Christmas Day!

25 Dec 2011

I woke up already exhausted from staying up so late celebrating Christmas dinner! Most everything was closed today, but I wasn't going to miss out on seeing something new!

Another hostel guest and I caught the tram that would take us out to the park that the hostel owner had told us about.

The park was in a suburb called Teruven--home to around 20,000 people. The park houses the Royal Museum for Central Africa.

Later, we returned to the city center for lunch and to check out the most famous sites in Brussels--Grand Place, Saint Catherine's, and Mannekin Pis. 

There are numerous legends about how Mannekin Pis came to be. One story says that a child went missing and the parents searched all over the city for him. They found him safe and urinating in a garden. The father had a statue made to thank the people of the city for helping him. Another story tells of a boy who peed on a fuse to prevent explosives from detonating. Who really knows what happened?

The statue is dressed up in different outfits several times a week!