A Rainy Day in Brussels
My second day of job-hunting in Western Europe took me to Brussels, where I was welcomed by rather unwelcoming weather. It rained in short bursts until the afternoon, and having forgotten my umbrella in London I frequently took refuge in doorways and niches. My first stop in Brussels was the Gate of Hal, a strange remnant of the city’s erewhile battlements that was clearly renovated in the nineteenth century without much regard for its original form. From thence, I continued to the Palace of Justice and the Royal Palace of Brussels before escaping the bustle of the city at the Parc du Cinquantenaire.
Brussels is famous for its Art Nouveau architecture,
boasting beautiful gems like Cauchie House. Above its main entrance stands a
large circular window, which is in turn surrounded by an even larger fresco of
eight women clad in gold and white. Around the edges lie clusters of white
flowers, presumably roses, which take on more geometrically defined forms at
the very top. Such architecture gives Brussels its original flair and a very
distinctive character when compared to the monolith that is Paris. The area
around the Grand Place is different further still, with its gilded facades and
ostentatiously carved stone, which jointly harken to a rich mercantile age.
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