Belgium - Brussels, the Palace and the Grand Place

The Kingdom of Belgium is just over 200 years old. It was formerly part of the Netherlands in the north and France in the south. Brussels is its capital, and although it is predominantly French, its urban pattern is very different from that of the French capital, Paris.

The first impression of Belgium was Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and the atomic clock in Brussels. After the reform and opening up in 1978, any team visiting Belgium generally had to take a picture in front of this atomic structure.

Unfortunately, the travel agency only arranged two places in Brussels. One is the area of the Royal Palace, are some magnificent classical buildings, there are the Royal Palace, the Royal Museum, the royal square and the great park, are very grand.

I visited the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, which is slightly smaller than the Louvre and the British Museum. However, it contains the famous painting "The Death of Marat".

The second place I went to was the municipal square in the old city, which was really bright and shocking. It is said that the grand square has lived up to its name, and it is quite wide and bright.

It is surrounded by a circle of tall old buildings, which are closely connected, beautiful and distinctive, or carved beams and painted buildings, or gilt and silver, or unique shapes. It began as a market in the 12th century and has been continuously expanded for hundreds of years to reach its present size.

The most eye-catching part of the Grand Square is the City Hall building, which was built in the 15th century and has been built for at least half a century. The tower in the middle of the building is particularly prominent, up to 91 meters, and it seems to be hollowed out, very spiritual, and the statue of the demon angel Michel on the top, he is the patron saint of the city.

Under the City Hall building is a porch composed of 17 arches, which makes the City Hall very spectacular. The facade of the City Hall building is carefully decorated, especially the statues of equal proportions are standing, and even the corners of the building are there, the number of them is like a platoon of soldiers, and the exquisite carving is lifelike and breathtaking.

Diagonally opposite the Town Hall is an old, almost dusky grey building with a glazed colonnade frontage and elaborate carvings that seem to have a silk texture. The French writer Hugo once stayed in this Grand Square and praised it as the most beautiful square in the world.

From 1845 to 1848 Marx lived in exile in Belgium. It was in a corner cafe on the Grand Place where Marx and Engels often met with their comrades to discuss the international workers' movement and, of course, the writing of the Communist Manifesto.

The cafe is still there today, called the Swan Cafe. The Communist Manifesto, which changed the world, was published in Britain in late February 1848.

During this period, with the urging and assistance of Engels, Marx also completed the important work "German Ideology", which comprehensively explained the materialist thought and introduced it to the development of human beings and society, and founded historical materialism.

At the same time, in view of Proudhon's theory of peaceful reform of capitalism, he completed the monograph "Poverty of Philosophy". For the first time, the materialist theory of the law of social development was introduced to the public. These works established the scientific socialist theory of Marxism.

From the Manneken boy to the grand square, you can see a lot of waffle shops, passing by the "pissing waffle" I dare not buy. 🍓 At the waffle place next to the Manneken Pis, I bought strawberry cream waffles, made and sold, they were really, really good! It's not very sweet!

🍫Godiva gets mini waffles with chocolate sauce, which are cute but not as good. The small Waffle in the last picture is also a special waffle shop near the Manneken Pis that sells take-away, which seems to be a very easy to find, and the taste is a little unexpected delicious, send people like!