Belqiue Day 2-Museums, Panties, Churches, and Beer

So day 2. At this point it is really day 9 on our 14/15/16(??) day trip. The weather started out a little drizzly (did I even tell you all about the crappy weather in France?? I forgot-well, it was crappy until the last day-whoo hoo) so we decided to museum it up again. We went to the art museum (are there really other kinds in the world?) and first hit the Renee Magritte Museum first. For those of you poor people who don't know who monsieur Magritte is, he is a Surrealist (one of my favorite genres of art!) and he is AMAZING!!! Sadly we couldn't take photos in the museum so I've had to steal one from the web (don't tell ok?) It was a GREAT museum on his life and works and I'm so glad we went to it!! Even Matt and dad enjoyed it (which is really saying something).

This is probably one of his most famous works-recognize it?

After Renee we went into the rest of the art museum. It was pretty awesome itself. Full of work from Belgians (and Flemish), who would've thought? Now you may not know this, but Belgians are a tiny bit crazy. They love their religious works too. But they create some of the most beautiful works of art because of how technically difficult they are and that they can achieve such great allusion! But there are some really odd and interesting things that appear in their works; like this little guy. Pet squirrel anyone?

The thing about religious paintings is that they usually have to do with some Biblical story (which I am fine with) but at times it can be a little creepy. And disturbing. But look at that detail on her veil-can't beat that!

Now one painter that you will always learn about in art class is Hieronymus Bosch, the "original" surrealist. He painted all sorts of weird and mystical things. Like most art, it came from within, from the deepest part of himself. And it also had some religious context to it with the greatest example being "Garden of Earthly Delights." This little snippet is not from that painting-but you get the idea of what we're working with here.


The vast majority of the museum's contemporary wing was closed but they did have a little section of some "post-modern" works. Normally I'm not a hug fan of post modern stuff-usually I don't find it all that ground breaking and mind blowing. But I do love Dali. And they had some Dali. I was a happy girl then!

I feel like this horse is a visual depiction of how I feel riding sometimes-wild and out of control! And about to dominate you!

After we were done looking at towering horses, pipes that are not pipes and demonic creatures we ventured out into lovely weather. There was a large park near the museum so we decided to walk through it-it was very pretty. And you could tell it was the first nice weather in a little while because every available sunny spot of grass was already taken by people lounging and sunbathing-it was great! However, I don't know how much these people respect public art, I mean panties, really??


After leaving the park, we strolled the streets some since it was so nice out. Matt's really good at strolling, can you tell?


As we walked around we came up to this bad boy! Sadly it was too late to go in but the carillons (those are the bells in case you're not in the know) were ringing so we found a bench and listened for a while. WOW!! Those things were chiming away and it was so cool. We had heard them go off while around the city and in our hotel but it was much clearer so close ;)

So as we sat we were trying to decide where to go to dinner and what to do next, since it was about 6 or 7 at this point. While mom and dad looked in their guide book I snapped some shots while playing with the camera.

I call this one "Old Man Looking at Book"-just kidding!

Sadly we didn't get to snag any of these cool loungers! How awesome are these? Nap time anyone?


Now you may not know this but the Belgians claim that french fries are really their deal. So they sell them EVERYWHERE! Seriously. And they are served with mayonnaise. You can have ketchup (the NORMAL condiment) or a variety of other sauces but if you want it the Belgian way, mayonnaise is the way to go. So there were all sorts of ads for these Belgian "frites" but this one was my favorite. All I can hear when I look at this thing is "Heeeeeeey kiddies!"



Once we sat down dinner, what else was to be had other than beer right? Everyone (with the exception of me) were pretty fascinated by this one-look at the holder. Apparently people just grab the end of it and drink while holding the the whole thing-crazy Belgians!


Finally it started to get dark, around 1030PM. A little too late for my liking but hey, what can you do! Thus ended another fun day in Brussels in the Grand Place.