Brussels: a flower carpet on the Grand-Place and playgrounds with white sand

On August 16, 2024, we made it to Belgium. Before checking in in Brussels, we managed to eat at the Belgian IKEA.

Leia in a pink T-shirt sits at a table in a café and eats an ice cream cone — The Belgian IKEA

Brussels greeted us with rain. We checked in and took a short walk (the photo shows the arch in Cinquantenaire Park), then the rain got heavier and we had to hurry back to the hotel. Our first impression was still very good: a clean, beautiful, green city that is pleasant to be in. We even thought about staying here one more day.

A wet path leads to a triple arch with a chariot on top, semicircular colonnades on both sides, a gray sky — The arch in Cinquantenaire Park on a rainy evening

A playground, a cathedral and streets

We started the next day at a playground.

Leia stands at the top of a red slide on a playground and waves, green trees behind her — The day started at a playground

In the center we went into the Gothic Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, the patron saints of Brussels. What I like about it is the stained-glass windows.

A Gothic cathedral with two towers and a wide stone staircase below — The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula and its stained glass

A tall pointed window with colorful stained glass: saints in long robes, coats of arms at the bottom — The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula and its stained glass

Then we walked around the streets in the center.

Leia rides in her stroller through the center of Brussels

A carpet of flowers

We got to the Grand-Place, the historic square of Brussels, right during the days of the flower carpet. The first such carpet was laid in 1971, and now it is made every two years: on the weekend around August 15, the square is covered with fresh flowers for three or four days. The carpet is 24 by 77 meters, about 1800 square meters. In 2024 it was made of dahlias instead of the usual begonias.

There were a lot of people on the square, and Russian could be heard all the time.

An ornate Gothic facade with arches, turrets and statues on the edge of the square, old houses next to it, a cloudy sky — The Grand-Place

Manneken Pis and the palace

We went to see the Manneken Pis fountain. The statue is regularly dressed up in different outfits: its wardrobe holds about a thousand costumes, and we found it in a blue gown and a square cap.

A small bronze statue of a boy in a blue gown and a square cap in a stone niche above the fountain basin — Manneken Pis in a gown

We also saw the Royal Palace. This is where the Belgian king works and receives guests, but he lives with his family in another palace, in Laeken, in the north of Brussels. We also walked past the European Parliament.

A long light-colored palace with columns and a dome, a Belgian flag above it, trimmed hedges in front — The Royal Palace

Playgrounds with white sand

Over the day we went to several playgrounds. Leia also watched the birds by a pond.

Leia sits in her stroller with her back to us and watches birds walking on the grass by a pond — Birds by the pond

And others turned out to have white sand, just like a beach.

Leia sits astride a big wooden turtle in the middle of white sand — White sand, just like a beach

A ball and sand

Our takeaway

Brussels is a good, pleasant city, although, to our taste, not the most interesting one for sights. The next day we moved on, to Germany, through the Netherlands.