If you read my post the other day about the Comic Strip Center, you will know that there is a big thing about comic strips in Brussels. On our general wanders we came across many walls with comic strip style illustrations on them and wanted to find out more.
Always with a walking tour app on my phone I popped Brussels into the search box. As luck would have it, there was a walking tour of the comic strip walls of Brussels. So without further ado, we navigated to the nearest point and off we went.
What I enjoy about walking tours and wandering
I don’t think you can really get know a place better than when you explore it on foot. Of course, it is going to be alien and confusing when you first arrive, so having something that helps you get your bearings is essential. And that is why I thoroughly recommend an audio walking tour. Not only do you get to start navigating through the streets, but you get to learn about them too. Win win, if you ask me. When I have done them in other cities, I have been able to learn the area in a greatly reduced time than if I did it alone. I feel more of a local that way too, as I’m not always looking down at my map.
Anyway, looking for comic strip artwork meant that we would be ambling down alleys and peeping around corners as many were on the blank sides of buildings or high above the ground. My kind of exploring!
At each point we would have to search for the piece and once spotted learn about the story behind it and something about the artist.
Back streets and alleys
Many of the pieces seem to be located in residential streets and alleys which makes the adventure that little bit different because you’re not just walking around the main areas of the town. There are over 52 pieces on the walking tour, so we decided to nip in and out of it when we got a chance as it covers a huge area of Brussels. And although we would have loved to have seen them all, we were only there for four days!
With so many pieces dotted around the city, you can happen upon them while you’re going around your general sightseeing. Having the app to hand is useful as you can quickly find out what it is about and then move onto the next thing.
Looking back in time
A lot of the pieces that are on the walls around the city give you a sense of looking back in time to an older era in Brussels. Even with just one picture and a short description, it feels like you get a bigger picture of what was happening.
Funny discoveries
After a while of wandering up and down different streets and hunting out the artwork, we noticed that some of the streets had two names. Curious, we looked through the app and our guide-book to discover why. Some of the streets were allowed to have comic names to match with the artwork on that street.
We thought it would be fun to introduce it to our street, but I am not sure the city council would agree.
I’m not gong to share all of the ones that we found on our wanders as that would spoil the fun. However, if you would like a map, I am happy to pull one together for you to wander around with too. I’ll even fill you in with some other streets, detours and things of interest too. Just let me know in the comments and I’ll add one to the end of he series.
But for now, I’ll leave you with one of the better known characters (to us British folk, anyway) and that is Tin Tin!
How do you like to get to know a new area?
Are you a fan of audio walking tours? Would you enjoy hunting out the comic strip walls in Brussels?
Let me know in the comments below 🙂