Far East museums - Chinese Pavilion - Japanese Tower

Quite a while since my last post and you know what? I don't even feel guilty! Our family got +1 again and even when we do get out of our place - which happens not as often, but we do our best - photo camera is not even making it to top 10 things to pack with us. Visiting any place with a baby and a toddler is also something close of extreme sport.

I do have some "stories" waiting in my virtual drawer though, and I guess it's time to dig them up. I am not even thinking of writing regularly - not until spring at least - but doesn't mean I can't drop a topic every now and then to feed the crowd hungry of my words ;)

As cold days settled for good and we can enjoy the typical Belgium weather a lot these days, I prefer to skip the outdoor places that look gorgeous in the sun - why would I want to torture myself? We go indoors then. We go to Far East museums.

Now, despite my platonic love with Japanese culture, adding to it very real love for Asian cuisine, I don't think I would stumble upon this museum if not the "very hard to miss" landmark - Japanese tower emerging from within the trees. If you ever drove around Laeken, possibly going for a movie to Kinepolis, or looking for Atomium - you probably past by the tower. If you drove just next to it, you must have seen the Chinese pavilion just across the street as well. I did, I even stopped by to take some pictures outside and I was completely set on visiting both one day.

One day has come and we packed up our little one (our little two was still firmly attached to my body making travel easy) and set of to see our friend and have a good time.

It didn't take much investigation to find the story of the place, so I will just send you to the official website for details and myself I'll focus on the impressions.

Museum consists of three buildings - the pavilion, the tower, and small building behind the pavilion that was originally meant to be a garage. We started with the latter, being now Museum of Japanese art.

Big part of Japanese art seems to be martial arts, as the collection consists mostly of old weaponry and armours. Besides that, you will also find beautiful kimonos, screens and other pieces. Quite a treat if you're into those things.

Chinese pavilion is an exhibit on its own. Even though it contains collection of Chinese porcelain, what's most fascinating is the building itself. Ground floor is covered in gold, with stunning ornaments and wall paintings.

Beautiful stairs lead to upper floor with bunch of amazing rooms in different styles, and some kind of a play room with games available for kids.

On that matter - the museum might not be super-kids-friendly - but it's definitely kids safe. We didn't have to shout out "don't touch it" too much, and there's even mentioned play room and outdoor playground for the little ones, so don't fear taking them along. Our toddler loved the trip.

Taking the underground passage you cross the street to see the little zen garden and the tower placed in it. The garden looks beautiful, but is not accessible except for the peek view from the outside.

Unfortunately you can't climb the tower - huge disappointment. The inside though is absolutely wonderful and worthy seeing if only for the amazing glass works all over. For that one I recommend visiting on a day with at least a bit of sunshine.

 
Altogether it's fairly small museum, even counting all the buildings together. Most people visit it only from the outside - which is free. We even saw couple of buses of tourists that came in like a hurricane to take some photos and as quickly disappeared to hit the next "must-see" object on their express tour around Brussels.

I do recommend taking a bit more "Zen" approach to the visit - take your time, enjoy the visit, cherish the artworks. If you're looking for filling in some time - try to find the Tai-Chi group that exercises at the premises. We saw some people just as we were visiting and frankly, what could possibly be a better place for that in Brussels?

Pain Quotidien @Galerie de la Reine - Best breakfast in town!

In today's episode we mix a bit of culture with a bit of cuisine.

As parents of a toddler the idea of staying long in bed during weekends doesn't exist for us any more, therefore we can often be caught as first visitors in random places of the city. On July 21st, the day of coronation of the new king of Belgium, we promised ourselves to stay as far away from the down town as possible. After all, it's going to be crowded, lots of streets blocked, traffic... We planned a calm breakfast at some small cafeteria on the border of the city.

After driving around empty streets for some time, not being able to find ONE place that would be open, we finally ended up in front of the church that hosted the big ceremony. The streets were absolutely empty, we could park just next by, in front of the church there was small crowd gathering, but not very overwhelming yet. I guess fact that it was 8 am in the morning on Sunday explains a lot.

After a bit of walking around, Chris offered to go to famous 'painquot' to have the breakfast. And the closest one was at Galerie de la Reine.

Le Pain Quotidien is a famous bakery chain in Brussels. Set up in 1990 by Belgian, who couldn't find proper bread for his restaurant and decided to make some of his own. It not only grew into chain of bistros offering way more than just baked goods, but also spread all over the globe (see Wiki). By many people it's known as "the place that sells bread for 10eur a loaf".

It's very nice and cosy place, offering number of tasty and organic food. Of course, there's big selection of bread, but also salads, drinks, pies and so on. Lots of the products you can actually buy to enjoy at your own home. Yes, it is expensive. But what you get for the price is very tasty, healthy and organic food, great atmosphere, charming staff and, in this case, beautiful surrounding. We were even lucky enough to be accompanied by a street opera singer, which made the experience that much better.

The first "painquot" opened at Rue Dansaert, but, without seeing many others, I think the one at the gallery is just about the best.

A little bit about the gallery then. Trying not to repeat too much of the Wikipedia page, it's basically shopping mall designed for higher classes. Having quite striking resemblance to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, though smaller, was actually created 30 years earlier. So if their Wikipedia page says that Milan's gallery was the oldest shopping mall... well, seems like Brussels wins that one!

The whole complex, called Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, consists actually of three galleries - Galerie de la Reine (Queen's gallery) - is the one with Le Pain Quotidien, Galerie de la Roi - King's gallery, and small Galerie des Princes. Altogether though, they just create one common space.

You will find number of fancy shops inside, starting from hat-makers to chocolateries (of course). It's not a surprise either that the whole gallery is a registered monument. Between the stores you will also find Théâtre des Galeries Saint-Hubert, which is registered monument on its own, but we'll leave that one for the next time.

Le Pain Quotidien hides quite a number of places inside (check the upper floor), but I enjoy sitting "outside" (which is still inside the gallery). Points for being child-friendly - staff is very nice and helpful and the area is closed, meaning our little one can run around fairly freely without disappearing from our eyes (passing tourists seem to be enchanted though, by a "lone" toddler running around in between them).

If you entered the galleries from the Grand Place side (starting by Galerie de la Reine), and you pass till the end of Galerie de la Roi, outside, on the corner, you will find a small brasserie, A La Mort Subite. I will try to post few words about the place some other time, but I can already mention that you should definitely stop by and try the famous Belgian Kriek - traditionally Brussels cherry beer (not only for girls).

Coudenberg - Underground city

I didn't lie when I said we keep on visiting places. This one is still from May - time flies so fast these days!

We were inspired to this visit by our "big project" I mentioned earlier. The work is still in progress, so I am not going to reveal its connection to this post... I am just going to tease you a bit by mentioning it every now and then. Trying to create a bit of suspense! :)

This time, as the title states, we go underground. If you know Brussels a bit, you've probably seen Place Royale - the one with great view on down-town, with the monument of a guy on a horse, just next to the Brussels Park. You got it?

Well then, this square was not always there. The ground was not always there either!

Square was build on top of a former Palace of Brussels, which burnt down in 1731. Yes, you got it right - they just covered up the remains with new buildings. But thanks to some renovation works and curious archaeologists, the site is being restored and is available for visits.

The palace was placed on a hill - Coudenberg (which in Dutch actually means "cold hill"), therefore the name. It's also often referred to as Palace of Charles V (curious why?).

Usually when you enter, you visit the museum and the archaeological site. Unfortunately, the museum was closed at the time, so we will have to go back one day to see it. The site itself though is interesting enough.

It consists of remainings of the palace itself, but also the whole street, rue Isabelle, with a Hoogstraeten House that stood by it.

 

Even recently, when we found ourselves again on Place Royale, I felt a bit of magic, seeing all the people walking around and most of them not being aware of what's hidden just under their feet.

 

I must admit, it was a bit tricky to handle a toddler, camera, read the guide and try to see what's around, so in the end - many photos are blurry, and I didn't exactly catch all the info... but what the heck, it was still nice, and little one enjoyed it as well.

Unfortunately I have lost the brochures we received, which give general info on the history, but also describe each building and show it's placement against the Place Royale on top. I would definitely want to go back there and have closer look this time, maybe even go for the audio guide that's available.

 

On the pragmatic side - the reception staff was super-nice and helpful. Then again, in Brussels most people are super-nice and helpful (I stand by it!). We had to leave the pushchair by their desk, though after we had our walk, I must say only few places were really unavailable to pushchair. It's supposed to be wheelchair accessible, so then - what's the difference, really?

Anyway, another nice place to visit, that's for sure. If you have more time (we didn't) you can get a combo-ticket to visit BELvue museum as well, which is apparently museum of Belgian history and culture (definitely on my list). You can even include lunch in the museum cafe that offers really good looking snacks (whether they're good-tasting we still need to check).

For more info, look at their site (check out "for kids" section - you can organize a treasure hunting event! forget the kids, I want to do it!).

Institut Redouté-Peiffer

Last post coming from almost two months ago - I can't be more ashamed. I was really set on posting every two weeks, I swear, but then one day, when I turned my computer on, it expelled a little line of smoke and started smelling of burnt plastic, so I instantly turned it off. Then there was delay in getting it to repair-shop, then waiting time for parts coming from other side of the globe, then picking it up... and here we are. Halfway through the summer and the blog is close to dead. Enough with the excuses though, let's go to the topic.

One day I saw a poster on our entrance door, inviting to visit the Institut Redouté-Peiffer. It instantly rang a bell, and indeed, in the Secret Brussels book the place is mentioned as a nice spot (yet again that book!). It's also placed next door to our home, so no excuse to skip it.

Institut Redouté-Peiffer is a horticulture school, and on the open days they were supposed to have a plant market. As we needed to vamp-up our balcony, we packed up and headed to do some shopping.

A little bit of history (mostly from Wikipedia page, so nothing fancy). In 1913 representation of (not existing anymore) Province de Brabant opened a gardening school in Anderlecht. Originally set in Neerpede (picture found on the ReflexCity website).

It was named after a Belgian florist and painter, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, a court artist of Queen Marie Antoinette. He was at the time well known for his watercolour paintings of flowers.

Serge Peiffer was an alumnus of the institute. I didn't find much information on him (not that I looked hard either), but looks like he opened his own institute at a time, and in 1995 they both were merged into what we have today.

The school doesn't look like anything very interesting from the outside, so I don't think there are many people knowing what it hides inside.

Even though we came there on open doors day, we were told by very nice stuff, that you can come to visit anytime (but it's better to call in advance, to see if there's anyone to open the door for you).

Plant market is available only occasionally though. We were helped by a very professional man, who recommended exactly what kind of plants we can take for our balcony, helped us to gather it all up, and also exchange some words about the whole big idea of banning non-registered seeds. 

Inside the building not only you can see several glasshouses where students learn about plants and taking care of them. There's a whole separate part devoted to recreation of the tropical conditions. It looks absolutely stunning! 

All the plants are beautiful and smell is overwhelming. There's even a bench to relax on, maybe read a book, and feel like you're on tropical holidays.

Initially it didn't seem like there is much to see outside, but luckily I dragged Chris in one of the alleys (just to make sure), and it turned out there's a whole big garden worth visiting.

 

For such a small place, we were amazed to see how much time you can spend wandering around in there. Vibrating colours, and as before, overwhelming smell of flowers (even lacking the tropical temperature) make this place feel magical. All you miss is some queen playing croquet with a flamingo.

It was really difficult for me to leave this place, but Belgian weather never disappoints, and we were thrown out by the rain starting to fall on our heads. Fortunately, we have a piece of that place growing on our balcony now.