Grand Place, Brussels

Friday
It was a lovely Spring day today, so before I packed our bags for our weekend in Bussels, I got out for a walk in the sunshine, down to the river, along to Héricy, and back along the upper road. Roger came back from work early afternoon, and I guess we were on the way about 3 pm. It took us about 4 hours, the last part through the city being really slow - Roger wasn't happy with the way the sat. nav. took us! Once we'd checked into our hotel, we walked down into the central part of town around the Grand Place to find somewhere to eat. We found a nice cozy place, and enjoyed some wonderful moules/frites (mussels and French fries), washed down with some good Belgian beer! The Grand Place is simply amazing, a huge cobbled square, lined with magnificent guild houses plus the two major buildings of the gothic-style Town Hall and the Maison du Roi, which now houses the Brussels museum. It's like stepping back in time several hundred years. I think it is especially striking by night, with all the buildings beautifully illuminated. The buildings date back to the end of the 17th century, after the French bombarded the square in 1695 and destroyed it, then they were restored in the 19th century.