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.

The Gate of Hal
The Church of Our Lady of Victories at the Sablon
Stained glass in the same
A reliquary
The Parc du Cinquantenaire
The quadriga at the Parc du Cinquantenaire
The park again
Cauchie House
Saint Michael and Saint Gudula Cathedral
Details of the same
A fancy passage
A building on Grand Place
More of the same
Manneken Pis
Zinneke Pis
The Church of Saint Catherine
A statue in front of the Stock Exchange
More buildings on Grand Place
More of the same
More of the same
Grand Place
A goose

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