Brussels

Bronze helmet from 1200-1000 BC at the Cinquantenaire Museum

Belgium, that tiny country tucked between France, the Netherlands and Germany. A quick stop in the capital gave me only a chance to visit the Cinquantenaire Museum. It has an amazing collection of Belgian pre-history, Merovingian, Mediterranean and even Islamic Art. Unfortunately, there are no English signs or descriptions. All signs are in Dutch and French. The staff does provide one brochure in English with photos of some of the iconic pieces. The brochure at least gave me an overview of each museum gallery.

Easter Island Maoi at the Cinquantenaire Museum

After attempting very hard to understand the French and Dutch signs at the Cinquantenaire Museum, I was ready for a walk in the beautiful sunny, blue sky day. I headed to the subway and took it back to old town Brussels. There, the tourists thronged the streets checking out the old buildings and tasting Belgian waffles. There was quite a selection, including 1 Euro waffles.

Belgian waffles

There are many old buildings to see in Brussels square. There are also random monuments, like the sculpture of a boy peeing, which is a fountain, fondly listed on maps as the "Pissing Man". No idea the significance. Brussels is also a site for comic strips. Most of them, I had never heard of. However, Brussels has a "strip" museum dedicated to comic strips. Many buildings in the downtown area are painted with a variety of comic characters in gigantic format.

There were many comics painted on the sides of buildings in Brussels