Last weekend we took a trip to Belgium, staying in Brussels and visiting nearby Bruges. As with any weekend trip it flew by too quickly and left us very tired by Monday morning. But we did have a great time away and really enjoyed visiting Bruges, sampling the local fare and snapping photos around the city.
A cheap and nasty Ryan Air flight plus a 1 hour coach ride plus a short metro trip got us into Brussels at midnight on Friday. We were very pleased to step into Hotel Bloom and relax. The funky decor and gorgeous comfy room were the perfect beginning to our weekend. Would definitely recommend Bloom to anyone traveling to Brussels!
We strolled Brussels on Saturday morning stopping by the Grand Place and the city’s signature statue ‘Mannekin Pis’. We were very surprised by the level of graffiti around some of the city and thought the litter problem there may just exceed that of Dublin! By lunch time we decided we’d like to take a train to Bruges as we’d heard great things about it and also recently seen the movie of the same name.
Bruges was only about an hour away and was really delightful to visit. While a bit touristy it was still very nice with its canals and old cobble stone paved streets. We ate frites in the central square and then climbed the 366 steps to the top of the Belfroi to look down on the town. It was a dizzying climb up the old spiral stairs but well worth it at the top. We got to hear the church bells ringing close up which was quite interesting.
No trip to Belgium would be complete without trying some Belgian beer so we searched out a bar with some space outdoors and sat by the canal for some pre-dinner drinks and enjoyed the quiet ambiance. I’m not a beer drinker at all but I tried the Framboise (Rasberry fruit beer) and found it quite nice. We ate at a lovely restaurant and were very pleased with the creme brulee for dessert!
On Sunday we took a Metro just out of the center to visit the Atomium, a giant monument building from the World Expo in 1958. Big and shiny it seemed a very modern design for something built 50 years ago. It has 9 steel spheres that you can walk between, connected in the shape of an iron crystal. Nice views of the city from the very top but the wait to go up there was very long.
After a very nice but slightly touristy lunch back in the center of Brussels we raced to catch our coach to the airport. As it turned out we needn’t have rushed ourselves as our flight ended up being delayed by 5 hours! 🙁 Not the nicest finish to the weekend as we had to be held in the boarding area for several hours before being transported to Liege to fly out on a different plane.
Overall, a great weekend. Well worth the trip and I feel we got a good idea of the country and the culture even in the very short time we were there. Now that we’ve recovered from the busy weekend and the late arrival home its back into the swing of things. Matt’s birthday tomorrow and then Matt is off to New York on Sunday for 3 1/2 weeks of work in the US offices! Luckily I’ve been able to arrange to go over for 1 week in the middle of that so it’s not so long apart. I’m very excited about visiting the big apple for the first time!!! We’ll have more blog posts over the next few weeks to keep you posted on our travels.
xx Kat
Comment from Brownie on 2008-10-14
Rasberry Fruit….. Beer….
Comment from Gill on 2008-10-16
Litter? Worse than Malta?
Sounds like a great weekend though.
Comment from Kat on 2008-10-16
@Chris Hehe, yes Raspberry beer. Beer for people who don’t actually want to drink beer 😛
@Gill Definitely worse than Malta. Malta I didn’t really think was that bad. I think living in urban Dublin must give me a different ‘litter’ scale to measure by!