BRUSSELS | The EU-capital

[SHiRO]

Great shots!

[Benonie]

Thanks Shiro!

We walk back to the canal, West of the city center, the old harbour and its shabby sidestreets.









The immense roof of the slaughterhouse, seen from a distance.



Along the canal.

[Expat]

It remains fascinating - every place you go!

[Benonie]

Thank you Expat!



























At the Vlaamsesteenweg/Dansaertstraat we walk into the historic town.

[Benonie]

We enter the old city center from the west.

Dansaertstraat:

[wkiehl101]

In taking the pictures, what is your impression of the scale of the city? I have an internet acquaintance in Brussels to whom I showed this thread. He enjoyed looking at the pictures, though he found it quite odd to see Brussels through the eyes of a tourist. In talking about the city, he made it sound like it was a pretty small place. From looking at all the pictures in the site, save for maybe one, I don't get that impression. The one pic that might give me pause is the one where the cows are in a field near a Delhaize (the multinational that owns Food Lion and Hannaford, among others, here in the USA) supermarket. It looks substantial to me.

[Benonie]

Well, first of all I'm not a real tourist. I live in a little city, 50 miles West of Brussels, but as train connections in Belgium are excellent and rather cheap, it's an easy daytrip to my capital, the only real 'big' city in my country.
Foreign tourists usual only visit the city center, the Atomium in the West and maybe the splendid museums in the East.
I love to explore the other, unknown but often pretty parts of Brussels.

Brussels is not a big, European metropolitan city as London, Paris or Moscow. But it's a big city to Belgian standards, though quite compact in size.
The Brussels Capital Region as it is called officaly has now got 1.126.000 inhabitants on 62 sqm or a density of 17.000 inh/sqm. The metropolitan area (Brussels and suburbs like Vilvoorde, Zaventem, Tervuren) has got a population of about 1.850.000. So you can compare Brussels with a North American city like Montréal.

But of course, Brussels is also the capital of Flanders, of Belgium, the headquarter of NATO, houses hundreds of multinationals, thousands of lobbyists and hosts of course lots of European institutions, like the European Commision (gouvernment), the European Parliamant, the Council of the EU etc... So about 300.000 beaurocrats come to work to Brussels every day, mostly from the Flanders region, which makes the city much bigger than it's inhabitants only.

And of course, this part of Europe is very dense populated, with cities groing to each other. So Brussels is also part of the Flemish Diamond, an important, urban area in the north of Belgium with 5 million people, all well connected by public transport and highways.

Btw, the photos with cows were taken in the very Western part of the population, and are part of the many green spaces in and around the city.

[SHiRO]

Originally Posted by wkiehl101

In talking about the city, he made it sound like it was a pretty small place.

Brussels is not a small place. It has over 1 million (Brussels Capital Region, same area in size as Washington DC), at least 2,5 million MSA and over 5 million CSA (Flemish Diamond).



EDIT- I see most of that was already covered by Benonie...

[Expat]

Interesting, I didn't know Food Lion & Hannaford's grocery stores were owned by a company over there. Love learning new things. My favorite pic in the recent set is with the foggy background, bridge, & colorful pinwheels. Of course, all of them are marvelous.

[Benonie]

Thanks!

Wikipedia:

Food Lion LLC is the largest subsidiary of Delhaize Group. Delhaize Group is a food retailer headquartered in Belgium which operates in 7 countries. Delhaize Group was founded in Belgium in 1867. The principal activity of Delhaize Group is the operation of food supermarkets in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. Supermarket News ranked Delhaize America No. 10 in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2006 fiscal year estimated sales of $17.3 billion.

The Head Quarter of Delhaize Group is still in Brussels, but the old warehouse was demolished last year to built a residential tower.

[Benonie]

This residential tower btw.
It's under construction near the canal you've seen on earlier pages.



But we continue our tour through one of the oldest parts of Brussels:
The old, medieval harbour around Saint-Catherine, which has now disapeared, unfortunatly. Docks are squares now, quays are streets.



























We get into the underground here. Metro trains ride where ships once sailed.

[Expat]

It looks like a quaint district. Interesting that ships sailed in this very spot.

[Benonie]

Thanks. Some subway pictures, taken in the very esta of the city.
It's one of the few parts where metro doesn't run underground.

Metrostation Delta.











Metrostation Hankar.

[Expat]

That is a dramatic image. Like escaping the fires of hell

[Benonie]

Originally Posted by Expat

That is a dramatic image. Like escaping the fires of hell

It's a rather ordinary metrostation, but this wall painting is my favourite piece of art in Brussels' metro.

We get out of the metro at station Kunst/Wet.

[Benonie]

[Expat]

Benonie! You are at it again! I see that people are still wearing coats. Does the green cross indicate a pharmacy?

[Benonie]

Originally Posted by Expat

I see that people are still wearing coats.

Those pictures were taken in januray. Anyway, we had the best, sunniest en warmest spring since than. Sometimes it looked like summer in April.
Now it's cloudy and coller again.

Originally Posted by Expat

Does the green cross indicate a pharmacy?

Yes indeed.

[Expat]

^Oh, that explains the coats. We are having nice weather now, too. Very nice!

[Benonie]

After a couple of days with some showers, the sunniest spring ever continious...but this was winter:

Killing time at Brussels South railway station.