The past weekend, Iwona and me were Couchsurfing in Brussels. We were visiting all the famous sights like the Atomium in Belgiums capital city and the "Center of Europe's Power": EU Parliament and the Commission. UPDATE 11.06.2008: Hole story including Impression, Sights, Center Of Power, Conclution and of course pictures online!
Impression
Brussels
Belgium was the last (but not least) missing country I haven't visited in west Europe. So my friend Iwona and me went there the past weekend. Well, sure there are still countries missing like Luxembourg, San Marino or Andorra - Nevertheless, I can say I have the big ones :-)
Helping out
As Wim, our Couchsurfing host in Brussels, guided us, it was a very nice visit. We didn't have to explore the city for our own. By walking arround, you will see many painted shutters like in Barcelona, but in Brussels there are also comic paintings on house walls!
Typical Brussels house walls with comic paintings
"Face the difference"
Face2Face
As we were a bit tired, we were not visiting the city at night, except of a small trip to the Atomium at night
Atomium at night
Iwona sitting in front of a fountain at Place du Petit Sablons
Sights
The capital city of Belgium has some nice sights to visit: Grand Place, Atomium, the headquarters of the European Union, the Kings Palace and all the rest of it.
Museum on the Grand Place
Grand Place
Gothic City Hall
Atomium
A strange sight of Brussels is "Manneken Pis". A 61cm tall peeing boy and for a short time his "sister" Janneken Pis. As Manneken Pis has been stolen for several times, you actually see just a copy. It was removed, when Brussels was "famous" for the pedophiles cases some years ago, to avoid even more worse news. Nowadays, there were two deplorable cases of confinement of young girls in Austria and pedophiles in United Kingdom & Jersey.
Manneken Pis (dressed), his "sister" Janneken Pis, Manneken Pis (naked)
Hallepoort - An old defense tower
Justice Palace
Koningsplein
Kings palace
Belgiums Parliament
Cathedral of Brussels
City wall
Iwona in Jubelpark
The Center Of Power
Brussels is well known as the center of power of the European Union. There is a big district with all of the important buildings like the Consilium, the parliament in Brussels (rotates with the parliament in Strasbourg), Berlaymont building...
We very extremly lucky, because there was "Day Of The Open Door", so we were even able to vist the Consilium and the parliament with a guided tour!
Lex Building
Berlaymont building
Consilium
Consilium
Art in the courtyard of the Consilium
Me standing in the press lounge
In the Council of the European Union
The main meeting room of the Council
Flags of the members of the European Union
EU Parliament in Brussels
Inside the Parliament
Conference hall of the EU Parliament in Brussels
Again flags of the members
Me sitting in the conference hall
Let's discuss...
..., but is Iwona appealing?
Shaking hands with the (fake-) President of the European Parliament "Hans-Gert Pöttering"
Conclution
Belgiums capital city is actually a very calm city and nice to visit. The prices in Brussels are the same as they are in Vienna. The city center is not that big and flat, you can easily go there by foot. If you are choclate addicted, you should be extremly carefull, you could gain weight easily ;-)
Belgian Waffle
As Iwona and me were couchsurfing, we were lucky, because we had a comfortable stay at Kathy & Wim's flat.They even took time to show us arround!
From left to right: Dominik, Iwona, Wim, Kathy
My overall experience is a good one, even if it was rainy at the beginning!
Galleries
Check out all pictures from Brussels on my photoblog
- Brussels Sightseeing
In this gallery you can see sights of Brussels like the Atomium, the Palace Of Jusice, Grand Place, Manneken Pis. My former colleague Iwona and me visited Brussels from the 6th of June until the 8th 2008. We could stay at our CS hosts Kathy & Wim
- EU-Center of Power
In this gallery you can see pictures of Europe's top most Center of Power: The Consilium, European Commission, Parliament in Brussels. Iwona, our CS host Wim and me took the chance of the "Day of Open Door"