Day 9: Exploring Brussels

This morning we woke up to a wonderful continental breakfast spread of fresh patries and croissants, a variety of breads, meats, and cheeses, and cereal, fruit, and yogurt (all of Nuri's favorites!) We set out to catch the tram and explore Brussels.

It is odd that we picked a Monday to spend all day in Brussels. Most of the museums are closed on Mondays, so we were free to walk around Brussels and not feel obligated to visit any one site in particular. We started at Parc du Bruxelles, a large park located between the Royal Palace and the National Palace that used to be a hunting ground. We poked our heads out one side of the park to catch a glimpse of the Royal Palace (I don't think we could go inside). We stopped at a playground inside the park, but Nuri was overwhelmed by the older school kids in the park and didn't want to play much. It became evident why he was in no mood to play a few minutes later when he fell asleep in his stroller. Just after he fell asleep, an ambulance came down the street, sirens blazing. He started screaming, "beep-beep woo-oo woo-oo woo--oo" (his word for a car with a siren). Fortunately he was asleep again before we reached our next destination.

We walked into a cathedral where all of the Belgian royalty get married. It had some lovely stain glass windows, impressive organ pipes, and other cathedral-like characteristics. There was a small exhibit on one side with some very fancy old bibles and clergy robes that was interesting to see. Then we hopped on the subway to make our way over to the area of town where all of the EU buildings are.

Brussels is the capital of the EU, so the legislative and executive branches are housed here. We inquired about tours of the EU parliament and were told we had an hour before the last one of the day left. We registered ourselves for the tour and munched on some delicious (and large!) baguette sandwiches we had picked up in the square outside the parliament. The tour was an audio guide that mostly gave information about the EU Parliament and we got to see their debating floor. One thing that we realized about the EU is that Parliament members aren't required to speak any common language. Rather, there are tons of translators who translate speaches and legislation into over 20 languages. Debates must be quite interesting, considering how many languages there are to translate into. Parliament members sit from left to right in the debating hall based on their political affiliation, rather than by nationality. The EU buildings are quite modern-looking and quite beautiful.

After visiting the EU, we set out in search of Grand Place, a plaza with Hotel de Ville, a magnificently ornate town hall building. Nuri started throwing a fit here, but he was assuaged by his portion of our first Belgian waffle, covered in chocolate sauce. On our way out of Grand Place, we agreed that sharing a single waffle was certainly insufficient so we got another one with powdered sugar at a waffle stand along the street.

We made our way back out to the park and took Nuri to the playground. He had a blast in the sandbox. It was really the first thing we had done specifically for him all day and I think he really enjoyed it. We decided to walk home, rather than take the tram, though it was fairly far (maybe 30 or 40 minutes). On the way home we grabbed a quick bite to eat. When Nuri fell asleep at 9:30, we thought it was bedtime, but I guess it was just a nap! He woke up and we gave him a much needed bath. I'm still not sure what happened after that. Sal and I fell asleep and I seem to recall Nuri crawling about on the bed for quite some time after that as I dozed in and out of sleep.