The Brussels Adventure

You know how sometimes you think you remember when something specific or special happened but when you go to check it out, you were oh, so wrong? That was the situation with the Chunnel, the train tunnel under the English Channel connecting England and France. I was so certain it was completed in the mid-80's while I was still teaching in a classroom, learning about it through Weekly Reader. NOT SO. It wasn't started until 1988, although the original idea was presented in 1802! It was completed in 1994 at a cost of $21 billion. It's 23.5 miles of track provides passenger train service on one track/tunnel line and the Eurotunnel Shuttle for international freight trains and road vehicles on the second set of tracks in its own tunnel. OFD booked tickets on the Chunnel to get from London to Brussels. I was so excited to ride the Eurostar.

nice comfy seats around a table for the 3 of us

made only one stop in France before arriving in Brussels

Eurostar travels 186 mph (only 100 mph in the Chunnel)

a ride of 2 hours

We arrived at the big central train station and had to switch to a local train/metro service line to get to our hotel. Again OFD used the metro system to get us from one part of the city to the other. She makes the process appear easy and painless. That would not be the case if we were doing it.

Arriving around noon on Monday gave us the afternoon for checking out the Christmas Market in Brussels. We grabbed some lunch at the train/metro system station, eating quiche and some dessert.

a raspberry tart

Then it was off to the center of the city for some geocaching and shopping. I know you all know what came first!

there is a more famous statue of a little boy peeing

this one was in the area we were in that afternoon

the statues are behind locked gates

to discourage theft & vandalism

Christmas Market stalls

Grand Place

huge city square completely surrounded by historic guild houses

dating back to the 14th century

Brussels City Museum and Town Hall

Museum was once the Breadhouse

Town Hall or Brussels City Museum

Town Hall or King's House was once the cloth merchants guild

location of another geocache

today it is a restaurant

beer museum in the Brewers Guild House

an ornate guild house built in 1698

ornate carvings

and statues on the buildings

window display in a lace shop

some Belgian lace

lots and lots of chocolate shops

dark, milk and white chocolate options for St. Nicholas

only one shop gave us a sample

we bought 3 boxes of her chocolates

these cookies (in a smaller size) were yummy

the stalls meandered along the winding streets

it was easy to get disoriented

bright yellow paint made this business stand out

Noel cakes

beer shop

250 Belgian beers

how do you choose?

chocolate museum

this is why our feet were sore and tired

Marriott Hotel

Hubby mentioned on our 4 hour drive home after the 9 hours on the plane...that he was amazed at how the old buildings are kept in the European cities we visited. The buildings are old. They are made of materials from nature, not man-made products like so many buildings in the U.S. that are torn down when we feel their life expectancy is over. I posted this picture because it is the modern Marriott hotel in Brussels. It is in an OLD building, but I bet all the rooms are modern, like our hotels in Paris & London. They were in old buildings, but everything inside was modern and clean.

We also had Wednesday morning in Brussels before taking the train to Paris. OFD and I decided we really needed to see Manneken-Pis, the most famous statue in Brussels.

very few people around when we found him

"Manneken-Pis invites you to stroll through his Dressing Room at the Brussels City Museum in the Grand-Palace. The capital's most stylish ketje has over 800 outfits, including those of a cosmonaut, Nelson Mandela and Elvis Presley! Plus you can find out about his unusual history closely linked to that of Brussels itself depicted in the museum." 

We did not visit his dressing room. The boy is 24 inches tall and on a side street away from main foot and auto traffic. Street signs helped us locate him. He was created in 1618 or 1619 and has an interesting history.

This was the crowd when we left! That is when two armed policeman arrived and stood on the corner watching the people. We were hoping to find a geocache near here, but finally gave up. OFD bought a famous Belgian waffle for 1Euro, but it was not as good as the one we had the day before in Cologne.   

The evening meal we had while shopping in the Christmas Market is worthy of its own post. That's next.