Waffles and Mussels in Brussels

I was completely exhausted by the time we arrived in Brussels. Even the excitement of finally being here could not overshadow that fact that it felt like someone put sandpaper in my eyes. We found it pretty easy to take the train from the central station and then rolled our suitcases right into Grand Place. After a little scrambling we found out how to get to our hotel (Alma Grand) and dropped off our bags.

No one can blame us for wanting a waffle in the middle of Grand Place. The smell makes undeniable demands on your stomach. We sat in the outdoor portion of a cafe and people watched while drinking our coffees and eating delicious delicious waffles. I will go into an aside on waffles in Brussels here, it just must be done. There are two kinds of waffles that you can get in this wonderful city: the street waffle and a cafe waffle. The street waffle is round, crispy, and very sweet. It gets its crunch from the fact that the sugar inside the waffle caramelizes as it cooks and it feels that god himself has prepared this in his own kitchen. (Mike liked the other kind better, but for me, this is it). The Brussels waffle is softer and is square or rectangular in shape. It is not as sweet, but has a light airy quality to it. it is also amazing and I have no idea how they achieve these results with simple earthly ingredients. In both cases, I recommend only whipped cream (or nothing at all) as the topping. Coffee gave us a little jolt, and as we still were not able to check in, Mike and I went for one of the walks recommended by the locals in Use-It, "The North Walk".

We had a promising start at the Botanique, which is a beautiful park a little away from the old city.

Parts of it have an English garden feel and plenty of locals were picnicking, relaxing, and sobering up in the park. Honestly, this was my favorite part of the walk so I wish we had saved it to the end. Then next part of the walk just had us walk toward the north train station. Along the way we stumbled into the red light district, set up in the same way as the one in Amsterdam (although I found the Dutch women prettier) and a busy Turkish market district which sold everything from food to flip-flops and gave me the feeling that I was in Chicago in Devon.

The rest of the walk was pretty blah. We went through a part of the business district, which was empty due to the fact that this was Saturday, walked by the Citroen museum and by le petit chteaiu which apparently currently houses refugees waiting to hear if their request for Belgian citizenship has been approved. By this point, I couldn't keep my eyes open, so we had more coffee at a corner cafe and crawled back to our hotel for a well deserved long nap.

Even after our nap we were extremely tired. We had mussels and other assorted sea creatures at a cafe close by and walked around the old city looking for comic murals. We stumbled upon the city symbol during our walk, so we felt justified in going home shortly after. There are several legends as to why this There are several legends about the peeing boy:

is the city symbol. I have copied this passage from Wikipedia: There are several legends behind this statue, but the most famous is the one about Duke Godfrey III of Leuven. In 1142, the troops of this two-year-old lord were battling against the troops of the Berthouts, the lords of Grimbergen, in Ransbeke (now Neder-over-Heembeek). The troops put the infant lord in a basket and hung the basket in a tree to encourage them. From there, the boy urinated on the troops of the Berthouts, who eventually lost the battle.
Another legend states that in the 14th century, Brussels was under siege by a foreignpower. The city had held its ground for some time, so the attackers conceived of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Julianske happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city.
Another story (told often to tourists) tells of a wealthy merchant who, during a visit to the city with his family, had his beloved young son go missing. The merchant hastily formed a search party that scoured all corners of the city until the boy was found happily urinating in a small garden. The merchant, as a gift of gratitude to the locals who helped out during the search, had the fountain built.
Another legend was that a small boy went missing from his mother when shopping in the centre of the city. The woman, panic-stricken by the loss of her child, called upon everyone she came across, including the mayor of the city. A city-wide search began and when at last the child was found, he was urinating on the corner of a small street. The story was passed down over time and the statue erected as a tribute to the well-known fable.

Another legend tells of the young boy who was awoken by a fire and was able to put out the fire with his urine, in the end this helped stop the king's castle from burning down.