Bruxelles

13.3.11

Samstag der 5. und Sonntag der 6. Februars 2011. In the morning I put my camera battery in the charger. I left it there. These photos are from my phone and the disposable camera I bought at the Atomium for something like 12€.

I had a nap on the bus and woke up at where we were making our toilet break. I had no idea where I was or what language was spoken there. I thought we were south of Brussels where they speak French but we were actually in the north where they speak Flemish.

When I asked Klaus what there is to do in Brussels he said to visit the Atomium.

The view was kinda nice but the weather was underwhelming. I'd heard some people saying they weren't going to bother staying the night in Brussels because it was boring. I was already worrying it might be the case.

It's called Europa Park or something... an amusement park that looks like a miniature golf course. It doesn't open in winter.

First disposable photo. Off-centre one of Atomium from outside. There was a park to the right.

IIK gave us two options: a modern one where we go up the Atomium or a historical one where we tour the city with a local bus-tour guide. No one wanted to do the former but we got stuck with it. To fill the void our bus driver, who knew Brussels pretty well, took us for a drive and showed us some things. I don't know the importance of this building but it was pretty impressive. Alfonso was having an extremely peinlich photo taken of him where he was meant to look like he was pushing the walls of the gate apart.

Near the Galerie Royales Saint-Hubert.

Galerie Royales Saint-Hubert where Les Néréides is... one of only a handful of stores around the world. Ally bought a €230-odd necklace and I bought some really nice earrings for Cass's birthday. At one point when we were walking through in a hurry to find the others, all of these people were singing as a choir and walking towards the centre!

The Gothic architecture at Grand Place was UNESCO World Heritage listed in 1988.

I gave them some Klein for being armed with interesting instruments.

Kristina always happens to order the biggest dish on the menu and I got stuck with this measly offering. It tasted goooood though, especially after I navigated us there and Ally needed a bathroom to clean her coat and Lia could order something vegetarian. I tried the Spanish word "agua" to ask for tap water. Lia was impressed in her Lia way as it turned out French for water is "aqua" and the man understood me.

Kristina and I wanted to go to a Belgian pub to drink some Belgian beer but all the pubs we walked into were totally packed and waiting was made untenable with the rage-inducing chorus of "Ohhh, don't you think this one's a little bit loud/smoky/crowded? Wouldn't you prefer to just go home where it's much more quiet and calm?". We ended up going to a kiosk and buying €30 worth of beer in 4 bottles! I can't remember which was tasted the least like poison but the one 2nd from the left had a medieval archer on it!

The Smiths. She got pretty excited.

The view from Hotel L'Ecrins. It was a bit chilly that morning I remember. We were headed for the Metro, where you can't buy tickets with notes. As it was a Sunday, lots of the shops were closed. The ones that weren't told me they were closed anyway just because they didn't want to change my notes for coins. I finally found an old man on the street who was kind enough to do the job. Lia kept worrying about how many times we'd have to change trains and about how to explain she wanted a rubbish bin to the train guard who spoke no English.

There were heaps of fat lady paintings in the hotel.

So happy with herself dodging my photo-attempt.

At the flea markets, Lia decided to take a walk to find coffee as soon as we got there. Kristina, Ally and I walked around cursing her - "you can't enjoy yourself properly because you have to worry about where she is". We finally found her and then we went to a couple vintage stores. I bought a shirt for 8 Euro, the dude gave me a third off the original price. I also bought heaps of really cool beads for my sisters. We lunched at this sweet cafe near the market. I had a lasagne and, as I didn't want to risk another 13% Belgian beer, I had a glass of much milder Jupiler with it.

We then split up. Lia actually did go to the musical instrument museum alone (I'd joked the day earlier that she would have to do that and she snapped at me because I was being insensitive). Ally went to see some art museums and some buildings. I went with Kristina to check out the vintage stores. On the way back to the city centre we came across these sweet gardens in the East of the city.

This was the first moment when I thought "I should come back in Summer to properly appreciate this". We'd never walked this way before... it was from the East towards the North West. Everything was so open and sort of sloped/stepped, and the architecture behind me was beautiful.

Finally, Kristina and I parted ways. First I went to a Belgian pub, asked "Chelsea?" and they said "No, only Belgian... Chelsea down the road!", after which I went to the Irish pub to find the game I wanted. I ordered a half litre of Kilkenny and enjoyed an interestingly lined up Liverpool take on a blue-shirted Torres. I could only stay for the first half but saw Maxi Rodriguez miss a sitter and Torres get thwarted by a brilliant block from the from injury retuning Jamie Carragher. I had to leave at half time to go back to DDorf and almost missed the train because I had no idea where the station was!