Brussels - the comic city

Let me make this short and sweet: Brussels is an awesome city. Its center is full of young artists and students, which - together with older tourists in groups - makes for an unusual hustle and bustle that I could watch for hours.

Many obvious sights are already known from travel guides and the internet. Nevertheless, these touristy areas like "Grande Place" or "Royal Palace" are still impressive and a must see.

I knew from other people's reports that the famous "Manneken Pis" statue is actually very small and could easily be overlooked. And yes, indeed: It's a very disappointing tourist sight.

However, the same district features numerous houses with painted facades from comic strips. Which I found rather unusual and refreshing. During the course of the day I discovered more and more of these colourful drawings in the city. Awesome!

Without much expectation, however, I took the metro to visit the Atomium. Being reluctant that this would be yet another small sculpture (or tourist trap). To my pleasant surprise, the Atomium is huge. Actually, the poles that hold the spheres together are stairs allowing visitors to climb on the inside up (or down). Exploring the Atomium was a very entertaining visit that kept me busy for a couple of hours. It's a "must see".

Here again are a few photos of my trip to Brussels:

Grande Place

Small Manneken Pis statue

Tintin comics on the wall

Comic on a side street house

Comic at the train station

The Atomium

Inside one of the Atomium poles acting as stairs