Brussels – 4 February 2015
Today was a lot of walking around Brussels, punctuated by a couple of museums.
Here are photos of a synagogue in Brussels.
I passed the Square du Petit Sablon, which is ringed by a large number of statues. I was attracted to them because they seemed to show ordinary peole rather than nobles or religious figures. My OCD took over, and I got a picture of each and every one of them.
From there, I went to the Magritte Museum, which, unfortunately, did not allow photography. However, it is a wonderful museum, and I really like Magritte’s work. There was one drawing of a pipe with the French words, “Ceci continue de pas être une pipe,” which translates to “This is still not a pipe.” The museum is connected to the modern museum and the old masters museum, which does allow photos. I still find it amazing that paintings from the 15th and 16th century are still in such good shape.
One exhibit by Jan Fabre did not allow photography either, but there was a quote on the wall: “ I gaze a lot at my own image in the mirror to draw myself, and every time I see someone else.” (The exhibit is at this URL; choose the link labeled Chapters I-XVIII.)
Kunstberg / Mont des Arts
Mont des Arts (Kunstberg) is the museum quarter of Brussels. The view from there is wonderful.
And there is a clock with interesting figures around the dial. My OCD didn’t kick in on this one, so I didn’t get pictures of all twelve.
Miscellaneous Buildings and Statues
Wall Art
The last of these shows Le Chat, a popuar Belgian cartoon.
Signage
Various signs which probably need little explanation, except perhaps the last one, which is for a bicycle repair shop.
These are signs on a store called Mr. Ego.
This one is for a Brussels tourism site; a clever name, as be is the two-letter country code for Belgium.
A rather weird poster for a performance by someone named Éric Antoine.
This one had me confused for a moment until I realized that boom (pronounced boam to rhyme with foam) is Dutch for tree, which is what the French arbre means. So, this is a street sign for “Tree Street”.
Some clever person added text to this sign; peau lisse means smooth skin, and happens to have the same pronunication as the French word police.