My OperaBelgium have claimed all the best things! our Belgium trip 21-24 Dec 2012
Friday, December 28, 2012 12:55:28 PM
For this years birthday present Jo spoiled me with an adventure rather than a monetary gift. As a gift I received a train ticket on the Eurostar to Brussels + Hotel accommodation to explore a bit of Brussels and surrounding towns and villages and take in the Christmas markets.
Alex and Jinnie joined us on our journey and we all caught the train on time without rush from Kings Cross st Pancras on Friday morning at 10.30 straight to Brussels. On the train we caught up and ate random 'toasted' cheese sandwiches - I add the food bit in for Jinnie (ps did we take a photo of the Sand-which?!?)
I'ts a pretty quick journey and comfortable but can be a little disorientating to set your watch back an hour.
We checked in to the Hilton Honors Hotel just off from Brussels Nord station (2 stops from Brussels Zuid / Midi) where the Eurostar starts/ends depending on which direction you are traveling.
The accommodation was good. Clean, tidy and comfy. Jo sadly was showing signs of coming down with cold (which she later passed on to me :/)
Day one showed us walking through 'Grand Place' (big square in Brussels), eating our first chocolate Belgium waffle from the street vendor in 'Neue Straat'. We also stumbled across Mannatje Pis (a famous pee-ing statue) and drank strong strong beers in a local pub before scoffing down some Belgium chocolate en route back to the hotel..Yum. and drunk... great combination.
Saturday morning was a slow start - not due to babalas, but Jo had officially taken on the Cold/flu symptoms and stayed at the hotel. Jinnie, Alex and I went and saw the local National Comic strip gallery. 2 interesting points; 1) There are more comic strip writers per square mile in Brussels then in any other part of the world... AND 2) Brussels is where the Smurfs and more importantly TINTIN comes from! Needless to say - I bought some TinTin Comic books as souvenirs. When we got back to the hotel Jo seemed a little better so we went in search of food...
We found Jinnies recommeded 'Leon' something restaurant - world famous for Musscles (Moules). We also, tried Frogs legs! First time ever. Images attached
Then we went beer sampling. Yum. We went to the 'Beer Tap' a delerium pub which seems to be a beer brand with a big Pink Elephant logo. they had 400 different beers on tap! My kinda place!
I wont lie... we got a little sloshed but it was well worth it.
Jo also had a random thing happen. She ordered a glass of wine and just after it was served , without her touching the class (even for a sip) - the glass rim shattered. Photo proof attached.
The barman says it happens often!?!
Wonder if there is a random beer crazy ghost in the pub that will have non of the wine drinking kind.
Across for the pub was the lesser know 'Jeannke pis' statue which we took photos of. Them Belgiums do like to take the pis
Sunday we journeyed out of town to Brugge on the train. an hour out of town really can change the view of thew world. What an amazing place! old churches and forts on the canals and a beautiful Christmas market to boot.
Here we tried Bacon flavoured chocolate. Well smoked chocolate... but awesome none the less.
We bought a bunch of chocolate and got stuck into a flemish stew at lunch time.
I cant recommend the Brugge trip enough. what a beautiful place. I hope they will let me back after the loo story... but thats for another blog post
Monday was our last day and we dicided to head off the beaten track to Ghent for a look around.
Its 'Brugge without the tourists'. We took slow train which took a while to get to Ghents St Pieters station, then a tram in the center of town (up a winding hill). Here we had hot chocolate made from real runny chocolate and milk and explored the old cathedral and walked the town. The language most populare in Ghent seems Dutch (flemish Dutch) - which is pretty close to Afrikaans randomly. We also tried the Cuberdom sweets local to Ghent and took some great photos.
We fast trained it back to Brussels to get our bags - use up a last beer token at the hotel and rushed(now a little late) to the Brussels Midi station. Just caught the train with 5 minutes to spare we headed back to London town for Christmas.
How awesome was that! 7/10!
Alex and Jinnie joined us on our journey and we all caught the train on time without rush from Kings Cross st Pancras on Friday morning at 10.30 straight to Brussels. On the train we caught up and ate random 'toasted' cheese sandwiches - I add the food bit in for Jinnie (ps did we take a photo of the Sand-which?!?)
I'ts a pretty quick journey and comfortable but can be a little disorientating to set your watch back an hour.
We checked in to the Hilton Honors Hotel just off from Brussels Nord station (2 stops from Brussels Zuid / Midi) where the Eurostar starts/ends depending on which direction you are traveling.
The accommodation was good. Clean, tidy and comfy. Jo sadly was showing signs of coming down with cold (which she later passed on to me :/)
Day one showed us walking through 'Grand Place' (big square in Brussels), eating our first chocolate Belgium waffle from the street vendor in 'Neue Straat'. We also stumbled across Mannatje Pis (a famous pee-ing statue) and drank strong strong beers in a local pub before scoffing down some Belgium chocolate en route back to the hotel..Yum. and drunk... great combination.
Saturday morning was a slow start - not due to babalas, but Jo had officially taken on the Cold/flu symptoms and stayed at the hotel. Jinnie, Alex and I went and saw the local National Comic strip gallery. 2 interesting points; 1) There are more comic strip writers per square mile in Brussels then in any other part of the world... AND 2) Brussels is where the Smurfs and more importantly TINTIN comes from! Needless to say - I bought some TinTin Comic books as souvenirs. When we got back to the hotel Jo seemed a little better so we went in search of food...
We found Jinnies recommeded 'Leon' something restaurant - world famous for Musscles (Moules). We also, tried Frogs legs! First time ever. Images attached
Then we went beer sampling. Yum. We went to the 'Beer Tap' a delerium pub which seems to be a beer brand with a big Pink Elephant logo. they had 400 different beers on tap! My kinda place!
I wont lie... we got a little sloshed but it was well worth it.
Jo also had a random thing happen. She ordered a glass of wine and just after it was served , without her touching the class (even for a sip) - the glass rim shattered. Photo proof attached.
The barman says it happens often!?!
Wonder if there is a random beer crazy ghost in the pub that will have non of the wine drinking kind.
Across for the pub was the lesser know 'Jeannke pis' statue which we took photos of. Them Belgiums do like to take the pis
Sunday we journeyed out of town to Brugge on the train. an hour out of town really can change the view of thew world. What an amazing place! old churches and forts on the canals and a beautiful Christmas market to boot.
Here we tried Bacon flavoured chocolate. Well smoked chocolate... but awesome none the less.
We bought a bunch of chocolate and got stuck into a flemish stew at lunch time.
I cant recommend the Brugge trip enough. what a beautiful place. I hope they will let me back after the loo story... but thats for another blog post
Monday was our last day and we dicided to head off the beaten track to Ghent for a look around.
Its 'Brugge without the tourists'. We took slow train which took a while to get to Ghents St Pieters station, then a tram in the center of town (up a winding hill). Here we had hot chocolate made from real runny chocolate and milk and explored the old cathedral and walked the town. The language most populare in Ghent seems Dutch (flemish Dutch) - which is pretty close to Afrikaans randomly. We also tried the Cuberdom sweets local to Ghent and took some great photos.
We fast trained it back to Brussels to get our bags - use up a last beer token at the hotel and rushed(now a little late) to the Brussels Midi station. Just caught the train with 5 minutes to spare we headed back to London town for Christmas.
How awesome was that! 7/10!
