Brussels

Tintin,  investigative reporter
and Snowy

We are in Barcelona for a vacation. Quite extravagant on our part. Since my husband was at a conference in Spain, we decided to bite the bullet and join him. We found really cheap tickets and decided this was an opportunity. Our flight took us from Toronto to Brussels where the kids were adamant that they wanted to go to the Herge Museum. Herge was the inventor and author of the Tintin  comic books.

View just outside of Brussels Central Train Station

We arrived in Brussels at 8 am local time but 2 am Toronto time. Kids were tired but up for the adventure. Since we were too early, we took a train to the Central Station and walked around outside. I wish I had been better organized. I didn't expect to have any time in Brussels city core. I was hoping we would see the Manneken-pis or some of the Tintin murals. Apparently there are many in the city core. We did eat Belgian waffles. In our small tour, we accidentally found the  Rene Margritte Museum but it was closed till 10 am.

Rather than wait around to open, we decided that we would go to Herge Museum. So back on the train and a 40 minute ride to Louvain de Neuve. The museum is located in the university town of Louvain de Neuve. It was a very pretty setting.

Herge Museum in Louvain de Neuve

The museum was well done. Unfortunately there was not enough interactive exhibits to keep the kids entertained. Architecturally, the musuem was laid out and well organized with a good audio guide in many different languages. The kids learned a lot about Herge and since they knew the books quite well was able to gain more insights on the story lines and characters. I, on the other hand, enjoyed the social contexts of the books. After a few hours, we returned to Brussels to check out the Margritte Musuem.

Margritte Museum in Brussels

Rene Margritte  was a surrealist born in Belguim in 1898. The majority of his work was to challenge the viewer on their preconceived notions of reality.



All we did was stop in the gift shop. I really wanted to see the original works of Rene Margritte but was afraid that the kids would have a major melt down. Here is a nice website for kids. By this time, all they wanted to do was return to the airport. I wasn't too upset. In my mind,  I know I would return to Brussels and this time, I would know where it is. It's an easy train ride in from the airport.