What Should a Tintin Fan See in Brussels?

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6 Responses to “What Should a Tintin Fan See in Brussels?”

1. Stephen Says:
   
   

   I went to Brussels last summer,solely for the purpose of seeing Tintin related things! I searched for hours looking for just about everything Tintin related in the city.
   You asked about bad times and dates to go.Let me give you a warning:if you plan to see either of those museums,DON’T go on a Monday.We should have known,but it wasn’t clear online so we took our chances.And the museum I wanted to see was closed.:-(
   But despite this drawback to plans we did still have a fun time.There is an awesome looking town square,actually a UNESCO world heritage site,that even if you only see it for 15 minutes is worth a visit.The best part is that it is right on the way to the the official TINTIN STORE. It is literally a minutes walk or less down one of the streets that leads to the ”grand place” or ”Grote Markt” as the signs will say I think.You will recognize it by the blue lotus cover painted on the floor outside,and…well,it wo´n’t be hard to find once you are in the right place.If you want more info,on google maps I believe you can find it under the name of ”La boutique Tintin”
   Like anything Tintin things will be expensive,but you can find books in an enormous amount of languages,and collectible little figures and T-shirts.I bought the three figurines with haddock,snowy and Tintin on the moon.And some postcards with the covers on them of several of my favorite books.
   Then we headed on something called the ”Comic route”.Now,I know you wanted to beat the ”beaten path” but this route could be interesting for both Tintin and non-Tintin fans. It is a route that,if you spent the whole day on it,you would probably see most of brussels.Throughout the whole route you will see several buildings with walls painted by famous Belgian cartoonists.We went there directly from the town square, using a little brocheur we got from a tourist information office. Now I don’t know about you but I am really only interested in Tintin and not all the other Belgian comic characters that only the belgians have heard of.It isn’t clearly marked con the brocheur but there is ONE and ONLY one wall that has tintin on it.it has Tintin and Haddock running down a fire escape,painted right by a little cafe.All i can tell you is that it is very close to the ”peeing boy statue”.It sounds ridiculous,but all over brussles you will see little peeing chocolate boys in the shops,molded after the famous peeing statue.You would think it would embarass them,but you can see dozens of them in windows and shops.All these are molded after a tiny little statue much smaller than i had imagined that can be found at a street corner in a very nice part of the town with old houses and streets.it was one of my favorite parts of the day just walking through these streets.Best of all,these streets are full of tiny little chocolate shops,most of which have free samples if you walk through.We left the comic route once we got to the statue and just made our way to the tintin museum eating chocolate on the way.It was closed,but hopefully it will be open when you are there.It sounds like a great place to go.
   The one other thing on my list was to see the paintings at Stockel station.It is,if I remember right,the very last stop on the red underground subway line.I do remember it is the very last stop in that direction.It is REALLY worth a see.It has pictures of just about all the characters with important roles in the books in the same mural.Rastopoupolous gets hit by a snowball with the yeti stuck inside and other weird situations.It is really cool.you can take pictures too.
   Something i wanted to see as well was the building where tintin was published with a big rotating sign in front with Tintin and Snowy’s heads.But I didn’t get to it.I’ve also heard that,altrhough redone and barely distinguishable the train station that Tintin comes back to in Tintin and the land of the soviets is still there.
   The only other things that come to mind would be to say that the Tintin Shop,although having more stuff than anybody else,isn’t the only place to buy Tintin stuff.I found some stuff in some shops on the street.Not famous shops or anything,I don’t have the slightest idea where they are.But it isn’t hard to find Tintin around in shops.He’s kind of like Superman.Sometimes it will be less expensive to buy it other places.And again I’m sorry I can’t remember where it is,but I passed a thai food restaurant on the comic route with the name of The Blue Lotus in french.And french fries were invented in Belgium,so you might want to have some or some waffles in brussels just to do it and say you did.
   .You can find a lot of stuff of this on Google maps.
   Here is the Tintin store on google maps:
   http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
   If you stick the word ”Tintin” in google maps,you should find a bunch of stuff too.
   And as far as not Tintin related stuff,I wanted to see the Atomium and something called minieurope that is a bunch of small scale models of places in Europe.
   I hope this helped.Have fun in Brussels!

   July 11th, 2009 at 9:23 am
2. Chris Tregenza Says:
   
   

   Stephen,

   Many thanks for taking the time to comment, especially the warning about Mondays

   I didn’t know about the comic route, I will investigate it as it sounds a great way to see the city. I will cross-reference it to beer & chocolate related attractions so my partner has something to appreciate it on the way.

   Chris

   July 11th, 2009 at 11:15 am
3. John Says:
   
   

   Brussels really isn’t that interesting, except for the central park. For a real taste of Belgium, try nearby Brugge! There’s a Tintin sdhop there, too.

   July 15th, 2009 at 12:06 am
4. Dave Says:
   
   

   Howdy,
   I am a massive Tintin fan and made sure we included Brussels on our trip. The comic museum was good but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t much original Herge material. Much of it was recreated and ‘artistic’. Good though.
   I recommend the Military museum. It isn’t within walking distance but a short train ride from the city centre. This was the best museum we have ever been to! It has EVERYTHING from medieval to Napolean to WW1 to WW2. We spent a whole day there and their hanger of aircraft is the best collection of war planes I have ever come across.
   For beer you cannot go past The Delerium. It holds the world record for the most beer commercially available – 2004 at last count and the tap beers they have are superb. We were there very night after dinner and lapped it all up. The atmosphere is great and the place feels alive. If you go here I would like to hear what you think of it. This is near the centre of town. The Tintin shop near here is great too and we bought so much stuff!
   You’ll love it – beer and Tintin makes it one of my favourite places in the world to visit and will definately go again. The problem was getting all the cool stuff we bought home!
   Cheers,
   Dave.

   July 20th, 2009 at 4:18 am
5. Chris Tregenza Says:
   
   

   Thanks Dave.

   I shall definitely look out for the The Delerium.

   Chris

   July 20th, 2009 at 9:14 am
6. Walter Wall Says:
   
   

   I live near Brussels. Thinking about ‘The Blue Lotus’, I can tell you where there’s a decent opium den if you’re interested.

   October 13th, 2009 at 11:31 am

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