Brussels Centro

The way it was described, Brussels is kind of like Chicago in terms of tourism.  It's a place some visit but most people fly over, in this case on their way to Paris or somewhere on the other side of Belgium.

 But Brussels is beautiful, like Chicago, it's a great place to visit.

 Brussels is famous for many comic strip characters, it's considered the capitol of comic strips.  Tintin is from Brussels.

 I decided to get a formal tour of a city first time I tried this.  I learned about this free tour at the hotel front desk, the tour basically hit every site I wanted to see as well as others.  Tour guide was great, the guide was a local from the flemish community.  He often described things as X number of years older than the US.

 All over the city are statues.

 This is one of a rabbit on a bike.

 The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula is Brussels main church.  I'm not sure why it has two names, I could only count one cathedral.

 Stain glass everywhere.

 Many statues too.

Me outside Mont Des Arts, weather was great this weekend (not far from here in southern England was rain and flooding).  

This is one of the most famous tourist attractions,  its a statue of a baby peeing.  It's called Manneken Pis. If you visit, you can pick up a copy to take home, something to put in your garden.

You can see the crowed that forms here.  In Brussels, this is a good place to have your wallet snatched.  The tour guide did not understand why this is so popular.

 This is one of the paths the lead up to Grand Place, the main square of Brussels.

 Karl Marx lived here from 1845-1847 and wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party in an upper flat.  According to the tour guide, Belgium asked him to leave the country shortly after finishing the manifesto.

 Grand Place is amazing at dusk.  Most of these buildings were built in the mid-1600's.  Many of them were at one time guild's main offices.

Karl Marx lived in the building second from the right.