Brussels weekend trip

Weekend in Brussels – 14/15th July posted by LP

It was our first trip away since we have arrived, so we were pretty excited. We woke up early to catch the Eurostar, great way to get to the destination without having to worry about catching a plane, and it drops you off in the city centre. At top speed it travels around 200-250km. After 2.5 hours we arrived in Brussels. We quickly worked out their metro system and was on our way to our hotel. The hotel was situated in the business district so was dead quiet when we arrived, it was weird not having so many around, but a nice change. The hotel itself was very nice. Great way to start our travelling adventures.

After checking in, we decided to hit the shopping strip as the shops were closed on Sundays. Shopping was fun (although Joe was itching to go to the square). After lunch at a brasserie (check out Joe’s huge pork roast, he only managed to finish just over half) we headed off to see the Mannekin Pis (it’s a statue of a little boy pissing, sometimes they dress him up). The Belgium adopted him as their mascot, nothing relating to their history, it’s been stolen by the French and the Germans a few time as well..

Brussels is a nice quaint town, with its beautiful gardens, cobbled streets and old architecture. We arrived at the square and Joe goes crazy with his photo taking. It is a great atmosphere with the buzz. We had decent summer weather, high 20’s with clear blue skies. Walking through the gardens, I can smell the trees and it brought back memories of home funnily enough.
Dinner was at one of the local restaurants off the square, Joe had mussels which were nice, but my seafood pizza was disappointing.

Sunday was just relaxing, browsing the market, eating different variety of good. We went back to the square just to relax, there was some competitive sporting event, bunch of boys throwing a ball around, like volley ball but with a tennis ball...I had Godiva ice-cream, so rich and creamy!!! ...by 4pm we were back on the Eurostar heading home..Great first trip.. Looking forward to Paris in 3 weeks!!