Gilded

I felt I must make my last blip from Belgium the magnificent gilded buildings in Le Grand Place or Groote Markt in Brussels city centre.
The morning started with an excellent guided walking tour of the area. Most entertaining and informative. Not everyone chose to join us but we did see and learn more than we knew before and it ended with a free beer and a bit of a history of Belgium’s brewing industry in a bar near to the Mannequin Pis (he was dressed in surf wear today!)

The buildings in the Grand Place are all privately owned except the Town Hall, the one with the tower, and the city museum opposite. Though not a religious building it does have St Michael on top of the spire, killing the devil.

The other houses were Guild houses and though the French banned the guilds they are still generally known by their guild names. The one with the horse on the top is a brewery/ brewery museum and has never changed whatever the French decreed.

My battery went at this point and I have used my spare and forgotten my charger so I’ve only got the phone now!

We left the rest of the group and headed for the metro. We saw the Atomium on our way out of Brussels  pyesterday and Chris worked out how to get there using the Metro, it was very straight forward. I’m sure it will be a familiar sight to many of you - extra. It was built for the 1958 Universal Expo.
Yes we did go up it and it was pretty good, better than I expected, with escalators going up the ‘limbs’ with lighting effects and a lift up to the top. The views were great across the city and the Royal Park. Chris loved it. 

Used the Metro to get back to St Katherine’s where we ate last night. No mussels tonight, Chris had rabbit, I knew he would the minute I saw it on the menu!

Packing to do now. Early start to check in for the Eurostar in the morning.

Really enjoyed our few days away and cosmopolitan Brussels has grown on me. Love the beer and the chocolate but would die for a good cup of tea!
An interesting fact from this morning was that only 60% of the people living in Brussels are Belgian, it’s that sort of place.