Hergé Museum

Few Belgians will disagree that Tintin and its creator deserve their own museum. Meeting such high expectations must have been a challenge, but the Hergé Museum does not disappoint.

This museum is very well organised and presents the microcosmos created by Hergé through a series of drawings, photos and videos, all projected into a chronicle of the 20th century.

First of all, the visit gives insight into the life and career of Hergé. A childhood spent mostly in Belgium created a thirst for travelling that Hergé passed on to his creation. Coming from a bourgeois environment, the first albums tended to repeat national stereotypes, but as Hergé became a seasoned traveler himself, Tintin’s view of the world became more nuanced.With Tintin, Hergé also helped to create the ninth art form, the comic book, which was in full development around the mid of last century. The expression of movement and emotion in comic books was one of the major contributions of Hergé.

Hergé did not work alone, but was surrounded by a team of professionals. Creating an album that withstands the test of time requires attention to detail. Doing this 23 times is no minor feat. Hergé’s team included major comic book artists such as Edgar Jacobs and Bob De Moor, who later created their own series.

There are 227 other characters in Tintin, each with a carefully selected name and personality. Many of these have there own spotlight in the museum, such as Captain Haddock, the Thom(p)sons and Professor Calculus.

In short, this is a well organised museum, hosted in an award-winning architectural setting. The visit with audio guide is user-friendly and very good value for money. You can easily spend a few hours here. To finish your visit, there are good facilities, such as a museum shop, a spacious lobby where you can take a rest, or a restaurant. An absolute must for comic book fans.

More reviews on this museum:

• Excellent review & pictures at Wayfaring travel guide
• A few pictures to give an impression of the architectural setting
• Musée Hergé - It's More Than Tintin

PS - a new Tintin movie by Steven Spielberg will be launched this autumn. The Belgian release is also the world premiere on October 26, 2011.

PS2 - on a fine day, you can conclude your visit by having a drink or meal on the Grand Place which is just a short walk from the musem.

What to do if you have (only) a few hours to kill in Brussels?

This question was asked on Virtual Tourist by a couple having 5 hours in Brussels during a long stop-over at the airport.

Assuming it is your first visit to Brussels, and if you have the energy, it would be a pity to remain at the airport with so many things to do nearby.

There is a train from the airport to Central Station which takes 16 minutes and runs 4 times per hour. With a half hour journey each way, and one hour of buffer time, this leaves 3 hours in Brussels.
If the weather is good - always a factor in Belgium - you can do the classics. Within half a km from the Central Station, you have the Grand Place, Royal Galleries, The Sablon Church & Square, The Royal Palace, the Cathedral, and so on. Lots of photo opportunities.

Or you can take one of the city walks. There is a walk around Brussels' 40 comic strip walls, which takes you all over the town. You will not be able to complete it in 3 hours, but at least try a good portion. There is also a walk around the European Institutions and there are several walks organised around Brussels' few 100 Art Nouveau buildings.

If time allows, take a break and have a waffle at Cafe du Vaudeville in de Royal Galleries, or a beer in the Roy d'Espagne on Grand Place.

If the weather is not good (not a small probability), go to Mont des Arts and visit for example the Magritte museum. Combine it later on with above waffle or beer.

To prepare for your short stay, make sure to get a copy of the Pocket Guide for Brussels. It’s available from VisitBrussels, Koningsstraat 2-4, 1000 Brussels. It comes packed with information and maps, including above-mentioned walks.

Comic strip walls in Brussels

Belgium is not only a country of beer and chocolate. It also has a rich comic strip culture, with characters such as Tintin, The Smurfs, Lucky Luke, Largo Winch or Blake & Mortimer, to name just a few. For the comic strip fan, there are plenty of things to do in Belgium.

Since 1993, the city of Brussels started to integrate comic strips into the city’s architecture. So far, there are well over 40 comic strip walls dispersed throughout the city (35 inside the ring, 8 in Laeken). These walls typically use side facades, and blend in well with the urban landscape. Some add a touch to an otherwise dull landscape. Others are meant for urban regeneration. The walls are best visited by walk.

This walk takes you all over the town, and is a nice way to discover some of the less frequented areas of Brussels. Doing the entire walk will take the best part of a day, but the walls come in groups, and you can select a segment of the walk that suits you best. Look at our album map of the walls where you can identify a center, southern and northwestern group of comic strip walls.


Comic strip walls in Brussels weergeven op een grotere kaart

Other things in Belgium for comic strip fans:

• Comic strip walls in Antwerp - a more modest project with 8 walls so far
• Comic strip museum in Brussels
• Hergé museum in Louvain-La-Neuve
• Marc Sleen Museum in Brussels (across the street from the Comic strip museum of Brussels.

Fondation Folon

More than beer, chocolate and lace, Belgium is a country of painters. Whether it's renaissance painters such as Memling or Van Eyck, baroque painters such as Rubert, van Dyck and Jordaens, or modern expressionist, impressionist or surrealist painters, Belgium has an impressive tradition throughout centuries.

Set in the in the farm of the castle of La Hulpe, about 20 minutes outside Brussels, you can discover the Fondation Folon, introducing the works of Jean-Michel Folon, a prolific, non-pretentieus artist, painter, illustrator and sculptor with international recognition, having developed from the beginning of his career an own unique style of aquarel painting.

The museum gives an overview of about 500 works of the artist through watercolours, screen prints, etchings, posters, sculptures, stained glass, ... Of particular interest is a video on which the artist demonstrates his painting style and explains why he opted for watercolours.

Rating

• Interesting site, in nice setting. An oasis of calm just outside Brussels.
• Good concept of presenting the works of art in a historic building.
• On-site facilities such as a museum shop and nearby brasserie.
• Good value for money

Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp

The Museum Plantin-Moretus is a major gem of Antwerp's cultural patrimony. Not only does it show the home of one of the richest families in the Southern Netherlands during the Renaissance, but it also contains a fully preserved printing workshop that has operated for 300 years, and dominated printing since the 16th century. It further hosts a library of no less than 25,000 volumes all dating back from before the 18th century.

The visit gives a vivid insight what printing meant in the early days when printing presses could ony produce 1,250 pages per day, when books were sold per page, and when there was a list of fobidden books maintained by the Catholic Church - the 'Librorum Prohibitorum Index'. The workshop still displays 90 printing fonts with 10 tons of lead letters. Its library contains manuscripts from the 9th to the 18th century. The value of the museum's more than 200,000 objects has been estimated almost 400 million euro.

The visit is supported by an audio guide which gives ample information. A full tour, at leisure, can easily take 3-4 hours. Something to preserve for a rainy day when in Antwerp, but make sure not to miss it!

Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerpen, a photo by Erf-goed.be on Flickr.

Beers in Belgium

In terms of diversity, quality and tradition, Belgium is the #1 beer country in the world. For its population of a mere 10 million, there are almost a thousand different types of beer. Most of these are available for sale in the beer temple, just off Grand Place which offers a selection of 600 beers, many with their matching glass.

As a souvenir or gift idea, many beer sets are available. For example a box with the 6 Belgian trappist beers, which includes the elusive Trappist of West-Vleeteren (rated 'best beer in the world' by Ratebeer.com in 2005).

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It's beer weekend in Brussels!

Image via Wikipedia

Belgium is known for the country with the most beers in the world - 750 in total, or one type of beer per 13,000 inhabitants. This weekend, you can come and taste the beers from over 50 breweries in the Beer Weekend on the Grand Place in Brussels.