Our flight landed at 9:30 pm and with the late arrival, we took a taxi to the rented apartment. My wife arranged a private studio villa through booking dot com. Since we had missed our flight through Istanbul we arrived 24 hours later. We only had 32 hours to see the sights and 16 hours was sleeping time. Our Jet lag wasn’t too bad since we slumbered when we arrived. The next morning, I was dying for a coffee. We were staying near the stock exchange square and we found a Cafe close by. There are a few authentic squares in the capital and most of them are populated with cafes and bars. It appears to be the pastime for most; is to drink and be merry in these picturesque squares.
Since we had so little time, it was the hop on and off tour again. It appears that most tours have a double decker bus with plug-in audio. We sat on the open top level and enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather. Perfect day for it. No dramas today apart from the occasional low swinging branch.
Belgium has four regions; French, Flemish, German and Brussels. The country is basically divided physically into two with the French speaking in the south and the Dutch speaking in the North with a tiny German sector within the French region and Brussels within the Flemish. Brussels caters for both, so when you order food you don’t know whether to greet in French or Dutch. Although most know English so it’s best to stay neutral.
The bus tour circuit took about an hour and half. Brussels has quite a large area of old and new buildings. (Old building meaning 1700s) Brussels appears to be at the cross roads of their municipal planning. Looking down any street you see old buildings next to new, next to old. (Photo) I guess when we went to Prague, they had a district which only had really old buildings. In Brussels, the planning appears to be interrupted by future development. Although construction was everywhere and supposedly it’s because of safety. It appears to have mixed identity. In one street, future was the way forward and another, the past still holds on. This a common problem around the world.
Let me digress.
It’s like Trumps slogan “Make America Great Again” is it saying that the past is greater than now, let’s go back to the past so we can be great. Is Trump living in the past? Are Americans living in the past? Is that going to make our future better? Putting food on the table is planning for future. Me get education, me get job, I earn money. It’s all about the planning. But the Trump’s government doesn’t want you to do that, they want you to turn on the TV and not pay attention so they can change the past and make a lot of money doing so.
History is a great teacher and what we leave behind tells a story. It appears that Brussels had an interesting past. Perhaps a few Trumps in its time. There are signs of it everywhere.
Belgium is known for its chocolate, waffles and fries. We headed off to find a Neuhaus chocolate shop. our guide’s mother Ann had gifted us with chocolates from Neuhaus. Our trip was way too long for us to gift it back so we indulged. Sorry Ann. Buying chocolate in Belgium is like buying jewellery. They wrap it up in a nice little box, ribbon it and stamp it as: “Authentic Belgium Chocolate”. So funny!
It was tempting to try the fries but I’m on a fries diet, Although, I’m interested in what they could do with them.
Leaving Brussels, we took the regional train across to France (The very fast train was cancelled) and we endured the beautiful countryside, green pastoral land, small towns and the occasional wind turbine. Next up Meeting the family in France.
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