Brussels - beyond Grand Place and Mannequin Pis

It is our last day of vacation.  An entire day in Brussels but no particular agenda on the mind.  Only one of us can handle museums for more than a day on vacation (you guessed it - that would be me) so indoor appreciation of art was out.  After freezing on the hopon/hopoff the previous day (if Belgium is on the agenda in summer and you are not from western Europe - travel with all possible jackets, gloves and scarves you own), we decided to just walk around town.  www.visitbrussels.be helps guide us where we will go. All the usual tourist spots were already explored on the double decker bus so the morning was won over by the Classic walk.

After a late breakfast at the Marriott, we headed across the street towards the Grandplace for our morning walk.  We already hit the Bourse on the walk itinerary so what better way to start this walk then at Mannequin pis, especially after all those Nespressos at the hotel!  As we walk through the Grandplace, the center cobbles are covered with an array of green, thanks to a farmers market.
We enjoy the courtyard of the City hall, which btw has an internet portal where you can surf the net for free.  Might as well put the so saved Euros towards a devine piece of praline.
Onward to Mannequin Pis - the statue described by Asian tourists as "rather small no?"  A 100 yards on  Rue de l'Etuve and I remembered we had not had a single waffle on this entire trip to Belgium, how could that be - and was remedied ever so quickly at the first cafe at the corner of Rue de Lombard.  And then the rest of the walk continued..........  The cafes were empty, almost serene and the stores had enough room to walk around and take pictures inside.

A look back at the GrandPlace

Thats my waffle you see in the iron.

Had we followed "dont look back as you move forward", we would have missed this great view of the Grandplace city hall tower.

Gallerie St. Hubert was a feast for a photo lenses.

Beautiful array of tapestry pillows

Gallery St. Hubert - Side Aisle

Only in Belgium!  Chocolate not Perfume Boutique - Chandelier too!

Chocolate and Champagne

Being Indian, I had to photograph this window of an optometrist

Bring Color to your Winter Blues!

Seeing a lady light a votive at the Cathedral St. Michel, I took comfort in that and prayed for everyone back home as Irene pounded the Northeast.

At a quick lunch in the open air flea market around Rue de' L Infant,  I had every intention of indulging in Frites today (Fries for us americans) before I found out that all Belgian fries are fried in the good old lard, a definate no no for a vegetarian.  You'd think I would be devastated but then I saw the silver lining: reason enough to indulge in a chocolate at the next Neuhaus or maybe two for the same budget at Leonidas, or even better, one of the artisanal shops in the alleyways - The afternoon walk was full of possibilities.
After lunch it was a trip back to the hotel so we could quickly tap into the internet and check on the situation at home.  Our town is flooded, power is lost and trains are not working but the police are doing a fabulous job of updating us via Facebook! 
A quick cup of Nespresso and armed with a map we head out again but instead of following the Art Nouveau route, we made a right on Anspach (not my idea!), make a few wrong turns (did i say it was not my idea?), end up in what seemed to be the most depressed part of town (still not my idea but convinced J to walk real fast out of this place) and get back to Place Sablon, where alas all chocolateries are now closed.  The best part of walking in a city like brussels is to identify the high tops of landmarks and start walking in that direction (ever try doing that in the US cities? - hardly ever works).  So we walk towards the Palace of Justice and find the setting sun shining on a Benedict church and the Palace of Justice.  After soaking in the view at the tomb of unknown soldier, a walk towards the  Parc Royal on Rue de La Regence takes us past another hidden gem, the sculpture garden.  After exploring the sculpture garden we end up at the greek town near Grand place and end our Belgium trip with a Greek meal (certainly no lard here and absolutely devine).  Back to Grand place to spend our last hard earned dollar at the chocolateries which are open until 11:00 pm - there is a chocolate god after all!

Front facade of the Benedict Church (side and back are all traditional 20th century brick)

Sculpture Garden

Juxtaposition of the modern and the ancient facades