Belgium, day 7 - Brussels (16 Nov)

Going to have to speed up my writing if I'm going to finish this!

Walked in the opposite direction this morning, to the Parc du Cinquantenaire, or, the Centenary Park. My feet were feeling pretty tender after all the running around yesterday.

Even the more modern areas of the city have many items of art.

The Parc du Cinquantenaire is large and formal. The one end of it dominated by a U-shaped group of buildings that were commissioned for the 1880 National Exhibition that commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of Belgian independence. The centrepiece triumphal arch was added in 1905.

What we were after is on the left side of the complex, the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History. It's a re-enactor's dream, with display case, after display case, packed with uniforms and all sorts of miscellanea for every era. And of course, weapons.

Attached to the museum is a hanger full of aircraft.

Then there's one room for tanks.

Baneblades exist!

And of course, our personal addiction!

The nice set of black-and-whites made us especially happy, since we've been researching them with the intention of having a suit made.

Another lovely find was a coat of plates in very good condition.

More than enough armour and swords to go around!

Just look at the engraving (or maybe etching?) on this piece. It's all tiny pieces of armour and weapons!

The museum is simply waaay too big to experience everything in detail, in one afternoon. Since we had plans for the afternoon, we had to rush through a lot of it. Eventually we found ourselves on the roof with a great view. At this point my merely tender feet, had turned pretty sore despite frequent sitting and attempts to stretch them.

Fortunately our next stop was not too far from base. I've visited Brussels before, in 1997 on a stop over flight to Germany with my mom and brother. A relative of a friend met us and asked what we'd like to see in our six or so hours that we had. On the plane as we had taxied in, we'd been shown a short "Welcome to Brussels" video, and what had immediately caught my eye was the Comic Strip Museum. With nobody else feeling either which way, our willing guide made an effort to find out where the museum was. We did find it, and we did visit it, and it is still a strong childhood memory. With a husband who has an even bigger comic book selection than me, I had insisted we visit.

On the uncomfortable (come on feet) to the museum, we had our route pointed out by Don Quixote.

Belgian Comic Strip Centre was exactly as I had remembered it. It's situated in a beautifully restored Art Nouveau building. I didn't get any decent pictures, so I've borrowed a few below.

Borrowed from: http://splitsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/comicstripcenter.jpg

Borrowed from: http://www.comicscenter.net/uploads/images/expos_les_grandes_expositions/belgian-comic-strip-center-daniel-fouss-013.jpg

The exhibit starts with discussing what a comic strip actually is, and points out some fantastic examples from history. The image below is from an illustrated bible.

Something else that got mentioned is Hokusai's "Manga", his sketchbooks. Katrien, dit is sy skets boeke wat op rys papier gedruk is, what daar by julle in Besondere Versamelings se Res versameling is!

There's a large portion that gives us a peek into how differently different artists and writers work. This chap liked getting the story right with post-it notes.

Other sections explain some of the process.

Then it's possible to see how much the computer age has contributed. My new "when I win the lotto" desire is a Wacom tablet!

There was also a working Zoetrope to play with! I've been meaning to build one of these for ages!

Borrowed from: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sgrais/images/animation/Zoetrope9.jpg

I'm a big Tintin fan so I took my time in this section.

We browsed the shop, but although we spotted some interesting stuff, it was all in Dutch or French. Might have to learn a new language!

Despite the pinch of the budget, James took pity on my aching feet and we had dinner at a small restaurant just off the Place de la Liberté close to home. I opted for pudding instead of a second beer. Ordered the creme brulee, either the restaurant, or the country, does it slightly differently, as instead of the deep ramekin, it was served in largish, shallow bowl. Still good!

The place seems a favourite for theatre goers as the "Circus" is just down the road. The place filled up quickly after the one show finished.

Then we hobbled to the hotel. Well, to be fair, I hobbled. James is always fine when it comes to lots of walking!