Places of interests in Brussels – Part 1

Brussels has a variety of things to see and do – more than 75 museums, impressive public buildings, leafy parks and interesting squares. The first stop is definitely the Grand-Place. Strolling from one of its fairly ordinary side streets into the historic Grand-Place is a unique experience in Brussels. A UNESCO World Heritage site of ornamental gables, medieval banners, gilded facades and rooftop sculptures, the Grand-Place is considered the most beautiful square in the world. This splendid esplanade is surrounded by Flemish Renaissance-baroque guild houses from the 17th century, the 19th century neo-Gothic Maison du Roi (King's House), and the 15th century Gothic Hotel de Ville (Town Hall). The 91m (300-ft.) tower of the Town Hall bears a spire, on which perches the Archangel Michael, patron saint of the city. The building is still the seat of the civic government, and its wedding room is a popular place to tie the knot. The Maison du Roi, despite its name, has never housed a king. It has served as a covered bread market as well as a prison and now houses the Musée de la Ville (City Museum), displaying a varied collection focused on the art and history of Brussels.

Maison du Roi & Hotel de Ville

Grand Place - unfortunately my photos do not do justice to the place. It really is a lot more impressive than it appers in these photos.

To the left of the Town Hall is the statue of Everard 't Serclaes, a hero of 14th-century Brussels who freed the city from the clutches of the counts of Flanders, and who later died from wounds received while resisting another would-be conqueror. Rubbing the bronze statue is said to bring you luck. A fountain in the shape a urinating child, the Manneken-Pis is a famous small bronze sculpture two blocks south of the Grand-Place. It is Brussels' favorite character, gleefully doing what a little boy's gotta do. No one knows when this child first came into being. Among the speculations are that he was the son of a Brussels nobleman who got lost and was found while answering nature's call, and also that he was a patriotic Belgian kid who sprinkled a hated Spanish sentry passing beneath his window. Yet another theory is that he saved the Town Hall from a sputtering bomb by extinguishing it with the first thing handy. The statue itself is a lot more ordinary than the hype surrounding it. Minutes away from the Grand-Place is the ornately decorated Bourse (Stock Exchange), an example of the French Second Empire architectural style, dating back from 1873.

Everard 't Serclaes & Mannekin-Pis

On the way to the Cathédrale des Sts-Michel-et-Gudule (Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula) is the Galeries Royales St-Hubert (St. Hubert Royal Galleries), the world's first shopping mall. The Italian neo-Renaissance style gallery with three connected wings opened in 1847, is a light and airy place with boutiques, bookshops, cafes, restaurants, a theater and cinema. The famous chocolatier, Neuhaus is located here. Cathédrale des Sts-Michel-et-Gudule is dedicated to the city's patron St. Michael, and to St. Gudula. Begun in 1226, it was officially consecrated as a cathedral only in 1961. The 16th-century Habsburg Emperor Charles V donated the superb stained-glass windows. The sparse interior decoration focuses attention on its soaring columns and arches while the bright exterior stonework is beautiful sight.

Galeries Royales St-Hubert

The beautiful stained glass windows of Cathédrale des Sts-Michel-et-Gudule

Belgians are crazy for cartoons. Called the CéBéBéDé for short, Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée (Belgian Center for Comic-Strip Art) on a side street not far from the Grand-Place, is dedicated to comic strips. Situated in a restored Art Nouveau department store building from 1903, the library of 30,000 books and its permanent and special exhibitions feature popular cartoon characters such as Tintin, Lucky Luke, the Smurfs, Charlie Brown, and Suske and Wiske, yet does not neglect the likes of Superman and Batman.

A nation obsessed with cartoons...even the buildings are painted with cartoon characters

(to be continued…)

Onwards to Brussels

The following few posts are continuation from this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this, all backdated posts of my trip to Europe in September.

September 21 – 22 (Friday – Saturday)

One would not visit the United States without seeing Washington, England without seeing London, France without seeing Paris, Italy without seeing Rome. So how could I visit Europe without seeing its capital? Yes, Brussels is the capital of the European Union (EU). It is chosen as the capital of Europe partly because it is at the heart of Europe, a mixing pot of Germanic people from the north and Latin people from the south.

The city of nearly one million inhabitants, Brussels is made up of French-speaking Walloons (80%) and Dutch-speaking Flemish (20%). Every sign in Brussels is written in both languages. Brussels is written as Bruxelles in French and Brussel in Dutch.

The train from Amsterdam to Brussels took about 2.5 hours, arriving at about 3.30pm at Gare du Midi train station. The hotel which I've booked online has pick-up services from the train station and arrived shortly after I called them. After checking into the hotel, I wasted no time to start exploring the city as I was to leave for Paris in about 24 hours.

Taiwan, here we come!

I have close to 39,000 Enrich points which will expire by December 31, 2007. As MAS will charge RM0.017 plus processing fees should I with to extend my points, it'll mean that I need to pay close to RM700, which I'm not too keen on doing. As such, hubby and I were discussing about potential places to visit during the Hari Raya Haji and Christmas break, since we'll get several days off in a row if we take leave on Friday (Dec 21) and Monday (Dec 24) off.

Our first thought was Langkawi, since hubby has never been there. But we shelved the plan since it's the rainy season and we didn't want the rain to spoil our holiday. The next option was Yogyakarta to see the Borobudur temples, but since we can probably get cheap tickets from Air Asia, we decided against it. Another option was Taiwan, as it's one of the few countries in Asia which I've not been to. Our hubby was keen too, so since yesterday was a public holiday in Selangor, we headed down to MAS head office in Jalan Sultan Ismail to redeem our tickets. We initially planned to purchase Yiu Yiu's ticket but it turned out that she has to pay 75% of the adult fare since she has turned two, which came up to more than RM1700. As such, I redeemed three tickets for a total of 105,000 points. There went 2/3 of my points, which I had painstakingly collected since 2001. I'm not complaining though, at least we get free tickets for a family holiday.

Our free flight tickets to Taiwan

I'm quite excited with this trip. Though we've been to Hanoi with Yiu Yiu early this year, this will be our first threesome family holiday as Hanoi was with the whole brood from my side of the family. Furthermore, Yiu Yiu was probably too young to remember or know anything. But she recently kept telling us that she wants to sit in an aeroplane whenever she sees an aeroplane flying overhead so I'm sure she'll be quite excited by this.

This is really a last minute thing and I now have to plan our itinerary and most importantly, book rooms to stay. I called up few travel agents to enquire about their ground arrangements in Taiwan but they don't sound very optimistic. Apparently Taiwan is quite full around this time. I'm praying hard that we will work out all the arrangements soon.

Amsterdam side trips (Part 3b) – Rotterdam

Continue from here.

Across the road from Blaak is Oudehaven (Old Harbour). Much of Oudehaven was destroyed in bombing raids during World War II. It has largely been rebuilt in daring and avant-garde styles. The first skyscraper in Europe, the White House, was built here in 1898. Historic ships are the perfect adornment to the now popular entertainment area.

Oudehaven and the White House

Heading towards to the Erasmusburg (Erasmus Bridge), one can see the Maritime Museum and the Harbour Museum. Just outside the Harbour Museum is the Walk of Fame. Here, 200 national and international celebrities such as Tina Turner, Gloria Estefan and Julio Iglesias have been immortalized in concrete. Eramusburg, a Rotterdam icon, is a single-span suspension bridge linking the northern and southern parts of Rotterdam which are separated by the Nieuwe Maas river. The 800-metre long bridge has a 139-metre high steel pylon, secured with 40 ropes. The shape of the pylon gave the bridge its nickname, "The Swan". Another bridge spanning the river is the dark red Nieuwe Willemsburg. At the foot of the bridge is the docking harbour of the Spido Harbour Cruise. The basic harbour trip is a 75-minute tour of the city's waterfront from which the entire harbour can be explored from the vantage point of an excursion boat. As I didn't have time, I had to unfortunately give this supposedly unforgettable experience a miss. Likewise, I decided not to venture to another Rotterdam's landmark, the Euromast.

Walk of Fame

The bridges separating the northen and southern part of Rotterdam - Erasmusburg on the left and Nieuwe Willemsburg on the right

My next destination was the museum area. The unusually designed Kunsthal (Art Hall) plays host to cutting-edge temporary exhibitions, sometimes several at the same time. About 25 exhibitions are held here every here, from classical art, modern art and design and photography. Opposite the Kunsthal is the Natural History Museum. Located in a former villa belonging to the Van Hoboken shipping family, a skeleton of a 15-metre sperm whale adorns the entrance hall. The Museumpark, part of the extensive Van Hoboken family estate, is a beautiful green lung and is a pleasure to stroll about. At the end of Museumpark are the Chabot Museum, the Netherlands Architecture Institure (NAI) and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Every year some 20 temporary exhibitions on architecture, urban development and spatial are held at the NAI. The permanent exhibition provides an overview of developments in Dutch architecture from 1850 to the present day. Rotterdam's leading art gallery, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, houses a large collection of classical and modern art. A short distance away is the Sylvette, a sculpture created jointly by Carl Nesjar and Pablo Picasso. Using the technique developed Nesjar, Picasso had his small sculpture of the woman he admired in the period around 1958, enlarged.

Clockwise from top left: Kunsthal, Natural History Museum, the Sylvette, the NAI

Museumpark

In 1859, Westersingel was constructed as part of a water project, mainly to improve the water management and thereby hygience in the old city. Most of the buildings in Westersingel are from the 19th century and were designed for the "better classes". A prominent building along Westersingel is Café de Unie. Before the bombing of 1940, it was on Coolsingel. In 1986 the replica was built at the current location. The bar, restaurant and cultural centre, with its primary colours blue, yellow and red, stands out among the 19th century buildings. Along the road across of Café de Unie are a collection of elephant sculptures. From there, it was a short walk back to the Central Station to catch the train back to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam side trips (Part 3a) – Rotterdam

Rotterdam is only an hour away from Amsterdam but it's centuries away from both in appearance and personality. Unlike Amsterdam, Rotterdam retains traces of its ancient history in only one tiny section, Oude Haven (Old Harbour). World War II takes the blame for that. Almost the entire inner city was destroyed during a bombing raid on May 14, 1940, and in 1944 Nazi occupation forces sent demolition squads to finish off the entire harbour. By the end of the war, Rotterdam was utterly devastated. Immediately after the end of the war, reconstruction began in earnest. Rotterdam owes it contemporary image to this rebuilding – a spacious feel, modern and courageous architecture. Today Rotterdam is a bustling metropolis of over one million with the largest port in Europe.

I arrived in Rotterdam by train at about 2.30pm. First thing I did was to visit the tourist information centre near the Central Station and the helpful lady suggested I take a walking tour since I only had about three hours. She gave me a route map, with descriptions of some of the places of interests.

Ever since it opened in 1953, Lijnbaan has been the busiest shopping street in Rotterdam. It was Europe's first predestrianised shopping area. Nowadays it offers a choice of large stores and small boutiques, with well-known brand names and chains such as Diesel, Esprit and Mango. Nearby Stadhuisplein, with its many bars and pavement cafes, is a popular place for Rotterdammers to gather. The war memorial, Monument voor de gevallenen, consists of two men, a woman and a child, representing the past, present and future, is a tribute to the people of Rotterdam who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of the country.

Linjbaan shopping street & Monument voor de gevallenen

Opposite Stadhuisplein is the City Hall. Queen Wilhelmina laid the foundation stone for the City Hall on July 15, 1915. The monumental building has a symmetrical design, constructed around a courtyard, with the main entrance in the middle. Walking down Coolsingel from the City Hall is the bottle green Beurs/WTC. Built in a functionalist style, it was the first building to be restored after the war. The World Trade Centre, the superstructure of the 90-metre high stock exchange building, dates back to 1986.

Lost between towering office blocks is the Het Schielandshuis, the oldest building in the city. Named after the Dyke Board of Schieland, which moved into the premises in 1665, the building with Dutch classicism with baroque details has been gloriously restored and now houses the Historical Museum. It shows off Rotterdam's cultural heritage through displays of paintings, silverware and furnitures.

Left - Right: City Hall, Beurs/WTC, Het Schielandshuis

Behind the shopping street of Hoogstraat is the Grote Kerk or Sint Laurenskerk (St. Lauren's Church), named after the patron saint of the city. Built between 1449 and 1525, St Laurenskerk is the only building from the Middle Ages still standing in Rotterdam. During the bombing raid of 14 May 1940 most of the church was destroyed, but it was rebuilt after the Second World War and opened again to the public in 1968. A stone's throw away from the Laurenskerk, in Grotekerkplein, is the oldest statue in the Netherlands, the statue of Desiderius Erasmus. The university, the largest hospital in the city and a bridge is also named after the humanist and philosopher, born in Rotterdam in 1468.

At the end of Hoogstraat, the Blaak metro station with its roof suspended from a massive steel arch, resembling a flying saucer comes into view. Next to the metro station is the geometric chaos of quirky apartments known as the Kijk-Kubus (Cube Houses). Set on concrete stilts and tilted at a crazy angle, each house has three floors. Residents have specially designed furniture to fit the sloping rooms.

(to be continued…)

Falling asleep while eating

My little girl doesn't like to take her afternoon nap. She will try her best to avoid going to sleep during the day even though she's visibly tired. It's as if sleeping is a waste of her precious time which she could have put to better use to tear the house down, mess up her toys and eating.

She woke up at 6.30am today and had been up playing before we went out for breakfast and ran errands. When we reached home at about 12noon, I told her, "Yiu Yiu take bath, then go sleep, OK" to which she replied, "Want to take bath, don't want to sleep." And true enough, after her bath, she refused to go to sleep.

After a while, she started to get cranky and asked to have a piece of fruit cake. Few minutes later, this was what I saw.

Mind you, this is probably the 4th or 5th time my little girl fell asleep while still holding food in one hand! Talk about multi-tasking

Taking medicine – 180-degree turn

Yesterday evening while at work, I got a call from the babysitter. She informed me that Yiu Yiu vomited while she was being fed dinner. I asked her how Yiu Yiu was, whether she was still active, etc. As she was still active and playing with the two boys, I decided that I probably didn't need to rush her to the paediatrician.

I worked rather late last night as I had to rush some stuff and only got to the babysitter's place at about 9pm. The babysitter said she didn't vomit any more since then. As she was having slight fever, we fed her some paracetamol at the babysitter's place, as Yiu Yiu was already sleepy and would probably fall asleep in the car. We willingly took the medicine and even had her mouth open when the babysitter was pouring out the medicine.

She woke up this morning with the slight fever still persisting. While having her milk, I told her that I'll give her some medicine after she brushed her teeth and she was happy hearing that. And true enough, when we got down to the kitchen, she eagerly opened her mouth and waited for the medicine. This is such a far cry compared to early this year, when we had to literally pin her down and force the medicine into her. And I have no reason to complain for this turn of event.

Amsterdam side trips (Part 2) – Marken and Volendam

The IJsselmeer (pronounced eye-sselmeer) has a surface area of around 1,200 sq. km (460 sq. miles), and hosts fleets of traditional boter and skûtsje sailing ships, fishing smacks, modern sailboats, powerboats, and canoes. Its waters are an important feeding ground for migrating and resident birds. The IJsselmeer actually was once a sea, until the Dutch decided they didn't want it to be one any longer, since it was always threatening to flood Amsterdam and other towns and villages along its low-lying coastline.

For centuries the Dutch have been protecting themselves from encroaching seas, and snatching more land to accommodate their expanding population. One of their most formidable opponents was the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea), an incursion of the North Sea that washed over Frisian dunes to flood vast inland areas. Over the centuries, the Zuiderzee continued to expand, and in the 1200s a series of storms drove its waters far inland. In 1932, in an unparalleled feat of engineering, the North Sea was sealed off, from Noord-Holland to Friesland, by the 30km (19-mile) Afsluitdijk (Enclosing Dike), and the saltwater Zuiderzee became the freshwater IJsselmeer. Since then, a vast area has been pumped dry, converting fishing villages into farming villages, and joining islands to the mainland. Among the cluster of picturesque old villages and towns in this area are the fishing villages of Volendam and Marken, along the shores of the Ijsselmeer lake.

Volendam is 18km northeast of Amsterdam. The village has about 21,000 inhabitants and is still growing. Volendam is well-known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents. The women's costume, with its high, pointed bonnet, is one of the most recognizable of the Dutch traditional costumes, and is often featured on tourist postcards and posters (although there are believed to be fewer than 50 women now wearing the costume as part of their daily lives, most of them elderly). Meerzijde, one street back from the harbour, is a maze of alleys and and mini-canals with quaint looking houses. From Volendam, there is a regular ferry connection to Marken, a peninsula close by.

The harbour and the main commercial street of Volendam

The beautiful neighbourhood of Volendam...how lovely it must be to be living here

Houses with huge compounds and no perimeter fencing...how nice

Marken, with a population of about 2,000 is a former island. Since 1957, it is connected to the Noord Holland mainland by a 2km long dyke. The dyke runs from Marken to the town of Monnickendam, just north of Amsterdam. It has a pretty harbour surrounded by traditional green houses. It used to be an important fishing harbour but now also caters for the leisure craft. The green houses were once fishermen's cottages, but are now mostly tourist shops and restaurants. In many ways, it is very much like Volendam, only smaller, quieter and more rural. Its population is Protestants, while Volendam is Catholic. The houses in Marken are built close together, with only a small alleyway in between, since there isn't much space to build on this 'island'.

The picturesque Marken harbour

Typical 17th century gabled timber house in Marken

A toy and a gadget

Over the weekend, there was a small Diethelm warehouse sale, mainly to clear stocks of Mattel toys, which Diethelm will no longer be distributing from next year. Papa was rostered to be on duty on Sunday. He went early and managed to get these for Yiu Yiu before the crowd started pouring in…both for only RM10 each. Papa's little princess is very happy as Baby Bop is her favourite character. And she hasn't stopped showing off her new Barbie watch to everyone she meets.

Amsterdam side trips (Part 1b) – Zaanse Schans (Clogs & cheese)

Continue from here.

There is also a clog maker's workshop, the Klompenmakerij, a workshop, as the name suggests where wooden klompen (clogs) are made. About three million pairs of clogs are still produced yearly, mostly by machines which can churn out a pair of clogs within five minutes, compared to two hours by hand. A block of fresh poplar wood is inserted into the machine which works very much like a key duplicate machine to cut out the shape, followed by creating a hollow in which to fit the foot. The clog is then dried under the sun for four weeks before being smoothen with sandpaper, polished and painted. The photos taken are the making of a pair of clogs to fit a four-year old.

Top: a fresh block of poplar placed into the machine and cut according to the mould

Bottom left: a cut block, bottom right: another machine to cut the inside of the clog

Left: Cutting off excess wood from the front, right: the completed clog in the worker's hand

Dutch people once wore clogs all the time. They were tough (great to prevent injury from cows stepping on your feet while milking) and water-proof (good for walking through muddy and cow-dung ridden fields). Clogs were readily available because they were produced from the poplar tree, a local and plentiful source of wood. Clogs are still a fixture in many farming areas, where they're much more effective against wetness and cold than leather shoes or boots. Those with pointed toes are for women and rounded toes are for men, and they are worn with heavy socks. They are also used for garden work and wall decorations.

On the way to Volendam, we stopped by to visit a typical Dutch farmhouse where cheese is still being made the traditional way.