Bob & Betty go British

Brussel Sprouts

At least that's what everyone said when I said I was going to Brussels last weekend....

So we've established that the Mannekin Pis is the national symbol of Belgium, that they like their beer and they make some fabulous chocolate, but the question is, is Brussels worth going to given it's bad reputation. Well, I have to say that it is. It's a reasonably attractive European city. It has everything we like - old buildings, museums, good food and a public transport system that works. We took the Eurostar - the easy alternative to flying. Our five star hotel was very pleasant although we seemed to be in the street with all the strip clubs (this also happened when we went to Vienna) and we were all the way down one end of the hotel where the hall way narrowed to half the normal width. Obviously it was the special room reserved for people who booked on lastminute.com. Even though it was quite late, Robert and I went out to find some food. Robert got stuck into trying the beer immediately and had a burger with fries. I just had the chocolate sundae (no, we weren't at McDonalds). Fries are served with mayonnaise in Belgium. An interesting alternative.

We paid the ridiculous amount of money for breakfast in the hotel (all I had was a bowl of rice bubbles and a cup of coffee - oh and I did take a little tub of nutella for later). Then we headed out into the city. Robert was armed with his new Sat Nav and I had the old analogue version. We then played duelling maps for the rest of the day. First we explored the Comic Museum. This was quite interesting - lots of information about TinTin and the evolution of Belgium comic creators throughout the years. Not everything was translated into English but it was still very interesting. Then we found the Square of Martyrs - deserted now but used to be the place to live back 200 years ago. Then we went off to the Grand Place via the Royal Galleries. There seemed to be so many amazing shops with expensive looking handbags and shoes. I didn't dare go into any. There was a chocolate shop on every corner and art deco styling everywhere.

For lunch we just grabbed a quiche and a drink with the intention of going to the chocolate museum but that turned out to be closed - it was only open on Mondays! Still, we then made our way to the Mannekin Pis, had a drink at a pub and then had to make an emergency dash back to the hotel to get Robert some pain killers. He'd been suffering from a toothache and it suddenly got worse. We tried to find a dentist but everything was closed so we just settled for neurofen and a lie down. After a little nap, we went out for dinner to Restaurant Vincent. It was a predominantly seafood restuarant and the waiters even cook food in the middle of the restaurant. The walls, floors and ceiling were all tiled and as you can imagine the noise level was quite high. We struck up a conversation with the couple sitting next to us - all the tables being so close together - they were from America and happened to have a house in Portugal. The lady was carrying her little dog around in a bag with her... it was all very Paris Hilton 20 years on. Back at the hotel we had a drink in the bar and starting talking to a Spanish guy who was living and working in Brussels as a translator. A rather interesting night.

Sunday was Folk Festival day and all the streets had been closed to cars plus public transport was free. We went to the Museum of Muscial Instruments which was in another art deco style building. It was an interesting approach to be given headphones which played pieces of music for the different instruments in a particular display. You stood on a number on the floor and the appropriate piece of music would be played. No words, just music. A rather relaxing way to spend a morning.

After lunch we walked up to check out the Palace. We couldn't go in as it was only open to the public until the beginning of September. So we decided to try out the underground system and go to the Autoworld. We walked through the Parc du Cinqentarie, through the big arch and spent the afternoon looking at cars. We then went back to pick up our bags from the hotel and then to the station to catch the Eurostar back to London. Unfortunately Robert was still in pain as we'd run out of Neurofen so the trip home was not as pleasant. Still, we managed to get home in the end.

It is now a whole week since we went to Brussels and it has been one of the longest weeks I've had since we got here. One of our friends said that it was the 4 month blues. My anxiety levels have been through the roof but I think I'm getting better now. As a result I've been rather unmotivated to write anything. I've been so bad that i'm still in possession of all the chocolates that we bought in Brussels!!

I'm hoping this week will be better. Robert's parents are now arrived safely from Singapore as of Saturday night and we'll be playing host to them until the end of the week.

Before I go I just want to say a Happy Birthday to all the people I know who have Birthday's in September - Mummy, Astrid, Christina and Philippa!!

posted by Elisabeth @ 10:17 PM