Eglise St-Nicolas, Brussels

The Church of St. Nicholas in Brussels was built right near the market square. Since St. Nicholas is patron of merchants, the church fits in nicely. The site had a church since the late 1100s. That church was damaged by French invaders in 1695. Restoration took until the 1950s when a new Gothic-style facade was added along with repairs to the interior of the church.

Eglise St-Nicolas, Brussels

Detail over the door

An exterior statue, of Charity?

The interior is especially interesting since from the nave the high altar looks like it hooks off to the left. It's believed the church was built this way to avoid a stream.

Main altar shot from the side to try and straighten out things

The high altar in the east end of the church

The ornate pulpit is nice but not as amazing as others we had seen in Belgium.

Pulpit

Other side of the pulpit

The church has several side altars. Two Baroque-style altars are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to St. Nicholas. A simpler altar (with a nice halo) is for St. Therese.

Our Lady altar

St. Nicholas altar

A small altar with St. Therese

The organ is set in front of a magnificent window dedicated to Our Lady.

Our Lady of the Organists?

A fine statue of St. Barbara is also here.

St. Barbara

A large golden reliquary in the back has the remains of the Gorcum Martyrs.

Reliquary of the Gorcum Martyrs

Who were the Gorcum Martyrs?

On the evening of June 26, 1572, the town of Gorcum (modern day Gorinchem) was attacked by a Calvinist group called the Watergeuzen or Sea-Beggars. They took prisoner fifteen religious who were tormented. On July 6 they were taken to Brielle where four other Catholic priests joined them in prison. They appeared individually before Count Lumney van der Marck who demanded that they renounce the supremacy of the pope and deny the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. All nineteen refused to submit to the Count's demands and were hung on July 9, 1572. They were beatified by Pope Clement X on November 14, 1675, and canonized by Pius IX on June 29, 1867. Their feast day is July 9, the date of their martyrdom.

Belgian Beers!

I tried a variety of beers from Belgium, because the country really is the Mecca of beer-making.

The Usual Suspects

Tripel karmeliet is "Blond, robust, smooth and fruity 3 grain beer, with final fermentation in the bottle. Brewed with pride and patience after Carmelite tradition with wheat, oat and barley. 100% natural beer." And 100% awesome beer! The alcohol content is 8.4%, which is the normal range for a Tripel. (Regular is around 3%; dubbel around 6%; trippel around 9%) The flavor blend of the three grains is great, taking the best from each. It makes me want to become a Carmelite. At one of the beer-brewing monasteries. Now I just have to find one...

Oude Geuze is from Oud Beersel. The brewery is just outside Brussels and their beers have won many competitions. This beer was not to my taste. It starts with a nice, if a little fruity, taste but when the aftertaste kicks in, it kicks with a bitter sourness that I just don't like. I didn't even finish the bottle. Bummer!

Lindemans Kriek is a cherry-flavored beer that is more cherry than beer. It ends with a kick like a Sucret, which may be a little too much cherry for some drinkers. It's a hair too much for me. The beer still has a nice flavor and I would drink it again. Kriek is a style of lambic beer. Lambic beers are made in the Senne Valley where brewers for centuries have let air-borne yeast into their beer. They just leave their brew uncovered in the winter for a couple of months and then let it mature in wooden casks for a year.

Florival is a Tripel beer in the Belgian Trappist style. It is quite potent at 8.5% alcohol but it does not taste like straight alcohol. It has the nice wheaty but robust style I love about Trappist beers. It is very yummy, even if it is masquerading as a store brand!

Jupiler is one of those standard pilsners that every nation seems to make. Yet this is probably the best pilsner I've ever had. I like it a lot and would recommend it.

There are any number of stores that specialize in selling beer. We never found a favorite or a best. The stores did seem to cater to an English speaking/reading crowd.

Those are bottle necks in the sign for this fine Brussels establishment

Beer and souvenirs or beer souvenirs in Bruges

If you like beer, you owe it to yourself to visit Belgium, or at least try some Belgian beers.

Random Bits of Brussels

Here are some sights in Brussels that didn't merit their own post but are interesting enough to get at least a paragraph here!

Several of the shopping areas feature covered arcades. One we went through often (since it was near our hotel) was the Passage du Nord, which is a passage that went north! We liked the statues along the walls and appreciated protection from the rain.

Passage du Nord

One theater we only saw from the outside is the revered Theatre Royale de la Monnaie, which has great opera and ballet companies, or so our guide book says. The outside is quite impressive in its Neo-Classical grandeur. It was built in 1819, after Napoleon had been defeated and Belgium was put under Dutch rule. After a performance in 1830, a crowd took to the streets and began the Revolution of 1830, when Belgium won its independence.

Theatre Royale de la Monnaie

The plaza also has a water sculpture/fountain, which J enjoyed.

What to do here?

Further afield, we discovered a fountain near St. Nicholas church. The fountain had three boys pointing off into the distance. L and J (on their own pedestals) tried to recreate the moment.

Fountain with imitators

Victory!

One street had the most unusual paint job I'd ever seen.

A leopard can't change its spots, can a building?

We walked by the Bourse Museum which has a very interesting exhibit on Leonardo daVinci. I'm bummed that we never made it in, but the kids just aren't into Leonardo yet (not even as a Ninja Turtle!).

Bourse Museum, Brussels

One church we couldn't get into was St. Catherine's. Every time we went by, it was locked. The plaza in front of the church used to be the fish market but is now full of restaurants that serve excellent fish dishes.

Eglise Ste-Catherine

Down the street from here and near our apartment, we found a bagpiper fountain. We had no signs to explain it to us (not even in Dutch), but the children appreciated it nonetheless.

Bagpipers of the Beguinage?

Close up

Another fountain in the middle of town was a favorite for L.

The proverbial man with a dog?

L on the far side of the fountain

Mini-Europe, Brussels

Brussels is the capital of the European Union. The EU has a headquarters in town but we were not interested in visiting it. Instead, we went to a (sort of) monument to the Union called Mini-Europe.

Mini-Europe entrance

The park has 1:25 scale models of famous places from the EU countries. The detail is rather incredible and it enables visitors to relive memories of visiting certain places, plan to visit others, and take a trip through most of Europe in one afternoon. Several of the models have an interactive bit, normally a button (at child height) to push. Lots of the buttons play national anthems; some make boats go around; one makes the bull fighters' ring erupt with cheers; another makes Mt. Vesuvius erupt! The kids loved visiting.

I went a little crazy taking photos at Mini-Europe (nearly 100), so I will just present some highlights of the park in this post. If you want to see the whole collection, visit my photo gallery here.

We visited some places we've already seen.
 

The ferry and J!

Sacre-Coeur, Paris, France

Sienna Town Square (okay, I visited that years ago before the family)

Astronomical Clock, Prague, Czech Republic

Szechenyi Baths in Budapest, Hungary (okay, actually it was just Uncle Nate who went here)

Brussels' Grand Place

We also saw some spots we still haven't gone to but hope to visit soon.

Houses of Parliament, London, England

Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

Detail from the tower!

Acropolis, Greece

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany

Surprisingly, the one real thing in the park is a piece of the Berlin Wall which was on display right behind the model of the Brandenburg Gate.

Real Berlin Wall

In addition to the models, the park has a couple of "photo ops" where visitors can put themselves in the shoes of icons from other countries.

L, Viking Warrior

J, British Palace Guard

Literally in the shoes of the Dutch

Auntie R

One exciting thing we saw was the soon-to-be-installed Croatian model, the St. Markus Church from Zagreb. Actually, the sign on the model said it would be installed July 1, so it is probably already on the display.

St. Mark's Church, Zagreb, Croatia

St. Mark's Church, Zagreb, Croatia

Remember you can go here to see the rest of the models.

Bruparck and the Atomium, Brussels

Two of the more unique destinations in Brussels are a short train ride outside of town. They are right next to each other: The Atomium and Bruparck.

The Atomium was built for the World's Fair of 1958. In an age of science and space travel, designer Andre Waterkeyn was inspired to make the world's largest iron atom!

Atomium, Brussels

It is approximately 165 billion times the size of a normal iron atom. This size (325 feet tall) allows escalators to connect the nine spheres, which house exhibition rooms. The top sphere is a restaurant with a fine view. We didn't go inside but were amazed at the size of the structure.

We headed over to Bruparck, a theme park under the shadow of the Atomium. The park contains Mini-Europe with scale models of famous European landmarks (which will get its own post), Oceade water park, a massive movie theater complex, and a variety of restaurants and smaller rides.

We had lunch at one of the restaurants, which was unremarkable except for the dessert included in the kid's meal. We finally had a Kinder Egg! American readers probably haven't heard about these since they are illegal to send to the States. The eggs are chocolate on the outside with a small toy on the inside. The chocolate coating goes over a plastic egg that contains the toy. The US government's objection is that the candy contains a "non-nutritive object," but you'd have to be especially thick-headed or inattentive to eat the middle accidentally. The kids enjoyed it.

The orange ovoid is the plastic egg in question

The area reuses the World's Fair grounds, giving it a colorful feel. It's easy to imagine large crowds wandering through.

A variety of restaurants in the park

They even had a playground, which made J and L happy. The pirate boat was a little too popular, so we switched over to the carousel.

Pirate ship!

The carousel

J and L ride!

Next up, Mini-Europe!