Brussels

Jesse and I got up early to go to Brussels with Tenley and Chris, the train took about an hour through mostly countryside. The first thing we saw in Brussels was this amazing church on a hill, Cathedrale des Sts Michel and Gudule, the two patron saints of the city. It had amazing stained- windows, an intricately carved pulpit, reliquearies of various saints, hands, skull, hips, and a crypt with the remains of an 11^th-century Romanesque chapel.

Then we walked over to the museum area of town, the Library had a small museum in it that was free. Some really old interesting text, but we couldn’t read what anything was. They did have a very teeny tiny bible, smaller than your fingernail and a page from the Egyptian book of the dead. Next was the museum of royal art, paintings from the 15^th to 19^th century, they had a lot from the Brugele family because they are from here and Rubens. I recognized some of them from my art history textbook, the styles and the names of the artists. Best of all was turning around and my whole body getting goose bumps because I saw Death of Murat by Jaques Louis David.

Chris was dying to go to a bar that was in one of his favorite tv shows, so we searched around for the Delirium Café. It was a really cool bar, lots of tin beer signs on the walls with circle drink serving trays on the ceiling. Some tables were old barrels while some booths had parts of the copper brewing vats as little roofs. I actually had three beers, all very girly and sweet, my favorite was mango, but the cactus and apple were good as well. Their beer menu was really more of a catalog because it had a selection of over 700 drinks.

Our last stop was to the Grand Place, the center of town, a big old square with the Hotel de Ville and the guildhalls. The Hotel de Ville was built in 1402 but wasn’t finished until 1444 so the building is not symmetrical with the right side being shorter. The Guildhalls that surround the rest of the square are adorned with gilded statues and symbols related to their trade. The wheelbarrow represents the grease-makers, the swan for the butchers and the golden tree for the brewer’s headquarters.

When we got back to the boat Marcia was there.