Brussels
We treated ourselves to first class train tickets and arrived in Brussels early afternoon on Saturday. We caught a ride to The Hotel Brussels, where we were staying for two nights. The hotel is really nice, except for an odd smell in the lobby. Fortunately, the smell did not continue to the restaurant or guest floors!
Our room was small, but nice, with all the amenities and a fabulous view of the city. We settled in, then headed off to see some sites. Of course, it was raining and chilly again, but we were prepared with extra layers and umbrellas. We found a nice restaurant nearby for dinner, then had a nightcap at the hotel bar before retiring for the evening.
Bruges
The next morning dawned cool and cloudy, and we hopped on another train to visit Bruges. And oh my, what a gorgeous little medieval village that is! The town is billed as Venice of the North because of the canals running throughout the town. We joined a boat tour and thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the history and seeing the sites by water.
After our tour, we strolled around the square and visited all the pretty shops. We bought some lovely lace items and cozy hats and scarves. We hated to leave the charming town, but we had to catch the 3:45 train back to Brussels.
Our train back to London did not leave until 4 pm on Monday, so we got up, checked out, left our bags with the concierge at the hotel, and took a tour around the city. There were some interesting sites, but we found the best things when we got off the bus and wandered on our own, including the famous “peeing boy” statue, and the Grand-Place, which is a medieval square right in the middle of town.
We ate Belgium waffles, bought chocolate, and thoroughly enjoyed our time. And bonus – for once it wasn’t raining!
We retrieved our bags and caught the train back to London. We knew our unwanted housemates would be leaving Wednesday morning, so on the train ride we decided to modify our next excursion to include another night away. We got back to the apartment around 8:30 pm, unpacked, repacked, made hotel and train reservations for the next day, had a glass of wine on our balcony, and called it a night. Belgium was a nice interlude and we were really looking forward to tomorrow’s trip.
Thanks for reading! Please check back in next week to see where we went next.