Historic Brussels

This morning at 9:00 AM, while walking to meet our local guide, Christian, we made a quick stop in St. Michael's Cathedral (see separate post).

Christian was a Brussels' historical expert and either was a retired professor and/or statesman--neither which Sam and I can remember. He walked us to the Upper Town, past the place Royale, the Palais Royale, through the Parc de Bruxelles, into the Place du Petit Sablon, by the Palais de Justice, near a rare-surviving section of Brussels' medieval city wall (which enclosed one of Europe's great cities in the 13th century), ending up at the corner on which Manneken-Pis pees.

Frankly, I remember little about which he pontificated, which is too bad.



We had a break before our afternoon tour and, with some of our tour buddies, ate at the café atop the Museum of Musical Instruments, which Hilbren recommended. Called MIM for short, one of Europe's best music museums, it is housed in an impressive Art Nouveau building, the beautifully renovated Old England department store.

Inside, there are more than 1,500 instruments--from Egyptian harps, to medieval lutes, to groundbreaking harpsichords, to the Brussels-built saxophone. With the audioguide, as you approach an instrument, you hear it playing on your headphones. Too bad we didn't have time to tour it--I hear it's very interesting.

Now, we were on our way to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts (separate post), after which I was ready for a coffee! There was going to be another beer tasting that evening but Sam and I skipped that and did some window shopping. I don't even remember if we ate that night or just crashed in the room.