I decided today I would see a few of the Art Nouveau buildings that I liked the look of on my map. But first I was going to do the beautiful buildings I'd seen on Rue Royale etc when I came home last night. This meant walking down the road from Louise Square. I meant to take a different street to Louise Square but ended up going the wrong way and heading towards Port de Hal. There were a few Art Nouveau buildings near there though, so I kept on in that direction and photographed the Port de Hal:
and then the Art Nouveau buildings a couple of streets away:
I then headed back to Louise Square where I'd intended to go, using the Metro since there was a station at Port de Hal as well as Place Louise. That 3 day ticket really has been handy! The Palais de Justice was being intensively renovated and I couldn't get anywhere near it.:
At the end of the Place was a viewing area across Brussels from which you could get the elevator down to street level below (I didn't go down, though). You could even see the Atomium from here (in the middle of the third picture, just!):
I wandered down Rue de la Regence, past a beautiful Synagogue (which had policemen on the other side of the road, keeping watch):
past the Conservatorium:
and the Notre Dame Church (which was being used for a wedding and not open to viewing):
outside of which were a lamp, tram station and rubbish bin all Art Nouveau in a row.:
I found these cars outside of the Cote D'Or cafe/shop (across the road from the church) cute:
I kept heading in the direction of the Royal Palace from last night, and walked past the Court of Counts and the Museum of Fine Arts:
and the Museum Belvue and Site Croudenberg on the Place Royale:
From there I headed into the Museum Square, near which was the Old England building (now a music store):
and the Museums Square was lovely too:
I headed down to Square (that's the name of it!) which is a more modern sort of place, though still surrounded by beautiful old buildings on a couple of sides:
and past the Marjolaine store on Rue de Madeleine, with its beautiful Art Nouveau facade.:
My destination was Galeries Royales St Hubert - the oldest covered shopping centre in....I can't remember if its was Belgium, Europe or the World.... It’s full of expensive shops, including chocolate shops, like the QVB in Sydney. I sat down for a coffee and was surrounded by locals, rather than tourists, which was nice.
After my crucial coffee break, I headed out towards the Opera House:
and past Rue Neuve - a very busy shopping street. I'm assuming it was so busy because the sales were on:
I continued on past some nice buildings and Place de Martyrs:
and Notre Dame du Finistere with its amazing pulpit:
past some more nice facades:
and Place Brouckere:
I checked out Passage du Nord shopping centre which was not as nice as the earlier shopping centre:
in search of the Hotel Metropole which is often mentioned in relation to Art Nouveau. The outside is not much to look at, but the inside! Beautiful! I had a look at the menu of the Cafe, which wasn't too outrageously expensive, so sat inside and had a nice lunch of matjes (yes, more fish!) with salad for 15 Euro. Naturally, I had a beer with lunch (which is the only thing in that photo in focus - how did the camera know??) And photographed the place:
Even the route to the toilets is beautiful, though I went without paying which was frowned upon (which is why I didn't photograph it). They love their toilet money in Europe, that's for sure!
I decided over lunch that I'd better go and see the Europa section with the European Parliament etc. I got on a Metro, as indicated by my trusty Google Maps Transit directions (so good!) and headed off. I walked towards Leopold park first - more construction is going on here too:
This hotel looked like a cartoon building:
There's some lovely buildings within the Parc Leopold, as well as a good view of some of the Parliament buildings. Plenty of people were having a lazy Saturday afternoon on the lawns, too:
Some of the EU Parliament buildings look like something out of a science fiction movie:
There was a small section of the Berlin Wall there too:
I didn't walk around here too much, since I was in urgent need of a toilet. Luckily there was a square on the other side of the buildings where I could sit down and have a drink as well as make use of the facilities:
I then headed off towards the St Boniface district to find some more Art Nouveau. I must admit that I felt a bit uncomfortable walking around here. I was one of very few white people walking around and I was getting a lot of looks. I carried on regardless, however:
Once I'd seen what I wanted to see, I headed off in search of a tram to the Vleurgat region (on Louise Street that comes off Louise Square near where I was staying). This part of town is very up-market and there's quite a few beautiful old buildings that have been well-maintained:
The Park du Roi looked quite inviting:
There was a tiny little park with this very Art Nouveau statue:
I walked around the area a little more admiring facades here and there:
The Hotel Solvay was particularly nice. Unfortunately, you could only enter with a tour group (which didn’t stop me photographing through a window):
(photos)
I hopped on a tram to go one stop to Rue Defacqz where there were another couple of pretty buildings:
And then waited for another tram to go one stop to my hotel. There's a lovely teahouse/garden out the back of a little arcade. I didn't go in because it was quite full and
I wanted a steak for dinner, which I got back at the Rendezvous des Artistes. It was quite nice, especially the green pepper sauce, and only cost around 17 Euro.
It was a much earlier night tonight than yesterday, so I was able to work on my blog for a little while before crashing.
