荷兰／The Netherlands （Part 2）

＊布鲁塞尔／Brussels
看在我难得到西欧，他们正好有空，Tu的爸爸建议开车带我到浪漫之都巴黎去，顺道在比利时首都布鲁塞尔逗留几个小时。于是到荷兰才两天，我和Tu与她的父母就往法国去。
Tu’s dad happened to be on leave when I was in Netherlands, so he suggested driving us to Paris for a visit, stopping by Brussels along the way. Hence, after only two days in Amsterdam, Tu and I hopped into her parents’ car and off we went to Paris.

还真不知道荷兰那么小，距离比利时和法国那么近。才开两个半小时的车，我们就已经离开荷兰了，没多久就到了布鲁塞尔。因为他们在法国有亲戚，经常开往这一条路，因此Tu的爸爸知道哪里是游客该去的地方。最先带我去看的是矗立在皇家公园内这个著名的原子能塔。原先以为这个外貌新潮塔应该是新建的，怎么知道已经有半个世纪的历史了，是在1958年比利时为了研究原子能发展和纪念布鲁塞尔国际原子能展览而健的。
I didn’t realise how small Netherlands was. Within two and a half hours, we were already across the borders, into Belgium itself. After a short drive, we arrived in Brussels. This is not the first time Tu’s dad has acted as a tour guide; he often brings relatives down this way. As such, he knew where to go and what sights to show me. First up was a visit to Heysel Park, where we got to see the interesting Atomium. At first sight, I thought this must be built not too long ago. But reading the signs around the park, I realised that this monument was built way back in 1958, for the then Brussels World Fair. It is 102m tall and has nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times!皇家公园是为了1958年的世界博览会而特地建造的，因此除了原子能塔，还有其他有趣的东西。像是这个黄色建筑，我们研究了很久，才发现原来整栋建筑是用啤酒箱筑成的，现在是个小小博物馆。
In actual fact, the whole Heysel Park was created for Expo ’58. So not only can you see the Atomium, you can also find other interesting structures like this yellow building. It took us quite a while to figure out that this mini museum is actually fully made out of beer crates.之后到布鲁塞尔市中心去。布鲁塞尔古镇有非常多的老建筑，而且大多都很庞大，与荷兰的不相上下。站在古镇广场中心望着这些老建筑，除了说“哇”之外，就无法再说什么了。
We next head into Brussels city centre. Walking into the heart of Brussels Old Town, the sight of so many huge old buildings rendered me speechless.
然后我们就开始“寻找布鲁塞尔市标行动”，即小于连（或是撒尿小童像、尿尿小童）。找了老半天，一直找不到，最后决定跟随其中一把伞（带团的导游手中都会持一把伞，然后一直高举着伞，团友们只要认伞跟着走就行了）。嘿，结果真的就这样被我们找到了。看到这个铜像的时候，还真有点失望。原以为会有多大，怎么知道原来只是个小不点。才半米高的小铜像怎么会是比利时最赚钱的“工具”呢？实在令人费解。小于连的由来有很多说法，其中一个就是有个小孩半夜起来尿鸟，看到另均等房子伸出一条燃烧中的引信，小孩找不到水源扑灭，灵机一动撒尿救火，救了受困的人。夸张啦，不过却是游客爱听的故事。一堆人在那里拼命拍照，旁边有人兜售各种各样的小于连画，布鲁塞尔的所有纪念品店也一定会有贩卖与这个小不点有关的纪念品和明信片。
We then embark on our mission to find the “landmark” of Brussels, i.e. the Manneken Pis (Dutch for Little Piss Man). We were wandering around without any success, when we decide that we should just follow one of the umbrellas (all the tour guides here seem to love using umbrellas as markers. They will raise the umbrellas in their hands up high and those in their tour group just have to keep a lookout for the umbrellas and they won’t get lost.). True to our expectation, this umbrella that we followed “brought” us to the Manneken Pis within three minutes. I must say, I was quite disappointed when I finally caught a glimpse of the Manneken Pis. I mean, come on! How can this tiny little statue, half meter tall, of a boy pissing, be the icon of Belgium? I see nothing special about this little pissing man. There are many legends regarding the Manneken Pis. One of which is that, a little boy got up in the middle of the night to use the loo, but saw some sparks. Not being able to locate water to put out the fire, the little boy decided to piss on the fire and thus saved the whole city. It’s too much of an exaggeration but is exactly what tourists love. Thus this place is perpectually surrounded by tourists and you can constantly hear the cameras clicking, while touts try hard to sell paintings of all sorts of the Manneken Pis in the background. Of course, this also means that you can find Manneken Pis of all shapes and sizes in the souvenir shops all around Belgium. 比利时最出名的两样零食是松饼和薯条，不用说啦，我当然都尝试了，味道真的是一级棒哦！不过忙着吃，忘了拍照，哈……
Belgium has great snacks like the Netherlands too. The two snacks which should not be missed by any visitor are the waffles and French fries. Needless to say, I tried both at the first chance I had. I must say, they were the best waffles and French fries I ever had. But I was too busy eating, and forgot to take a picture of the food. Ha… …