Brussels

We hopped a little train for a day in the big city. In our last major city (Paris), we went pretty art heavy; mostly the girls indulged us. This time we went in a bit of a different direction. First stop: the museum of comics!

Did you know Tintin isn’t the only famous Belgian comic character?? There’s also Smurfs!! Their name in French is hilarious (schtroumpf), but makes me wonder if it actually means something, otherwise why would there be a translation into English? Such a great word – I’m going to start using it all the time! And I’d forgotten how funny those little guys actually are!

The museum was in French and Dutch, so we only really gleaned information from the wordless comics. (Check out Dickie Boerke. He’s pretty funny.) But there were lots of opportunities for fun candid shots.

And they have a free library of comic books with an English section. So cool!

We stopped at the Grand Place for a picnic lunch (yeah, mostly chocolates). There was unfortunately lots of construction-y type activity going on in the middle of the square (maybe a big concert – stage, lighting, etc), so we might have missed out on some of the grandeur. But geez, what a lot of imposing architecture and gilding.

Next on our agenda was the Sewer Museum. Yes, you read that right. We failed in our attempts at Paris’s catacombs, so we thought we might do some other gross underground activity.

It was actually pretty fascinating and educational (plus there was an English guide for kids). The Senn River was bricked in and diverted under the city; it was almost dizzying to watch it flow past us in the darkness down there. And then the sewer sewer – it’s totally what you think it would be like! We absolutely did see a rat “in the wild,” and all that other stuff you would expect and find hilarious if you were less than 10 years old.

Look at us down there! We were chaaaaaaaanged!

Waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and the famous peeing boy rounded out our day’s adventure before we picnicked on the train home.

I have only one more thing to say: Schtroumpf!