Brussels, Belgium

By now some of you probably know already where I had spent my New Year holidays. May seem like an odd choice, but when you find cheap tickets for a place you havent been to before, you just grab the opportunity and make the best out of it, and I must say the trip was really fantastic.

The best thing about Brussels? Our AirBnb, which included 5 cats and one dog. Endless joy! One of the cats would scratch on our door every day to let him in, and he would just climb on the suitcase and fall asleep, waking only to the rustling sounds, knowing it was probably food. (Make a wild guess which one was the frequent visitor :D)

Brussels itself is nice, just too crowded for my taste. But it was nice to see it. It didnt make the list of places I would never really like to go back to again, so thats a plus.

the place shown on the card is called Mont des Arts (meaning Hill/Mount of the Arts) which probably makes it one of the best places for taking pictures, cos the view is really stunning (however when your personal photographer cannot really grasp the idea of a good picture, you will end up without one with you in it...)

Not big fan of spending time in museums, at least not those standard types of Art and History ones, but I do love some unique ones, esp if related to my interests and Brussels has this super cool Comics museum, where if nothing else, you will realize how ignorant you actually were about the comics' art cos it is not all Tin Tin and Smurfs and stuff...

and of course, Belgium wouldnt be Belgium without the waffles, but to my surprise and to the disbelief of many I got to eat only two...but they were real good!

and probably just the best nachos I've ever eaten, so if you are in Brussels, and feel like having nachos, go to the O'Reilly's Irish Pub - their food is just fantastic!

so all in all a great stay in this small county and would like to visit it again and explore more of it (aside from Brussels, we also got to see Brugge, Ghent and Leuven, so not bad, eh? :))

the only downside is the lack of cancellation (or as in case with my card, it was upside down) on just all the cards sent but when I think about it, that is way better than some pen scribbles.

There is one of the birds' definitives (not sure which year it was issued), and two stamps from a set of 10 issued in 2003, under the name This is Belgium. Different places across Belgium are represented, and on these two stamps it is Vilvoorde and Turnhout, where the latter is obviously known for its playing cards industry, hence the playing cards' symbols.

The Atomium, Belgium

A card I received for the Surprise Group in Andy's Vacation RR just last week...

Looks really impressive, don't you think?
This is the Atomium in Brussels, originally constructed for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair.
Designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn and architects André and Jean Polak, it stands 102 m tall. Its nine 18 m diameter stainless steel clad spheres are connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.
Tubes connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre. They enclose escalators and a lift to allow access to the five habitable spheres which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere provides a panoramic view of Brussels.

CNN named it Europe's most bizarre building.

Seriously CNN?? SERIOUSLY??  I bet there are at least a few buildings over here that can take the crown of 'most bizarre'...

and yeah...another coffee incident just a few days ago..it was one of those days when everything goes wrong, so karma tried to kick in from all sides...well, I dont know how many things suffered...I honestly dont even want to know...life goes on....King Filip got to taste a bit of the Nescafe 3 in 1 strong...hope he liked it.
Issued in a set of 3 in 2013

Brussels, Belgium

one VERY misleading card!

unless there was an explanation on the back, I would have bet my head that this card comes from China...never in my life I would have guessed Belgium...but yeah, believe it or not, this Chinese style can be seen in Belgium's capital.
It was built in Paris for the world exhibition in 1900 and then bought by King Leopold II and rebuilt in Brussels in 1904. All the decorations are real 'made in China and brought to Europe so it does have the authentic Chinese style.

Cool, I must admit..

the stamp on the very right was issued in 2008 in a set of two flowers' stamps, this one showing a Marigold. The middle stamps is from a set of two newspapers' stamps issued in 1987, while the last, bird stamp is a definitive, showing a duck and was issued in 2010.

thanks a lot to David for such a cool card :)

Brussels, Belgium

this nice card comes thanks to Thomas.

at first glance, i thought that huge rectangle thing was stained glass...and i was wondering, how is it possible not to break it when its placed in the middle of a square where frequency is so high...turns out my imagination goes in a different direction and that this has nothing to do with stained glass  but that, the rectangle thing is actually a flower carpet on the Market Place.
Officially, the first Floral Carpet as its present-day form was created in 1971 on the Grand-Place by the landscape architect E. Stautemans, but, in fact, it was the culmination of a whole series created in various towns in Flanders. he had been experimenting since the early 50's making simple small carpets, more like rugs, mainly consisting of begonias. He very quickly realised that floral carpets would be an excellent vehicle for the promotion of his beloved begonias which he had always worked with, both technically, economically and aesthetically.

After years of attempts and calculations, this architect, who was inventive and imaginative, and knew how to make the most of the numerous resources of begonias, became an expert in the creation of superb floral carpets with sophisticated colors and complicated designs.
His fame spread and he was asked to make carpets not only in Belgium but worldwide. Some of these carpets were bigger than the ones created in Brussels (77 x 24 m), like the 1973 masterpiece at Sint-Pietersplein, Ghent that reached a gigantic 164 x 42 m.

However, as E. Stautemas himself says, "Nowhere is the carpet more beautiful and distinguished than in the unique, ancient surroundings of the Grand-Place in Brussels".

Well, i havent seen the others, but this one is definitely stunning.



the stamp was issued in April this year and comes from a set of 5 showing the World Heritage of Belgium - Major town houses of the Architect Victor Horta in Brussels.

thanks a lot to Thomas for choosing such an interesting card :)

Brussels, Belgium

these are the Corporation Houses in Brussels dating from the XVII century...

Funny thing...just now i realized that this is my first Brussels card...i have numerous cards from Belgium, and i had no idea until now that Brussels was missing from my collection!
Funny thing numero due...i could barely find any info about something called Corporation Houses in Belgium...and when i looked at the building card, i even thought it might be a UNESCO! :)
So...all my Belgique readers....if you can...please...HELP! :)