Christmas in Brussels

Last weekend we went downtown to see the sights of the Christmas market, light show and all the decorations in Grand Place. The Christmas Market is about 200 vendors who have little cabins set up along the streets in the city selling goods. There are clothes, jewellery, chocolate (of course) and food. When we arrived downtown, we looked at the nativity scene (which has real sheep and goats) and headed towards Manneken Pis. Mr. Pis was dressed up for the occasion as Sinterklaas - in his usual peeing stance!
While we were observing Mr. Pis, we heard music and looked up the street to see the Christmas Parade and stayed to watch it. It was interesting - Manneken Pis was honoured and the "Friends of Manneken Pis" lead the parade to Grand Place. At the beginning of the parade was a cart with Manneken Pis standing tall leading the parade. When the guy pushing the cart would get close to a group of kids, he would pull a lever and Manneken Pis would pee on the crowd. I said to Dylan that if I was a kid and saw Santa peeing, I might be scarred for life - not these Belgians - they love a peeing boy!

The parade had Sinterklaas at the end along with his Petes. They escorted him to Mannekin Pis where he got off his sleigh and had a photo op by Mr. Pis, then guess what Sinterklaas did - he went to the bar! He walked across the street, through all the children who were there to see him and walked straight into the nearest pub! It was quite amusing - I love Belgium!

When we headed for the market, there were lots of things to see and we spent most of the afternoon walking around and observing. One of Belgium's favorite holiday drinks (which was for sale everywhere) was "Vin Chaud"....yep, that's what it is, Hot Red Wine. I tried a glass, wasn't a huge fan, it tasted exactly like it sounds, hot red wine....not too good (although I've heard that you can get good stuff and bad stuff - I must have had the bad stuff).

There is also a huge skating rink and ferris wheel at the end of the market. There were lots of kids skating the day we were there - lots of 'ankle burners' as Dylan called them as there are no rinks here for skating, the market is the only place in Brussels where people can skate - so I think the locals are out of practice. I've been back to the market three times since, it is a nice place to walk around and get in the holiday spirit!

In the evening we went to Grand Place and saw the light show. It was the lights blinking and flashing to opera music. Was ok to see for about 5 minutes, then we went for a beer - typical Belgian style - Sinterklaas even does it!