Brussels; Saturday, 19 June, 2004

First stop of the day the main tourist office to get a Brussels card and then onto the most famous attraction in Brussels, a small statue of a young boy having a leak (well it is Belgium!)

After Le Manneken-Pis I got the open top (thankfully closed top as it decided at that point to have another small monsoon) bus for a tour of the city centre and EU district.

After that I wandered up past the Royal palace to the Palace of Justice and the views over the city. Then a short stop for lunch in the Parc du Cinquantenaire looking over the Belgium Arc de Triomphe.

After lunch it was a short trip on the Metro and Tram out into the western suburbs and the Basilique du Sacré Coeur. Modelled on it's name sake in Paris it has the dubious reputation of possibly being one of the ugliest buildings in the city (and this includes some of the monstrosities that the EU call home!)

However, it is still a very very impressive building and the views that you can get from the roof (lift, no spiral staircases) are spectacular.

After dodging another shower whilst I was inside the Basilique I went back into the city centre and to the Comic book museum.

After beer and chocolate this is probably what Belgium is most famous for. It's certainly one of it's more obvious exports with the prime example being Tintin.

The museum itself charts the history of Comic strips as well as looking at the process of writing a comic strip and transferring it to the screen as animation.

With the sky's clearing I followed the suggestion of the guide book and took one of the more scenic trips in Brussels. Down the length of the number 44 tram line to the suburb of Tervuren. The tram runs along side, and at times through the edge of one of the last bits of ancient forest in Europe.

The town itself is best described as "quaint" and most obviously home to many an EU bureaucrat, however running behind the centre of the town is a spectacular park which in the late evening sun was very pleasant.