Belgium Adventures

Circe looking thoroughly put-out by her new flock of enchanted pigs.

Quick note: I completely forgot to announce the non-fiction book deal on here, so if you missed the news . . . I’m writing a book about architectural secrets with my brilliant friend April Genevieve Tucholke, and it’s called Clandestine, and will be published by Workman/Hachette in 2023! *waves hands delightedly*

So. Because things are opening up in Europe, I was able to do some travel this summer. I popped down to Italy to investigate some things for said non-fiction book, and then went to Belgium, and here are a bunch of pictures from the Belgium bit.

Quite the nicest train station I’ve ever seen.

A lot of VERY WRONG people warned me that Belgium was a mediocre sort of country with ugly cities, and I’m here today to tell you that if you encounter such people you should ignore them, or run away, because who knows what they might be capable of.

I loved Belgium. I even loved Brussels, which is the city lots of tourists complain about. It has great museums, some stunning architecture, delectable waffles, and a quirky old used bookstore run by an ancient man, where I found 1st editions and 19th century pencil sketches for pennies . . .

The old bookstore in Brussels.

A pencil drawing from 1871. I have many questions, like who drew it, and is it a copy of something, and who is the subject. . . . I haven’t looked into it yet, but if I find something interesting I’ll post about it.

Fun fact about Belgium: it has a Dutch-speaking half and a French-speaking half, with two different governments who work together, or don’t, depending on their mood. I only went to two cities, Dutch-speaking Antwerp and French-speaking Brussels, but they do feel vastly different from each other—in food, architecture, and atmosphere—way more than, say, Zürich and Geneva in the similarly multi-lingual Switzerland.

A goth-y, goth-y headstone.

A goth-y, goth-y pulpit in the same church.

👀👀👀👀

Hidden alleyway in Brussels.

Apparently they just washed the gold on the buildings of the main square, which is why they’re gleaming so nicely.

This could absolutely be Zita from Cinders and Sparrows.

Belgium is the birthplace of Art Nouveau, which is one of my favorite styles of anything. I love all the stained glass and swirly lines and bulbous, mushroom-y lamps. Here is an Art Nouveau bust that put me in mind of the elf faces in the dead marshes in The Lord of the Rings. I mean, an elf would absolutely wear armor like that.

Belgium is also the land of Tintin.

And . . . this. A grocery cart drowned in sugar. It’s art, ok.

My favorite sculpture form the trip. Teeny-tiny houses are another of my favorite things. This statue was a gift to the architect of Brussel’s City Hall. On the left, it shows the building before its renovation, and on the right, the current version with all its gothic spires and accoutrements.

This sculpture is apparently based on a fairly unknown Belgian story that became super popular in Japan, causing its country of origin take notice of it, too. I love the cobblestone blanket.

Rubens house in Antwerp. One of the highlights.

That wallpaper/leather.

This statue gives me Edna Mode, bossy energy, and I like it.

Treasure boxes.

Antique shop wanders.

This picture was taken in an absolute labyrinth of an antique shop, just warrens within warrens of old furniture and knicknacks spread across several floors. We spent hours there.

Apparently this instrument is called a Helicon which is not an instrument I had ever heard of. Wikipedia insists it’s a popular instrument, though, so maybe I just don’t know anything. (Or I didn’t hang out with the brass section enough, which is TRUE. Brass instruments are a pain to write for because you have to transpose everything and if fifteen-year-old you forgets to do so for a rehearsal, the horn section will staunchly play everything a fifth lower than its supposed to be, and it’s all a bit traumatic. I stuck with the strings.)

This is a parade float, but it could also be something from Henty No One.

Oh, AND! If you go to Belgium, here is a tip I wish I had known: Belgium is the originator of Belgian waffles, but there are a few different types of Belgian waffles. When in Brussels you might blithely think, “Oh, I will get the Brussels waffle, that’s probably what one does in Brussels!” But NO, dear reader. Get the Liege waffle. The Brussels waffle tastes like nothing-y, flour-y air with a layer of sickly powdered sugar on top, while the Liege waffle tastes like a rich, cake-y donut with delicious caramelized bits and tiny crunchy sugar crystals on top. It’s far superior.

And that was Belgium! I might blog about Italy, too, if I remember to. I’m back to military in a few weeks (noooooo!), and then the Cinders & Sparrows paperback is out in October, and I have a giveaway planned for that, and after THAT, other deadlines are fast approaching. But I’ll try. I do want to get into blogging a bit more again, just for myself, because it’s nice to have a record of these things outside of my hideously disorganized laptop. So yes, more soon. I will hold myself to that. :)