I'm George (middle name Oliver), a Brussels-based policy type... This is my personal blog which will cover my eclectic tastes. Sorry to anyone trying to take in interest in everything I post - I'm liable to write about anything from Football to Quakerism to Anglo-Saxon history... I'm aiming to update every Tuesday. If anyone has any suggestions for topics do let me know :)
Every three years, British Quakers have a big get together, where around 1,500 Qs converge for a week or so, usually on a university campus or similar, mainly because they’re the only places …
Sorry tumblr followers! I’ve in fact posted three times on wordpress, and they haven’t been copied across to here (I found that the automatic feature that does this, even does it when you just edit something on wordpress, so I switched it off, and then forgot..)
Anyway, above is my post on the big Quaker event last summer and here is my post on Oslo and the one on Copenhagen.
I'm a Brussels Bubble inhabitant and Quaker. Here are my eclectic ramblings
Hi all,
Apologies for the radio silence. Just wanted to let you know that I decided to shift my blogging to Wordpress, as I was becoming increasingly frustrated with Tumblr as a platform (it always took ages to actually upload any of my posts, especially with lots of photos in them..)
Also, Wordpress enables you to like and comment on posts even if you don’t have an account, and you can even subscribe via email, so you would get all my eclectic ramblings direct to your inbox. (If you go to the site, and click on the folder icon in the top left-hand corner, then a heading comes up that says “Follow Blog via Email” and you can enter your address)
So the new address is https://georgethurley.wordpress.com/ and you can find a new post on our holiday to Copenhagen there too (one on Oslo to follow soon)
Never fear, I will set it up so that my Wordpress posts appear on my Tumblr page, but from now on I will be putting them up in Wordpress, so they’ll probably look better over there!
Aspects of Brussels/Belgian Life: Architecture and buildings
Disclaimer: Now, I'm no Architecture expert, so the following blog consists of my (often ill-informed) observations, rather than absolute fact. I'm sure there are many better sources for proper architecture facts..
Now, as ever with Belgium and Brussels particularly, there is a bit of a melange of Dutch and French influences in the building styles. Emmie insists that Belgian buildings are “more Catholic” i.e. with more decoration and unnecessary frills than in the sober, Protestant Netherlands. While this is probably true, from my perspective, the Dutch influence is clear from the stepped roofs and plain brick work.
Some Dutch-style stepped roofs in Brugge
The French style town hall (”maison communale”) in Saint-Gilles
Art Nouveau is certainly the architectural style most associated with Brussels. Victor Horta, one of the most famous proponents of the style was Belgian and a number of buildings designed by him survive in Brussels, along with those designed by Paul Hankar, Henry van de Velde and Ernest Blerot. The style emphasises ornamentation, particularly borrowing from nature, with leaves, flowers and curves featuring heavily. Many of the architects also designed furniture/had furniture designed to go with their houses, and the style.
Old England, a classic example of art nouveau
One of the best surviving examples is Horta's own house, which is beautiful, complete with its spiral staircase, stained glass and lovely combinations of wood, stone and metal. It's open to visit, but I don't have any interior photos, as they're not allowed…
Horta’s front door
I say one of the best surviving examples because of course, many of them didn't survive. Belgium seems particularly unsentimental when it comes to its fine buildings – you will often see ugly concrete 60s tower blocks alongside refined turn-of-the-century townhouses, and this eclecticism is one of the defining features of Brussels architecture. This seemingly indiscriminate tendency to replace nice buildings with ugly tower blocks is known as Brusselisation.
One of the most famous instances was Horta's Maison du Peuple. Built to be the central meeting place of the Belgian Workers' Party, it was a grand and impressive building. Despite public protest it was demolished in 1965 and replaced by a skyscraper for one of the city's administrative departments. Given the protest, the building was actually “dismantled” with the idea of putting it back together elsewhere. This never happened (inevitably), and instead various parts survive in the metro station near me, the Cafe Horta in Antwerp, and probably a few random warehouses across the country.
The maison du peuple as it was...
...and what replaced it
Brussels also has some buildings from Art Nouveau's successor Art Deco, a more modernist style with cleaner, straighter lines. I hadn't seen much of this style in Brussels, until I visited the Villa Empain recently. It's now a museum/gallery, aiming to bring together west and east, in a beautiful, but slightly imposing atmosphere. The feeling is one of being in a 1930s boardroom, with all the hard stone and dark wood.
and apparently the inspiration for the wifi symbol
Lastly, I would add one less official style to this list. I've identified an “imperial style” - essentially buidlings built around 1900 (so largely contemporary to Art Nouveau) by the state, usually big and grand, and the end of wide boulevards so you can see them for miles (even more so then I guess) and also habitually decorated with big golden “L”s topped with a crown – Leopold didn't go in for subtlety. The Palais de Justice and Cinquantenaire arch and arcade fall into this category.
Those big Ls up close
So that's about it, as far as I'm concerned – I'm sure I've missed lots...
My brother visited Brussels/Belgium for the first time last weekend! It was nice, and slightly odd that he was only visiting after I'd been here so long. We did all the usual stuff – saw the sights, ate frites and waffles, played board games etc. We also went to the Brussels Chocolate Village, which was new to me, and quite cool. They had real cocoa trees in a sweltering and humid conservatory, and a proper chocolate workshop (complete with tempting melted chocolate machine, and completed truffle on the stone table). They also had a section on chocolate advertising, which was intriguing.
We also had interesting chats about his feelings on returning to the family dynamic after four years in the States, whether it was weird to see me in my individual/everyday context, (as we normally see each other in family settings i.e. at least with parents), how we are in relationships, feminism, how to use white male privilege to help others (we didn't come to any great conclusions..) and whether we grew up believing ourselves to be more different from each other than we in fact are - we thought we did. It was interesting, and good fun.
(I didn’t take any pictures, since we were only in boring ‘ol Bxl ;) so credit goes to Joe)
In summer 2015 when Emmie and Simon first came to Brussels, we tried to visit the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken (Les serres royales de Laeken/ Koninklijke Serres van Laken). We were so keen, we even went all the way out there twice, before doing the sensible thing and googling it, to find out it's in fact only open for 3 weeks every year around April/May.
So this year Simon came to see us slap bang in the middle of that period, for the long Mayday weekend. Visiting the greenhouses was the first thing on our list, but we all know that Simon's not a big city kind of guy, so we had to plan other green-y things.
On Saturday we went to visit the Greenhouses. They were pretty sweet, apart from all the other tourists (the downside of only being open for such a limited time). The botanical greenhouses were very neatly arranged and cultivated, rather than being allowed to grow more or less naturally as in other botanical gardens. The limited opening is presumably to do with giving the gardeners a time period within which they can maintain this ruthlessly managed appearance.
An example of the manicured presentation style
It was pretty and flowery inside, and grand and sloping out. Emmie particular enjoyed the tunnels of hanging-flowers-whose-names-I've-forgotten,
What are these things called then?
Simon gave us both a new appreciation for ferns (there were many ferns of all shapes and sizes)
huuuge ferns
and I quite liked the blossom covered trees, and the tree strangling/climbing a lamp post.
The tree climbing the lamp post
The network of greenhouses themselves were impressive with the huge domed winter garden particularly so.
Simon with the Japanese Tower coming out of his head
Winter garden: interior / exterior
The next day we took our bikes and cycled off to the Bois de la Cambre / Ter Kamerenbos, and beyond that to the Forêt de soignes/ Zoniënwoud. The first is a large and popular park at the end of Avenue Louise, and the latter is a 4,421-hectare wood, that bridges all three regions of Belgium.
Basically we cycled around the myriad paths, zooming down, and struggling up the slopes with me on my general-purpose bike, Emmie on her heavy Dutch bike (which is designed for use on flat cycle paths, hence, it's hard work/not helpful to stand up on the pedals and only has 3 gears, most of which didn't work) and Simon zipping around on Em's folding bike. Emmie and I swapped bikes at one point, and I felt her pain on the hills. We didn't go anywhere in particular, but took turns choosing which way to go at junctions..
We had a picnic and felt very virtuous when we finally collapsed at home. It was nice to see a new area of Brussels, and enjoy the outdoors on a lovely day.
My parents visited recently (edit: it was in March.. apologies for the delay), so we went on a day trip to Mechelen, just north of BXL, as I'd never visited before.
It's a lovely little Flemish town, with all the things you'd expect: a big old tower, lots of churches, a picturesque stadhuis and grote markt. It also had nice cafés and restaurants, green space and a walkway along the river, where you could nose into the backs of everyone's houses, and we critiqued the modern builds springing up alongside the original riverside dwellings.
We also wandered out to Mechelen's large beguinage – essentially the area that was inhabited by lay religious women (kinda like nuns, except they didn't have to seclude themselves from the world or take vows) back in the day. It was a good area to wander round – lots of narrow passages, and pretty houses, and interesting (religious) adornments on the walls.
Other than beguinages, we learnt about:
Mechelen's animosity/rivalry with Antwerp
Margaret of Austria being pretty cool, and governing the Netherlands from Mechelen
The Opsinjoorke – Mechelen's wooden doll mascot, which gets thrown up in the air during Mechelen festivities. It represents a drunk & unfaithful man, thrown up in the air by the women of the district. It also forms part of the animosity with Antwerp, as Mechelaars seem to believe the Antwerpians want to steal it (some students did in 1971..) There's also a big version of it for kids to play on! (see above)
The cathedral tower, intended as the tallest in the world, but they didn't reach the intended 167 metres, stopping instead at 97.. It does have a kind of unfinished look…
& probably some other stuff. All in all, Mechelen was pretty, pretty Flemish, and pretty cool.
Life update: I recently found, and started, a new job! I’ve been working at the European Public Health Alliance since the last week of March. I’m working on the Food and agriculture, and trade campaigns, to try and make sure that those areas of EU policy are consistent with public health objectives. It’s a new beginning in terms of content (I was working for about 2 years on waste, consumption and resources issues), but the ways of working are largely similar, and I remain in the heart of the Brussels bubble. I’ve enjoyed it so far, and can see I’ll learn a lot from the people I’m working with.
This seems like a good time to reflect on being unemployed. I was out of a job for about 6 months in the end, and had varied experiences with it. I should say that I was in the privileged position of receiving unemployment benefit (vive l'EU! Oh, wait..) and so didn’t have to just take any old job.
There were a few things I appreciated about not working:
Flexibility (I could do my laundry in the middle of the day, or do work late at night, or travel home or elsewhere for longer than usual)
Not having to get up early every day
The chance to give time to other things, like reading, exercising, writing blogs (honestly I did try…)
The chance to reflect on what I really want to do with my life.
But inevitably there were also lots of things that weren’t so nice:
Spending a lot of your time writing job applications, and then hearing absolutely nothing back. Honestly, you might as well print the application and throw it off a cliff. Employers take note – an email to acknowledge the application, even the unsuccessful ones, goes a long way to making the applicant feel they haven’t just wasted their time and will probably give your organisation a better reputation.
Feeling guilty about not getting up early(ish..)
The chance to reflect on what I really want to do turning into more agonising about whether I was doing the right thing
Feeling listless, directionless, like my day was pointless.
That was a big one actually: the feeling that I was contributing nothing to society; the feeling that, if I’d just stayed in bed the whole day, the world would have been essentially the same. (This is almost certainly true sometimes when I’m employed, but feeling like that is the depressing thing)
The fact that when you told people you were unemployed they acted like it was the worst thing in the world. I’m not dying, people! I’d suggest that having periods of looking for work is pretty normal for most people of my generation, so let’s not get so dramatic about it, eh?
I wasn’t just applying for jobs, I also had some ongoing Quaker voluntary commitments, and towards the end found an awesome non-profit, FoodWIN to volunteer for. In hindsight, I should have sorted that earlier. At the start I spent a lot of time applying for jobs, even ones I wasn’t necessarily that interested in, and as time went by, I realised that applying for so many just made me feel worse..
I wonder if the above tallies with others’ experiences of unemployment? Do share..
Being unemployed also makes you reflect on the nature of employment; it’s my considered opinion that we should all work a little less, allowing more people to work in total. A universal basic income might be a good idea too, because then I might be able to build some flexibility into my life, rather than the standard being working 35-40 hours a week..
All in all, I was very lucky in my unemployment: wonderfully supported by my friends, family and girlfriend (not to mention the Belgian state), and got back into an interesting job without too much getting-my-hopes-up-followed-by-heartbreak.
Another important aspect of life living in Brussels is the language, or more accurately the languages plural. This, I think, is the main difference for me between living in the UK and living abroad – most western European countries are largely similar, apart from the languages.
Belgium has 3 official languages: Dutch/Flemish, French and German. Brussels has two – the first two, while Dutch/Flemish is the only official language in Flanders, and French the only official language in Wallonia. German is the official language in the German speaking area. The street signs switch abruptly from bilingual to monolingual when you leave the capital, which can be confusing, especially when there are different names for the same places (Antwerp is Antwerpen in Dutch/Flemish and Anvers in French. Liege is Liege in French and Luik in Dutch/Flemish..)
French signs in Wallonia (Binche to be precise)
Although Brussels is officially bilingual, French dominates – Emmie can't just start speaking Dutch to people most places. This is because although Brussels is surrounded by Flanders, it's also the capital, and French has historically been the language of the upper classes and Dutch of the workers or farmers (even Dutch nobles used to write to each other in French). Dutch/Flemish was only approved as an official language in 1898, and a Dutch/Flemish version of the constitution was only approved in the 1960s.
I learnt French before I came to Belgium, but have probably improved a lot in my time here. Mainly I've improved my spoken confidence and fluency – the English way of teaching languages gave me a good basis of comprehension and writing, but not the confidence to converse. Living with Francophones has definitely helped that. Belgian French is, of course, not the same as French French, and there are definitely “Belgicismes” I've picked up without knowing.
One of the most obvious is that 70 and 90 are septante and nonante rather than soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix (only swiss french uses the logical octante rather than quatre-vingt), others include adding the word “quoi” at the end of most sentences (which always puts me in mind of Jeeves and Wooster era Englishmen adding “what” to everything) and the phrase “Tu viens avec?” (are you coming with?) which the French consider completely grammatically incorrect. That last one is apparently due to the influence of Dutch grammar.
Then there's the thorny issue of Dutch v Flemish. I'm pretty sure virtually every Fleming I've asked has given me a different answer on this, but as far as I can work out Dutch is what is taught in Belgian schools (the official language) and Flemish is what you learn at home. But implying that there is only one Flemish dialect gives entirely the wrong impression – Flemings often remark how they cannot understand people 10 miles down the road, if they choose not to clean up their local dialect.
Emmie says the Dutch consider that the Flemish use more old-fashioned words and phrases (a little like the divergence between US English and UK english), and have a cute accent. This patronising attitude surely contributes to Flemish resentment of the Dutch :P I've only recently started learning Dutch so my understanding of the differences is limited, but I am probably developing more of a Flemish accent (soft, rather than more guttural g's)..
Alongside these official languages, there are many more in Brussels. It's extremely common to hear multiple languages walking down the street. Moroccan Arabic is supposedly the second most common first language in Brussels (after French). I live in an area with lots of Portuguese immigrants, so Portuguese is common there.
In the international community, and the European quarter, you'd be far more likely to hear English in the streets. In the EU bubble, English is the de facto common language, as when you bring together people from Bulgaria, Spain, Germany and Latvia, it's likely to be their only shared language. That's how I've got by only speaking French at home and in bars, shops and restaurants – as I can speak English at work. Many English people don't learn French at all living in Brussels (it is certainly not the ideal place for an immersion course…)
Of course, when English is being spoken among various European nationals, it's not English as spoken by native anglophones – it's International English or ELF (English as a Lingua Franca). This can result in interesting takes on English sometimes, and it must also have an effect on us native anglophones. The German comedian Henning Wehn did an interesting radio show on this a while back (link).
One way or another, language seems to be central to people's experience of Belgium/Brussels and I often find myself having engrossing conversations about speaking foreign languages, the intricacies of Belgian French, or Flemish dialects, and the effects of raising your children as bi- or even multi-lingual. I find language fascinating – perhaps that's why I like Brussels so much.
There's only one drink I'm going to talk about in any depth in this blog: beer. You can get other drinks in Belgium, obviously, but only beer occupies such a central place in Belgium's identity. In fact, Belgian beer was recently added to UNESCO'a list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. There are around 1150 different varieties of beer brewed in Belgium, ranging from the six certified Trappist breweries, to abbey beers, blondes, tripels, brunes and ambrées, wit beers, geuzes (blending lambics), fruit beers (gueze + fruit during the fermentation process) and lambics (sour beer made with wild yeast).
Whenever I go to a bar, café or restaurant for a drink, I try to have a new beer. Even if I managed this every time, I wouldn't have made a dent.
I like quite a wide range of Belgian brews, particularly chewy brunes and some blondes: Orval, Omer and La Chouffe are some of my easily accessible favourites.
Belgian beers are generally stronger than UK equivalents – from 5 to 10% - and served in smaller volumes (33cl is a normal size). It's very important that you get the right glass with your beer (servers at the bar are often very apologetic when they don't have the right receptacle). A handy tip for anyone visiting Belgium is that the wider the glass opens at the top, the more flavourful it is – weedier beers (standard lagers like Jupiler, Maes and Stella Artois) have narrower openings to concentrate their limited flavour in small spaces.
Last weekend, I, along with some friends, visited the shyest and most retiring of the six trappist breweries. Westvleteren, made at the abbey of Saint-Sixtus, near Poperinge, is, to put it mildly, not widely sold. It is only possible to buy the beer directly from the abbey itself, or from the visitor's centre across the road. To collect any beer from the abbey one has to reserve it by phone and each buyer is limited to 1 or 2 cases of 24 bottles every 60 days.
Just 5 monks (+ 5 more to help with the bottling process) produce only 475 kilolitres (60,000 cases) per year, which is the same as they produced in 1946. They make three beers: a blonde, the 8 (which is 8%) and the 12 (which is just over 10%). The 12 was recently rated the best beer in the world by ratebeer.com which, combined with the limited supply, resulted in even greater interest in the beer. The monks still refuse to increase their production to meet the frenzied demand, insisting: “We are not brewers. We are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks.”
The abbey itself, with a stern sign directing you elsewhere (Image credit: Joscha)
So we got the train out to Poperinge, and walked to the visitor centre in the Belgian, freezing grey. There, we installed ourselves, trying all three of the beers, their cheese, and even an ice cream made with the 12. It was good, though inevitably all the hype around the “best beer in the world” meant perhaps we had built it up a lot. For those who are interested but don't have the time to make the pilgrimage to Poperinge, St Bernadus, also brewed just outside Poperinge, is meant to taste quite similar to the 12, and is much easier to get hold of.
The following day, we visited the De Plukker Brewery, where they make organic beer with hops from their own farm. We had a tour and a tasting (I had already inadvertently tried two of their 5 beers in the local Irish pub). 80% of Belgian hops are grown in and around Poperinge, and so De Plukker decided to make their own beer from their yield. De Plukker = the plucker in honour of the workers who used to harvest the hops. The brewery hopes to start using its own organic malt in the beer soon, and makes some very tasty beers.
De Plukker’s beers, and stretching Hop fields (Image credit: Radhika)
So come to Belgium, and enjoy the intangible liquid heritage of its land! (If you don't like beer.. sorry)
I read (at least) ten books in 2016. When I was younger I used to read all the time, but when the time came to make the step from children's and young adult books, to grown-up books, I seemed to tail off. Certainly when I was at university, reading the whole time for my degree, reading wasn't the most attractive way to spend my down time.
Since finishing university, I've drifted in and out of reading more or less – often it depends a lot on the book I'm reading at the time, and I often leave gaps between books – but last year, I set myself a target to read 10 books in 2016. (I say I read at least 10, because I only set the target midway through the year, so I couldn't remember exactly what I might have read.) I was inspired by Emmie (whose own magnificent blog is here) who read 40 books last year…
Anyway, these were the 10 books I read:
The Invincibles
This is a book I got because I'm a member of Arsenal football club (football neeerd). It's about the season when Arsenal (2003-2004) went unbeaten. Well written, but most appealing to Arsenal fans who want to lose themselves in the good old days…
Middlemarch
This should probably count as several books… I got this a couple of years back, had a go at it, gave up after the first volume (yes, that's right, it was originally published in volumes: 8 of them). On this second reading I was more determined though, and got all the way through eventually. I did enjoy it in the end, it's just quite dense, due to its treatment of several plot lines at once, and the slightly alien/more stilted 19th century English. I really appreciated the depth of it, and how it dealt with complicated themes like idealism, the role of women and of course, love and marriage. I'd recommend it, but don't expect Pride & Prejudice, it's a good deal less light-hearted than that. The Garths (such Hufflepuffs..) and the Farebrothers were my favourite characters.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Perhaps not technically a book, as it's a script? Emmie and I bought it in Frankfurt, and read it together over the course of the holiday. I'm sure watching the play would be much more rewarding – the script is pretty bare bones, and low-quality fan fiction-esque.. Still, I do always enjoy more Harry Potter stuff. I am currently listening to the “Witch, Please” podcast, and feeling a strong urge to re-read all the books (like, actually physically read them, rather than just vaguely listen to Stephen Fry reading them).
The Poisonwood Bible
I really enjoyed this book, for a couple of reasons. One, because it gave me an interesting insight into Belgium (my current abode's) relationship with what is now DR Congo, and two, because to such a great degree it reminded me of living in Ghana. The book is centred on the wife and four daughters of a Baptist missionary sent to rural Congo at the end of the 1950s, and although I did not live in anywhere near the same conditions as described in the book, the sensations, and the uneasy relationship painted between African and white European culture was eerily familiar. It was really well written too, dealing with all these huge themes of colonialism, racism, Christianity & faith, through a simple and compelling personal story. It's one of my mum's favourite books too, if you needed further recommendation.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
When I went home saw this on the shelf, I decided it was time to read it, having heard good things about it before. I knew the basic premise, but I had no idea where the book was going, and thought it told an interesting internal story, through a fairly simple external story (sort of like Inside Out). I remember reading it on the sleeper train back from Budapest, and I also remember quite how visceral some of the passages felt, as Christopher describes how and what he is feeling.
The Handmaid's Tale
This is a book I've seen for years sitting on my parents' bookshelf, and this is not what I was expecting. The cover images and the title had always led me to believe it was set in the past, one of those sort of historical novels that get churned out. So to be presented with a dystopian novel was a surprise, and I enjoyed it. “Mystery books”, where you have to work out what has happened in the past/the present situation, based on the limited information the narrator gives you do always feel a little exasperating to me. I just want to know the world we dealing with, or at least not have it hidden from me in such an obvious way, but it didn't bother me too much in this book.
Pride and Prejudice
Now, this one I read because Emmie's family was shocked I had never read it before (her grandfather reads it every year at Christmas), and I felt like I was failing as a British person. I found it very funny and clever at many points, particularly enjoying Mr. Bennet's detachment, (although Emmie made me accept that he wasn't actually a very good parent, he's still an entertaining character), Mr. Collins' complete over-the-topness and Lizzie being rude to Lady Catherine. I also enjoyed dick-ish Darcy at the start.
It struck me that A LOT of the book is to do with class, social climbing and pretension, and I felt as though – while that might explain part of the book's international popularity – this meant a lot of it might only be fully understandable to British readers, who are still submerged in a lot of the same social expectations on show in the book. Maybe I'm wrong though..
Rivers of London and Moon over Soho
I got the first three of this “Rivers of London” series for my birthday, and I admittedly picked the second one as my 10th book, because I knew it was easy to read, and I could meet my 10 book target in the last couple of weeks of the year.. Essentially it's a magical police series, although I do feel it's also targeted at people who really know and love London (which is not me). So I let a lot of that capital scenery-porn pass me by, and enjoy the magical world being built up. I always enjoy seeing how authors choose to set up their magical systems, and this one strikes me as more of a Pratchett-esque one, wherein magic has “real world” consequences – equal and opposite reactions – and so is presented in more of a science-y way. I always think of the Pratchett quote about your brain being pushed out your ears if you get magic wrong: in Rivers of London, even when you get it right, it destroys the technology in the vicinity..
Through the Narrow Gate
This is the only autobiographical novel on this list, again touching on religion as a major theme. It's about the author's experience being a Nun in the 1960s, just as Vatican II was taking place, and reforms are starting to trickle through. Most of it is a deeply personal account however, and as a Quaker I found it interesting to argue about the views she was being taught, and the absolute nature of the rules she had to follow. Some of it seemed downright inhumane, and there was this duality in these passages, as the author writing many years later clearly shared some of this disbelief, while she had to write herself as she was, largely accepting of the treatment she received. An intriguing book, if you want to know what the inner life of a nun is like.
So that was my 2016 in books! My target for 2017 is 12-15 books, and so far I have read less than one, that one being, The Uses and Abuses of History, which I think might be left over from one of my historiography courses at University. It's interesting, just dense, I'll get there eventually.
The route in full. If you want to see it/follow it in more detail you can do that here
When you're ready, wander on down, into Sablon/Zavel, the more upmarket version of the Marollen with proper posh antique shops (for window-shopping purposes only..) On the Grand sablon square, have a nose in the window of the chocolate shop that's more like an art gallery than a shop. Walk up to the Sablon Church, and reach Rue Royale, running from the Royal Palace to the Palais de Justice (lurking imposingly at the end of the wide street). Across the road, an optional extra is the Petit Sablon park, with statues representing each of Brussels' guilds. As with much of Brussels, it is in the process of being renovated..
Place du Grand Sablon, with the Church at the top
Said church
The fountain in Petit Sablon/Klein Zavel (photo credit: Emmie)
Carry on up Rue Royale, past the Musees Royaux des Beuax-Arts (including several great museums, and one dedicated to the works of Belgium's finest surrealist René Magritte) and onto Place Royale. More museums are clustered round here, including Bellvue (Belgian history, recommended) and Coudenberg (the old underground palace, I have never visited) with the Bozar just beyond. You can also pop round the corner to see the Royal Palace at this point but it's not essential in my book.
The PdJ from Place Royale (photo credit: Simon)
From Place Royale you get another good view of the centre, particularly the Stadhuis on Grote Markt. Walk towards it, down the hill, past the striking art nouveau building Old England, which currently houses the musical instruments museum. This hill is known as the Mont des Arts/Kunstberg, which - as with many French phrases translated into English – sounds much more prosaic in English (Art hill/hill of arts). Head down the steps through the garden towards the true touristy centre.
Old England/MIM (photo credit: Simon)
First you'll reach the Grasmarkt, with all its frite, waffle and chocolate shops, and the crowds thickening. Turning left and walk down the alley past the Tintin shop, and enter onto Grand Place/Grote Markt, the touristy heart of Brussels.
Look around. Admire all the pretty buildings, including the city museum and town hall, and many gold-decorated guild halls. Try to ignore all the other tourists. I normally ask my guests which house they would have if they were handing them out (you're not allowed the museum or the town hall.) Soon my friends, family and I will own all of Grand Place. Mine's the one with the dome on top.
(Not my photo..)
Next on the agenda is the manneken pis. I recommend taking the route that makes him as disappointing as possible. To do this, head down the lefthand side of the town hall as you look at it from Grand Place passing lots of touristy shops, and the Tintin comic wall. As you go, make sure to notice all the Manneken pis replicas – peeing boys for your garden pond, chocolate peeing boys, and much else besides.
When you arrive at MP, consider just how small he is, especially compared with all the doppelgängers you've just passed. Take a moment to look at the clutch of tourists clustered round the tiny statue. Revel in the nonsense of it. Walk away.
(Yes I deliberately picked the picture that makes him the least significant.)
Now loop round to the Bourse, the old stock exchange. The street in front has recently been pedestrianised. In true Brussels style they just put up barriers and left all the road infrastructure as it was before, but we're assured they're working on it.. Some people complain that it stops people coming to the centre to shop, or that people hang around there at night, but it has allowed some nice things to happen, such as the impromptu tributes and offerings that popped up after the attack last March. Messages of peace, love and solidarity covered the road, and were written in chalk across the walls of the Bourse itself.
The Bourse decked out for Brussels Pride
(From the Bourse, there is a potential tangent westwards towards St Gery, a little cluster of bars and cafés, and beyond it, St Catherine, where you can pee against a church perfectly legally, but I would consider this extra to the classic tour.)
Instead, from here I would lead my charges back up the hill, possibly via the female version of the Manneken Pis, Jeanneke Pis (cos equality!, but also apparently because some bar owners thought that putting a peeing statue at the end of the dead-end alley where their bars sit, in order to encourage tourists to pass their bar and suddenly be overcome with thirst, was a sound business proposition)
Also worth seeing are the Galeries Royales de Saint Hubert, posh, sparkly covered galleries, essentially old time-y shopping centres, including the shop where the praline was invented (apparently). I like to imagine that the Belgians and the Swiss have a long-running feud on this point..
(Photo credit: Emmie)
Heading back on up the hill (who said Belgium was flat?) you come to the Cathedral, free to enter. You can at this point carry on up the hill to Parc, between the Royal Palace and the Parliament (or officially the Chamber of Representatives) but usually people's feet are pretty tired by now, and you've covered the core of Brussels very nicely! Time for a beer/waffle/frites/all three!
(Not my photo)
(Other Brussels tours of mine include: the European quarter, St Gilles & Ixelles. For another blog perhaps..)
The Classic Brussels TourTM (according to me at least) part 1
When friends or family visit me in Brussels, they get the tour. Brussels is of a size which means that it is more than possible to see most of the centre and main landmarks on foot, in a few hours or so (walking just over 3 miles/ no more than 5km according to the route I mapped out). Over time, I've consolidated my version of the tour so as to hit all the most interesting central areas, link to all the best stories/anecdotes and avoid some of the random boring/uninspiring bits that sit between them.
Or at least, I thought I had consolidated my tour into one standard version. But in the process of writing this blog, it turns out I've probably done it subtly differently each time, although some elements are fixed and sacred. I've sketched it out below for your reading pleasure, or for those who will be doing it without me, or just for other Brussels amateur tour guides to argue with. Some of you might have been fortunate enough to have been given this tour, others will have to visit to enjoy its full majesty.
The tour:
The route in full. If you want to see it/follow it in more detail you can do that here
As previously mentioned, I live in Saint Gilles, so I start from there, at the edge of the centre where the city wall used to stand. The Porte de Hal/Hallepoort, our first landmark, is essentially the only remnant of that city wall. The rest of the outer wall was demolished (and now there is a ring road where it was) but the Porte de Hal (the gate that leads to Hal) remains, having been renovated in neo-medieval style in the 19th century. Now, it houses a museum about the city walls. From the park at its base you can see the Tour de Midi in the distance, and graffiti of an elderly man which reportedly appeared overnight (and resembles in style these NSFW examples)
From the Hallepoort, walk up Rue Haute into and through the Marolles/n. The Marolles is an area of central Brussels known for its authenticity – apparently you can still hear true Bruxellois in certain bars – and its flea markets and stores. The most well known is the open air market at Place de Jeu de Balle/Vossenplein, where they sell everything from old bric-a-brac and clothes to parts of chandeliers and African masks, and where haggling is obliged. Enjoy perusing the stalls, and the other little antique/tat shops in the area, if that's your thing.
Then head up Rue des Renards, possibly stopping for a crepe or a beer, and carry on towards the centre until you reach the lift up to Place Poelaert and the Palais de Justice.
Once you've ascended in the lift, you can soak in one of my favourite views in Brussels. From Poelaert you can see much of Brussels, thanks to the sheer drop below. You can see, amongst other things, the Atomium (that saves you a loong metro ride and 13 euros), the Koekelberg Basilica, Kapellekerk, the tower of the Hotel de Ville on Grand Place, many many cranes, the “Hollywood” sign and - on a good day - wind turbines on the horizon. In the summer you can sit here in a deckchair with a beer (or other tipple) and gaze out across the city. At any time of year it's a great view (Belgian weather allowing..)
This doesn’t do it much justice.. You’ll have to come visit
The Atomium from much closer up than Poelaert allows, admittedly..
The Palais de Justice/Jusitiepaleis is also worth a good inspection – it's a huge imposing building, one of the artefacts of Belgium's colonial period, when wealth flowed into the capital from the Congo, and Leopold wanted everyone to know how important he/the Belgian state was. The top of the PdJ's tower is literally a big gold crown. Subtle, eh? The Justitiepaleis is a little crumbling now – permanently covered in scaffolding (apparently so old they have to take it down and replace it, using other scaffolding..), and the outer hallways grafitti-ed and smelly. Still, it's pretty impressive, and can be seen from a long way off.
The Justitiepaleis decked out for Belgian National day
And that’s the end of part one. Click here for part two, including Grand Place, manneken pis and much else besides..
Since I came back from Budapest I have mostly stayed put in Brussels (apart from the odd trip to the UK/Netherlands/Germany but they don't feel much like separate countries anymore…), and there have been a few little things of note going on:
In September there was a bike polo tournament on the square right by where I live. Yes, you read that right, a bike polo tournament. It was good fun to watch as well, lots of hopping about as the riders got far too close to each other, some silky ball control, and plenty of people going far too fast for their own good (but I only saw one person go over the handlebars!) Conversations about this also exposed the great polo divide (as I'm calling it..) For me, the first association with polo is posh people on horses charging around with bloody great mallets.. When I told someone there was a bike polo tournament near my house, they thought momentarily of cycling in a swimming pool..
On the same weekend the commune in which I live, Saint Gilles/Sint Gillis, was celebrating it's 800th anniversary. The celebrations consisted of marches through the streets, including samba bands, Brazilian and Portuguese dancers and much else. It was all themed around la porteuse d'eau, or the water carrier, the working class symbol of the commune. Saint Gilles used to sit just outside Brussels, and it was at the Barriere de Saint Gilles that traders had to pay to enter based on how much they were bringing to market. The mythical porteuse brought water for the thirsty horses, and it was round her statue the marches converged, flinging buckets and popping balloons of water into the fountain at her feet. It was great fun (although no one seemed to have warned bus drivers of the parades timing/route, as they trundled along behind...)
Trapeze artist outside the commune building
The parade blocking the road (seen from my living room)
Some of the water themed costumes around the fountain
September also saw the Friends of the Earth staff retreat, a day and a bit in Flanders. We talked about feminism and the future of Europe, had a silly no-general-knowledge-required quiz and a late night reggae set. We also did team building games involving drunk goggles, playing goalball, a sport for blind athletes, and wearing giant inflatable balls (fouling other players by bouncing them off you was probably the most fun… This video (link) will give you the idea) And yes, the drunk goggles and giant bubbles were later combined, to great effect..
Sunbathing at the staff retreat
For Halloween, there was some sort of celebration near me, including various stalls, people spinning fire, and fireworks on my square for some reason. Probably because Belgians don't have…
Bonfire night! I went back this year, and basically every society blew Donald Trump up. Much good it did us… I also went back for a reunion of uni friends, which included good walks, food and conversations. Good fun :)
In December, I visited the Christmas market in Aachen, just to be a good tourist. We drank a fair amount of proper German glühwein, chatted and ate good portions of fried food (no würst for me obviously.. We also had a look round the sparkly cathedral and failed to do any Christmas shopping…
The view down the market by day, and up by twilight.
Brussels to Budapest and back again (via München) part 2, Buda & Pest
My time in Budapest was different, as I worked from the office of Magyar Természetvédok Szövetsége (Friends of the Earth Hungary) for the rest of the week. My colleague Meadhbh and I were there to give a workshop on the subject of wellbeing and consumption, as part of the Budapest Degrowth Conference and week. More on that here. In theory, we went for a few extra days so that we could go to some of the other events happening at the conference. In practice, we had a workshop to prepare, and a couple of funding applications to polish off, and since we didn't have a place at the conference proper, we only went to one of the other events, run by BUNDJugend, the youth group of FoE Germany. So we spent most of our working days in the office.
I also – very luckily – had friends in Budapest to show me around. My friend Simon (who Emmie and I went on holiday with last summer, to Paris) was visiting his girlfriend Talia there, who was working painting sets for Blade Runner 2049 and Hungarian adverts.. So, in the evenings, they were able to show me the delights of Buda, and Pest, across the river Duna (Danube) including - of course – but fortunately not limited to, the trams and other public transport (but mainly the trams..).
On the first evening, we trammed to the immaculately clean Parliament building, apparently based on the same plans as the Palace of Westminster (Simon said it looked like Lego), saw the cathedral, and wandered around the narrow streets of the old town, before I fancied a good kip..
The following evening, I met T&S again at Szimpla, the ruin bar (a particular speciality of Budapest for some reason) where our workshop and BUNDjugend's took place, before heading to get a literal cheese burger (bread, fried cheese, more bread, mmm..) and then a few cheap local beers in an outdoor bar, where we took turns sitting in a hammock.
Szimpla interior & detail
On Friday after work I went off for a walk along the river on the pest side, climbing the hill to the edge of the castle grounds, before heading back down and across the bridge, where the sun set as I walked along the bank.
Saturday was my only full day in Budapest, and I dragged Simon with me to do the touristy stuff, climbing the big hill on the Pest side to the Liberty Statue of a woman holding forth a palm leaf, commemorating all those who died to defend Hungary's freedom and prosperity. Simon said it looked like a croissant from afar.
From the top of the hill, you got a spectacular view of the river curving round, with Buda sprawling off into the distance on the other side, and Buda Castle perching by the river along the same bank.
That was where we made our way to, joining the hordes of tourists thronging outside the rather modern castle, which now serves as history museum and art gallery. Simon gave me the choice, and I predictably opted for the history museum.
Cool man Simon
Inside we learnt of the history of the castle, destroyed and rebuilt several times since its inception with the modern building perched on the medieval foundations, which we entered and climbed up through. Here they had a good model explaining the various expansions and adjustments along with some rather natty tile stoves for heating the old rooms, made of colourful tiles, and shaped like castle towers.
The higher reaches of the museum were rather more anonymous, until we got to quite a modern exhibit covering the history of Budapest itself, from when it was conquered by the Ottomans to the Communist period.
We wandered on past the prime minister's residence, to one of the core tourist-y areas around a prettily-tiled church. In its environs, there was at least one wedding going on, mock soldiers firing mock muskets noisily, and some very fairytale ramparts.
We wandered on down, and trammed across the bridge to Margaret Island, a public park halfway across the river. There we watched the fountain display, set to music, nosed in the mini-zoo, and generally ambled.
Our feet suitably achy, we returned to Simon's to collect our bags and head to the station for our night train to Munich, where we arrived at about 5am. As this was Simon, he had elected to get the slow trains across Germany and Belgium, meaning we eventually arrived back in Brussels around 5pm on Sunday. We arrived back to welcome a new Brussels resident, Emmie, who had moved in over the weekend :) We cooked, and played German train top trumps before bed.
Simon cares about his dental hygiene: sleeper train edition.
From Brussels to Budapest and back again (via München) by train, and all without showing my passport.
Brussels to Budapest and back again (via München ) part 1, Munich
At the end of August, I was lucky enough to be able to go to Budapest for work, to give a workshop at the Budapest Degrowth Week. Since Friends of the Earth is an environmental organisation and all, it encourages employees to travel by train wherever possible. Two trains and a sleeper will do the trick to move you the 1,300 kilometres between Brussels and Budapest. And so I took the train to Budapest and back, with an overnight stop in Munich.
I arrived in Munich on Sunday evening, where I was staying with a FoEE colleague, Adrian, who lives and works remotely from Munich. Once I had arrived at his top-floor flat (from which you can see the mountains on a clear day) in a lovely leafy suburb, he leant me his bike and the pair of us went for a bike ride along some very civilised bike paths by the river. We watched the locals lounging on the banks enjoying the summer evening with their numerous disposable barbecues sending columns of smoke into the sky and their booming sound systems spreading vibration. We watched some of them paddle down the River Isar on a variety of rafts, ranging from pretty professional dinghies, to those that looked better suited for paddling pools.
We also watched some beginner surfers (yes, Munich is a land-locked city where you can surf) go back on forth on the artificial wave, before we headed for a traditional biergarten, for some tasty organic beer (Lammsbrau), and vegetarian Bavarian food (a sort of bread-dumpling with mushroom sauce)!
The next morning, overcast and damp, I made my way to the central square, the Marienplatz, so named for the statue of Mary and Jesus, surrounded by the Old and New town halls.
The old...
...And the new across the square, with the Dom in the background to the left
I noted in the guidebook that Adrian had lent me that the carillon set in the tower of the Neusrathaus would do its thing in a short period of time, so I wandered off, nosing at the outside of a couple of nearby churches, before finding my way back to a good vantage point in the square, where I joined the throng of tourists in the pouring rain. I got very soggy, but the carillon did its thing very nicely. The clockwork knights jousted, the minstrels japed, and eventually the tourists dispersed.
The jousting knights about to strike, taken through the pouring rain
I directed my wandering towards the history museum, via the open food market and a church to dry off, which was of course closed, it being a Monday..
The rather attractive Jewish museum (also closed..)
So I kept following the walk in the guide book, taking in:
some gates
the Asamkirche, a rococo church (for rococo, read really OTT) deigned by the Asam bros. Not a single surface was left ungilded or otherwise decorated,
some more warming/drying churches,
Accidental selfie
the former residence of Bavarian monarchs,
the most tourist-y bier hall, the Hofbräuhaus, complete with oom-pah band and the Bavarian flag painted on the ceiling,
the Odeonsplatz,
and plenty of other stuff I'm almost certainly forgetting.
Eventually, I made it to the Englischergarten, to watch the more advanced surfers go back and forth, watched by a combination of tourists, locals and the other surfers willing them to fall in so their go would come round again quicker. It was entertaining, and slightly hypnotic to stand there to watch for a while.
I crossed the river and then my camera died, and my memory isn't that great. I saw the parliament building and my feet got tired so I petered out a little. I met Adrian for dinner at a nice café, before heading off to get my 10.30 sleeper to Budapest.
One weekend in August when Emmie was visiting, we took the train 20 minutes to Leuven, where two of Emmie's friends had interrailed to on their way back to the Netherlands.
We saw a bike race, admired KU Leuven (the Katholiek Universiteit) and the town hall, ate a waffle, watched the rain fall, had a little wander and got rained on. Eventually retired to where Lisette and Anand were staying, for home-made curry. Then we headed back. Here are some pictures!
Early in the morning we were up and left Frankfurt to go up north to Münster, city of many churches, bikes and students, and for some reason a Picasso museum. Lying as it does in the north close to the border between Deutschland and the Dutch, for me Münster was quite reminiscent of the Netherlands (although probably less so for Emmie :P). The profusion of bikes and stepped roofs along with the flat terrain all served to strengthen this impression.
The promenade - a ring road for bikes!
The view from our window - lots of bikes..
It was quite nice to be in a fairly small city, where we didn't feel pressured to rush around seeing everything, instead taking the time to wander around the attractive centre, nosing into churches and mysterious alleys, and find good food and soya ice cream.
St Lambert’s Church, on the prinzipalmarkt
We also branched out to the University where Emmie's phone lit up with all the messages she suddenly received thanks to contacting to the seemingly ubiquitous university wifi, eduroam. She sat outside a church to read her messages, as I wandered round the lake. In the evening we successfully found our Air bnb, and headed out for dinner, where the waitress took a photo of us, since we were so obviously couple-y… (embarrassing :P)
The modern art museum
Emmie making use of the wifi
Quite a few things conspired to mean that Münster reminded me of York: the style of churches, the profusion of students, the historical centre and the leafy-green university set around a lake. It seems someone else had a similar idea – the two are twin cities!
To my mind, a very York Minster-esque church tower
Arty selfie
On our second day, we had a lazy morning, and later visited the picasso museum, which was interesting, if rather small, before heading for more soya ice cream and continuing our wandering, visiting the cathedral, complete with a deserted central graveyard (were we even meant to be there?), and another church that very much reminded me of the York Minster.
Picasso close-up I probably shouldn’t have taken...
Secret graveyard behind the dom..
A grand old clock/thing that says how the planets are moving etc..?
Very faint rainbow
On the third day, we headed to the Haven (harbour area) which was very different from the centre – more disused industrial infrastructure being converted into modern developments – apartments and businesses.
There we had a late lunch, during which the weather turned from clear blue skies to pouring rain and back again (a running theme of our time in Munster), before heading to get our respective trains home.
The clouds sweeping over
Overall I preferred Münster to Frankfurt, as a nice cosy, liveable little city. Nothing in Frankfurt really leapt out at me in the same way, although it was interesting. And so ended our German holiday (although I was back again within a couple of weeks – that's for next time!)
