The Belgians take “la bande dessinée” as a very serious matter. Referring to it as “le neuvième art”, they are passionate about comic strip art. Belgium is home to the creators of Tintin and the Smurfs, as well as many other well-known comic strip characters who are immortalized in the world’s first comic strip museum in Brussels, known as Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée.
Along with the City of Brussels, the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée has organized an outdoor exhibition route that takes you past 18 large comic strip images on the sides of buildings around the center of Brussels. The walking route was clearly marked on the city map we picked up at our hotel, so we decided that it might be a fun way to see the city. The route provided us with many good sight-seeing opportunities: piétonnes, arcades, churches, monuments, sculptures, Christmas markets, ice-skating rinks, etc., etc.
This was just one of many Christmas Markets we came across, all of which sold hot drinks to keep you warm, and most of which sold escargot to go - 12 for 3€.
We came across this creative carousel in one of the squares. Apparently, you sit on the seat behind the city worker and spend the ride pushing him into and out of the manhole, or you can ride a giant frog or other creature.
This was the first Lapland market that we saw, providing all types of delicacies from Scandinavia, including this smoked salmon, which made my mouth water.
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