Rue Haute – the Grittier Side of Things

Part of the original city wall from medieval times

After I had visited the Porte de Hal, I decided to head back to the apartment taking Rue Haute.  This section of town is called Lower Town which was built for the working and lower-middle classes  overlooked upon by the Upper Town which was the traditional home of the Francophile upper classes.  It is on this street for example that you see many of the less neat and tidy old tenement houses that are shabby and rough.  And I loved them.

The rougher tenement houses along Rue Haute

Guide books consider the street less appealing but I loved it.  The rough through to the renovated.  Each seemed to potentially hold such a story.  It definitely is an area where immigrants have settled and some of the poorer of the population congregate.

The Veterinary next door to a less upkept building

One skinny house using ingenuity to maximize on window exposure

If windows could speak ...

But to me it is full of character and stories.  So much material for writing or starting a story.  I ended up taking so many pictures of windows and doors, buildings and streets.  I was in the mood and couldn’t get enough.  I also decided to go to the Coudenberg which is the former Palace of Brussels and is now an underground archaeological site and museum.  It was really cool to wonder underground and imagine the world that existed then.  There is even a cobbled street that has been found that is now underground.  It is weird how a city grows on top of things and changes the flow of the land.  Man sure can make some changes.

Yummmm - a common site here in Brussels - Belgium Chocolate - yummm

Certainly there is so much in this city to see and do that I can’t begin to post about it all.  I have just been enjoying it and absorbing the energy and history.  And believe it or not, I have not eaten any chocolate or waffles all very distinct to Belgium.  I have enjoyed the beer however!

"off with his head!"