Strolling around the heart of Brussels ...

The main reason for being in Brussels was to attend a Eurocontrol course and not necessarily to visit the town, which we were far from (Diegem), though the course schedule was in no way an impediment for us not to  stroll around its centre for two consecutive evenings.

I had visited it some twenty years ago and although I still remembered la Grand Place I must say I found it as beautiful as then ... maybe even more beautiful because of not being overcrowded.

The 1401-1455 City Hall, which in the distant past had turned the Square into a seat of Municipal power was still standing glamorously, but so was the building erected across it in between 1504 and 1536 by the Duke of Brabant as a symbol of Ducal power.

The fact that this latest was built on the site of a cloth and bread market made it become known and still referred to as "Broodhuis" (Bread house).

The following years are said to have seen the additional splendour of the wealthy merchants and Guilds' buildings ... and the truth is the Square is majestic ...

 

Under the guidance of Carlos we walked around the side streets  adjacent to the Grand Place ... in search of buildings, fountains and statues that add to the  beauty of the whole ensemble of the "heart" of the city.

We roamed the streets unlike the "three blind" just killing time till dinner and taking advantage of the pleasant evening.

I have always been drawn to statues, in as much as they praise people who made the difference in either a city or people's lives, so couldn't help photographing a few we came across.

Bela Bartok's statue

The unforgettable heroes of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Cervantes immortalised in a statue standing in the middle of the Spanish Square

Statue of the Mayor Charles Buls and his dog

We inevitably ended up in the glazed shopping arcade of Saint Hubert Galleries, where we bought some exquisite Belgian chocolate to bring back home, among other souvenirs.

But I still regret not having bought some North African hand-made sweets I saw in a shop window, which looked good enough to have attracted my attention as we passed by.

I was also quite content to have captured the atmosphere, as well as some "details" of some of the places we had something to eat at and which I had never been to.

"La Mort Subite" (left) and "Chez Leon" (right)

"La Maison du Roi"