Don and Veronica's Post Card From Holland: Brussels and Ghent: Castles, Chocolate, and the Pissing Boy

Belgium isn’t as neat, orderly, and prosperous as Holland, but what it lacks in that regard, it makes up for in elegant (if somewhat fading) scenic grandeur. And it has two big draws that attract plenty of visitors: good beer and Belgian chocolate. Its the perfect combination; something for him and something for her. There are over 450 artsy varieties of specialty beers with reputations that go back to the middle ages. The chocolate is no less tempting. Belgian chocolate has been known to wilt the will power of the most committed dieters. Picturesque shops dot the city- just when you think you are out of the clutches of one, you turn the corner and there is another that is even cuter. There are over 2,000 in Belgium.

Brussels is a mix of cosmopolitan and historic. As the administrative capital of Europe, it is home to numerous European institutions as well as NATO. Meanwhile the historic side has preserved the palaces and squares from the 18th and 19th century when Belgium was a world power. The central square in the old town, le Grand'Place, is considered one of the most ornate in Europe, and one of the most theatrical in the summer, with free concerts and light shows.

"Bonjour, Monsieur et Madame. A table?"

If you can’t find a good inexpensive restaurant in Brussels, you just aren’t trying. They are lined up one after the other in the romantic cobble-stoned alleys that make up a good part of the old town. The restaurants have an elegant French feel to them, but without the expensive French price. The Garçons line the alley, standing outside their restaurants, engaging the passers-by like some kind of high class barker. “Bonjour, Monsieur et Madame. We have a wonderful menu, and a glass of champaign on the house! Can I show you a seat by the fireplace?”

Brussels has lots of charms to offer, but someone is going to have to explain to me what is going on with the trademark statute, le Manneken Pis? What can you say about a town which boasts as its main attraction a statute of a pissing boy squirting water. Whose idea was this anyway? Who thought this would be a good idea? If this thing was in America, it would be on Jaime Foxx or candid camera.

Its actually been a Brussles landmark at least since 1377. At that time, it was supposedly expressing the general opinion about the occupying forces. In 1747, some French soldiers thought it would be a good idea to steal him and take him back to France. There was such a huge outcry that King Louis ordered it returned wearing a gold embroidered suit. It now has a ceremonial costume for every occasion, 517 in all.

A row of the famous boy line up in a candy store
window for christmas.

You see him everywhere. Key rings, T shirts, bobble-head dolls, doorbell frames, toilet paper holders, you name it. Its been called the statue that launched a thousand tchotchkes. There’s the pissing boy over there holding waffles; over here, the pissing boy holding vlaamse friets (flemish french fries). I looked around for one holding a Budweiser can (since Bud was sold to a Belgian company a couple years ago), but couldn’t find one anywhere. I think they’re missing a good Super Bowl commercial here. Who knew? And you probably thought that Americans invented it for mudflaps and rear windows.

In order to show how sensitive Americans are to gender equality, we asked the tourist information clerk where the pissing girl statute was. Turns out there actually is one at a restaurant over on the rue des Bouchers. Veronica wouldn’t let me go. Guess we’ll have to visit that on the next trip.

The Castle Gravensteen

If Brussels has made its mark by preserving the feel and architecture of the the 19th century, Ghent has made its mark by preserving the feel and architecture of the 17th century. Well preserved medieval facades surround a city square full of merchants’ booths. Standing on the Sint Michielsbrug (Saint Michael’s bridge) looking out toward the old town and the Gravensteen castle, you’d swear you had been transported back to the 1600’s. In fact the centerpiece of the city, the castle Gravensteen (seen on The Amazing Race not too long ago), goes back even further than that, to the 1100’s. It has been rebuilt on the same spot several times, however, most recently in the 1800’s, but still authentically portrays the medieval castle. Through it all, though, it has been continuously in use in one fashion or another since that time, whether as a chamber for the High Court of Flanders, a prison, or a cotton mill. It is now a museum with a spectacular view of Ghent from its battements.