.  The schools close down for one of the last two weeks in February, workers take vacation days and families pack up and head to their nearest mountain for family ski fun. And this happens in almost all European countries.  Often, our family is just coming back from skiing in Colorado, so we pick someplace warm(er) and spend a few days with the family in a new country soaking up the sunshine that we haven't seen in months.  This year was a bit different though.  We had spent the holiday's in Florida so warmth and sunshine were not our objectives so we looked at finally going skiing for ski week.  And then we realized that with all of Europe on break and heading to the mountains I might have been a little late to book and I was right.  Not a room to be had.  Which was ok because B did not have a full week to spare in his vacation calendar anyway.  On to Plan B:  We would head someplace we had never been before and make it a long weekend instead of a week.  We pretty quickly settled on Belgium which we had meant to get to for awhile now but hadn't found the right time.

Valentines Day dawned and we made sure we were festively attired for our trip:

We got to the airport where the festivities continued as the airport handed us packages of heart-shaped gummi hearts for the trip...

and we settled in for the very short hop, enjoying the view all the way (photo cred to MadHatter who was the window photographer).

 We got in just checked into our hotel just in time to head out for dinner.  In search of authentic food, we headed down to the main square to find a restaurant that had been recommended to us.  Sadly, even though we were dressed for the day, had eaten heart gummies and wished all of our friends a happy day we had still somehow totally forgotten that it was Valentine's Day and most places would be fully booked.  Plan B: We wandered for a bit and stumbled upon a Mexican restaurant.  Now, it was not exactly what we were expecting to have for our first dinner in Brussels but it was tasty, warm and got us back to the hotel in a timely fashion.  Which was perfect because we had an early wake-up call the next morning so that we could make our tour bus to Ghent & Bruges.

The next morning dawned gray and rainy but the weather channel called for afternoon sun so we crossed our fingers and boarded the bus.  Our first stop - Ghent.  It is the capital of East Flanders in the Flemish region of Belgium and, in the late middle ages, it was the largest and richest city in Northern Europe.  We only had about 2 hours to spend wandering here but with the wet and rainy weather, it was plenty.  We hit the high points and then boarded our bus to Bruges.

St. Bavo's Cathedral was our first stop of the day.

 Strange thing to have in a church...

 The Market Hall with its exciting interior.

 The gilded houses of the Graslei Canal.

 And the Korenlei...

Gravensteen - one of the most reliable moated fortresses in Western Europe.  It was built in 1180 by Philip of Alsace.

 We warmed up a bit on the bus ride over to Bruges (about 45 minutes) and were surprised to see blue skies and even the sun when we disembarked.  Not wanting to have a rushed lunch with our tour group, we split off on our own with promises to meet back at the bus parking lot in a few hours.  On our own, we wandered to...

the main square and its lovely storefronts.  I love the color and the peaked stepped roofs. 

 The tilting Belfry.  We didn't climb the 366 steps to the top (too long of a line) but we did stop and admire it (look at the picture below and you notice that it leans...a full 1 meter).

The Basilica of the Holy Blood.  Containing nothing short of the blood of Christ brought back from the Second Crusades. (no pictures of the vessel allowed but I did get the altar).

 All around town there are these fabulous arched doorways leading to tiny streets full of quaint houses.  Utterly enchanting.

 The two pictures above are the Church of Our Lady in Bruges.  Their claim to fame is having the only statue of Micaelangelo's that left Italy during his lifetime  - The Maddona with Child.  Famous and pretty impressive.

 The Memling Museum.  We didn't go in since we really knew nothing of Memling's art but we did love the building and the sunshine that was streaming all around us as we headed back to the bus for the 100km drive back to Brussels.  After a spectacular dinner, it was back to the hotel for some rest because we had a lot of ground to cover in the next two days.