Belgium, Day Three: Brussels

As convenient as the Eurostar is, I blame exactly that for mistaking our return to London this day. Where I though we would have to wrap up at around 2.30pm for a 4pm departure, we actually had a 6pm train to catch. Two hours might not seem like a long time, but given how empty our list of things to do was I was a bit worried that we'd be loitering around. I guess subconsciously at least we decided to make this a bit of a chill day. And on that note we started the day with breakfast as ZouZou's, a cute (in the insta sense) Moroccan run food place in the heart of Brussels.

That's not to say we were lax in the sightseeing at all - I made sure we passed by the Cathédrale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule and Grand-Place on the way to our next stop. The cathedral was worth checking out in it's own right, but it was the Grand-Place that really gave me a unique impression of Brussels, and quite possibly Belgium as a whole.

Was it gaudy? Gothic? Or maybe it just reminded my of some of the board games I've been playing, but it all captured my imagination in a way that the other sights across Belgium didn't quite.

The Grand-Place was also where we got our first exposure to the chocolate tourist trap. Although we made a committent not to bring back Pricey Easy Chocolate™, we ate too much offered free chocolate to refuse. Great marketing that.

Our actual target was - yes - another indie coffee shop a fair walk away in the north-west of town. Not that I minded the walk; it was just the right way to explore the city with the time that we had. Now I'm not a coffee person even though I drink more of it now that I ever have, but what we got at Wide Awake Coffee really was something else even by my layman standards. So much so I even took a photo (for shame).

After offering noon prayer at the mosque around the corner (because they seem to be everywhere in this country), we made our back back to the centre proper, grabbing eclairs and Belgian fries (which apparently are a thing).

A substantial addition to today's itinerary was to follow one of the three available Comic Book Trails dotted around the city. It was an another excuse to walk semi randomly but with purpose, and some of the art was genuinely good and even by artists I had heard of.

After our second coffee break of the day we started to make our way to the Gare Du Midi to catch our Eurostar back home. On the way we stopped off at the Palais de Justice, known for having been one of the tallest buildings in Europe at one point. Unfortunately it was closed by the time we made it there, so we missed out on what was supposed to have been some decent internal architecture. But the views of the building and indeed of Brussels itself from there were a good consolation prize.

Which then brought us to our departure time - all in all a great day of walking, eating and gup shupping with a side of sightseeing thrown in. I guess in many ways that sums up the past 2 and a bit days - I can't say that Belgium is my favourite country in Europe but this was a great little treat to have had just before Ramadhan kicked off. Case in point - even though our train arrived at 7pm I was home by 8. That's just something you can't pull off when travelling by plane or boat.

Belgium, Day Two: Bruges and Antwerp

Our B&B was comfortable and very cute, and I agreed with the host's claim that we were staying for far too short amount of time. Still, well rested we set off to check out the town (for me, the first time during the day).

It was very rustic, villagey and reminded me a lot about some of the university towns we have in the UK. The town market was in full swing and although much of it wasn't really relevant for us, we did take the opportunity to tick Belgian Waffles off the check list.

 

My travel partner was a coffee head, and so visiting independent cafes was always going to be a part of this trip - not that I minded given how short my lists of things to do in each place was.

 

The star of the show however was the Belfort, and although entry to climb the tower wasn't the cheapest we decided to go for it as the thing to do in Bruges. I'd say it was worth it, not only for the views but for the climb itself. The bells were in full song, with us even catching a rendition of Killing Me Softly. 

Possibly due to the train strike we didn't have many options for our ride to Antwerp, and so we had to take the 1300 train. Although this sounds like we had to cut short our time in Bruges, we were both satisfied by what we got to see and do, and so in some ways the timing worked in our favour.

 

One of the top things to check out in Antwerp is the Central Station, which is lucky considering that's where we arrived. It was definitely something and easily worth the few minutes wondering around.

After stashing our luggage in the lockers, and grabbing a quick lunch, we realised that we were up against time (not really a surprise given the ambition on this trip), so had to prioritise the rest of our time in Antwerp.

It probably says something that an Illusion Museum is cited as one of the top things to do here. Yes, it was cheesy and yes definitely a bit of a tourist trap. But we had a fun time going through the various illusions and it was an okay (albeit expensive) way to spend 45 minutes.

After the fun and games we had to make a beeline to the MAS Museum in the north - I had heard that it had a free viewing platform that was worth checking out. It was... okay, although that's more the fault of Antwerp's uninspiring skyline than the museum itself.

As it hit 5pm we were out of time for attractions that required entry, although some may say it was lucky we had to leave the Chocolate Museum behind. That left Antwerp itself, and we spent the rest of our time here walking around the historical centre, taking in hot drinks and vibes.

Our final sight to see was the Sint-Annatunnel, a pedestrian foot tunnel that traverses the Scheldt River underground. It was a fair bit more interesting that the London equivalent (and certainly less smelly), the wooden escalators alone making the tunnel quite the curiosity.

As we were once again bound by train times, that marked the end of our itinerary for today, and we made our way back to the Central Station to catch our train to Brussels, the city where it all started. After checking into our hotel we went for well deserved burgers close by.

Belgium, Day One: Ghent

I've always wanted to visit Belgium, although that's mostly because I knew it was only ever a train ride away. Apart from popular references to certain films and chocolate it wasn't ever on my list. But the nudge from a friend to have a cheeky pre-Ramadan trip was enough to get me on the Eurostar today.

I may have written about this before but the dissonance us islanders get by riding a train to a different country is real, and although the Eurostar is decades old now, leaving the country in a manner other than a plane or a boat never quite gets old. That it connects capitals, can take liquids, and is super fast just add to the overall novelty.

So two days and two nights was supposed to be an easy going couple of days in Brussels, but of course we also had to go and see Bruges. Rather than day trip it, we decided to book our first night in the latter and go straight there after arriving, and spend the last day in Brussels, close to our Eurostar back. But of course this being me and with my particular relationship with travel (trigger warning: it's overrated), the plan ever expanded.

All this preamble is to say that after learning that a train ticket to Bruges (or anywhere) allowed us to stop off at any stop as many times as we wanted to on the way, we figured it would be a good opportunity to see Ghent - we had some concerns that the week long train strike would force some of our options but it says a lot about the resilience of the train system here (or in Europe?) that we didn't even notice anything.

So, Ghent then. We got into the town around 5pm, and immediately made a beeline to a masjid to offer our daytime prayers using a tram and our legs to get there in good time. On the way we were (unreasonably it seems) surprised to see the odd halal kebab shop and "Free Palestine" sticker, so the vibes were definitely on.

 

Otherwise what we had was a quiet pretty town centre, maybe a bit dead, but worth the stop.

Getting into Bruges at around 8pm, I thought it was a bit too early to call it a night so took the opportunity to check out the deserted centre at night. Okay, fine, I was actually looking for some food and although I did manage to, it became clear that Bruges was going to be even more limited in options than Ghent was.

Book: The Sunlit Man, Brandon Sanderson

If I ever had a complaint about The Cosmere, it's that Sanderson refuses to help us out with his world. He teases and baits, but very rarely tells. Some people dig that, but my school homework days are long over and sometimes I just want to be told what's going on.

The Sunlit Man tells us a lot. I might even say too much. I promise that this isn't an obvious case of never being happy, but more because the novel is set so far in the future that any exposition it provides does more to confuse even more - I think I now have ten more threads in my head to juggle.

Getting over that though, Sunlit is a great novel in the line of the other Cosmere novels, and as such I can't stay mad at it for too long. It's certainly more essential that the last few "secret projects", not that that gives it more value, but the contrast is definitely welcome.

Book: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Brandon Sanderson

The real genius in Sanderson lies not just in his ability to create rich worlds, but to do so tremendously concisely. This isn't just a good thing on its own - I actually think it makes for far more wonderful books, particularly in the Cosmere. It's not surprising that Elantris, Warbreaker, Tress and the other standalone novels are my favourite in the franchise - as impressive as The Stormlight Archive is (so far) there's just so much of it that it sometimes falls under its own weight.

Yumi is another great example of this effect. In just 500 pages we have yet another planet in the Cosmere, with a rich yet easily accessible system of fantasy and lore, and characterisation aplenty - all wrapped up in a decent romance to boot. There really is little to complain about here.

And yet it doesn't quite reach the upper rankings, not because it's not good, but more because it's not as good. That's no mean feat for sure - make no mistake, I enjoyed Yumi a lot, it's just not my favourite. Otherwise it's just the ticket to tide me over till the next book in the Cosmere... coming up next.