Brussels - city of waffle, fries, chocolate & beer.
Brussels is a lovely city, although the truth is there's nothing much to see in Brussels. Apparently there's more to see in Antwerp compared to Brussels, but I like Brussels as to me its a very diverse city. There's a lot of immigrants compared to other cities in Belgium, and its not actually that safe to walk around at night, but its a bustling city nevertheless.
We arrived in Brussels in the afternoon of Boxing Day. Luckily for us (or unfortunately, whichever it seems fit), Brussels - or Belgium in general - do not exactly do Boxing Day. Apparently, January is when they had this crazy sale (similar to Boxing Day, instead of one day, they allocate one month). So, the city isn't as crowded as it seemed. Or so we thought. We met up with our cousin who has been living in Brussels for awhile as part of his PhD research. We trusted him to take us around the town, for the one day we spend in Brussels.
We dropped by our hotel first, Novotel to check in and drop our luggage. People will say, oh wow Novotel, expensive ones. But we got good deals through Agoda and we really just one a hotel that's in front of the train station, and this one is literally right in front of Brussels MiDi. And, by the way, with a GOOD deal, we got a VERY GOOD room, like it's HUGE! And worth the money, of course. Right after that, we went to his house for lunch. We ate hot rice (BLESS!) with some of the dry side dishes his mom sent over via my sister. All of this while watching Carrie on Netflix, and by the way the movie is not as good as the first one apparently. His house is on the topmost floor, with a sunroof and as you probably know, most houses in European countries do not have lift, and we hike up a very narrow stairs to reach his flat. Phew. Here's couple of pics from his sunroof, gorgeous weather tho in Brussels, I'm in love!
After lunch, he drove us to the city, and decided to ditch the car and walk instead, since its easier to walk rather than trying to get a parking slot. We walked for 4 hours (?) or so, around the old city of Brussels, taking in the architecture and the crowd. Brussels is wonderful, a must visit although it isn't much but its worth the trip. We were introduced to authentic Belgian waffles (apparently, there's two types of Belgium waggle - liege & brussels). I don't have the pictures since we decidedly to munch on the waffles as soon as we get it, but yeah there's two types. Then, we walked through series of long corridors (shopping malls - but in long stretches of hall), passing by dozens of chocolatiers - high end & affordable - before settling with buying chocolates for my parents at Pierre Marcolini (the high end ones) and Leonidas (the affordable ones). And, it turns out the city's Christmas market is still going on, so we walked through it, oh and the crowd is crazyyyyy! But we aimed to find a churros stand because we need to eat churros, so we walked until the end of the market when we finally found a churros stand. Then, we stopped at Fritland, a famous fries store for the famous Brussels' fries. We reached our hotel at around 8 p.m., dead tired and after a quick shower and flicking through the TV, we just passed out. And que, onslaught of pictures!
Our train to London isn't until 2 p.m., so spent the morning lazying around the room ,trying to sort out our luggage because it's a mess, and also taking to advantage the spacious room to do it (lucky us because our London room is so tiny). We met up with our cousin for quick lunch, but before that he walked us around the other side of the old city that we didn't get to see yesterday. It's Sunday and everything is quiet minus the bustling Sunday market in front of our hotel. We are pretty drained actually because we have been on the go for the last few days and the tiredness starting to crept up, but overall Brussels is lovely!
note: all pictures taken using HTC E8, no filters applied
Total spending in Brussels
Thalys (Amsterdam - Brussels): £49/2 pax
Hotel: £58/1 night + €7.50 VAT Tax
Shopping (incl. souvenirs): €71.60
We arrived in Brussels in the afternoon of Boxing Day. Luckily for us (or unfortunately, whichever it seems fit), Brussels - or Belgium in general - do not exactly do Boxing Day. Apparently, January is when they had this crazy sale (similar to Boxing Day, instead of one day, they allocate one month). So, the city isn't as crowded as it seemed. Or so we thought. We met up with our cousin who has been living in Brussels for awhile as part of his PhD research. We trusted him to take us around the town, for the one day we spend in Brussels.
We dropped by our hotel first, Novotel to check in and drop our luggage. People will say, oh wow Novotel, expensive ones. But we got good deals through Agoda and we really just one a hotel that's in front of the train station, and this one is literally right in front of Brussels MiDi. And, by the way, with a GOOD deal, we got a VERY GOOD room, like it's HUGE! And worth the money, of course. Right after that, we went to his house for lunch. We ate hot rice (BLESS!) with some of the dry side dishes his mom sent over via my sister. All of this while watching Carrie on Netflix, and by the way the movie is not as good as the first one apparently. His house is on the topmost floor, with a sunroof and as you probably know, most houses in European countries do not have lift, and we hike up a very narrow stairs to reach his flat. Phew. Here's couple of pics from his sunroof, gorgeous weather tho in Brussels, I'm in love!
After lunch, he drove us to the city, and decided to ditch the car and walk instead, since its easier to walk rather than trying to get a parking slot. We walked for 4 hours (?) or so, around the old city of Brussels, taking in the architecture and the crowd. Brussels is wonderful, a must visit although it isn't much but its worth the trip. We were introduced to authentic Belgian waffles (apparently, there's two types of Belgium waggle - liege & brussels). I don't have the pictures since we decidedly to munch on the waffles as soon as we get it, but yeah there's two types. Then, we walked through series of long corridors (shopping malls - but in long stretches of hall), passing by dozens of chocolatiers - high end & affordable - before settling with buying chocolates for my parents at Pierre Marcolini (the high end ones) and Leonidas (the affordable ones). And, it turns out the city's Christmas market is still going on, so we walked through it, oh and the crowd is crazyyyyy! But we aimed to find a churros stand because we need to eat churros, so we walked until the end of the market when we finally found a churros stand. Then, we stopped at Fritland, a famous fries store for the famous Brussels' fries. We reached our hotel at around 8 p.m., dead tired and after a quick shower and flicking through the TV, we just passed out. And que, onslaught of pictures!
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| This is where we get the waffles, there's few stores littered across the city, you can't miss out! |
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| And, yeah the fries store! |
note: all pictures taken using HTC E8, no filters applied
Total spending in Brussels
Thalys (Amsterdam - Brussels): £49/2 pax
Hotel: £58/1 night + €7.50 VAT Tax
Transportation (2 pax): N/A
Food: €26.80 incl. snacksShopping (incl. souvenirs): €71.60