Eurostar to Brussels Monday 5 August 2024
We now have got a taste for train travel on the Continent after our big Interrail trip, and Julie spotted a very good Eurostar offer to go to Brussels. It would be rude not to.
Our train was the 09.00 from St Pancras International, and we had to be there an hour in advance, which mean we had to leave home at 7am to get the train and tube. I had forgotten what it was like to get up at stupid o’clock and commute across London, it’s no fun at all.
In the time it takes to get from my house to Brighton, we were at Brussels Midi station, where the Eurostar stop is. Julie booked a hotel conveniently close to Brussels Central station rather than Brussels Midi, which was annoying. So we dragged our trolley bags over cobbles for 40 minutes to the Motel One on Rue Royale, which wasn’t the best start. But we had done it plenty of times before, because we are hardened Interrailers.
Motel One is modern and stylish, but the rooms aren’t much bigger than the bed. Fortunately Julie had booked a room with a balcony, so we could sit in deckchairs and admire the roofs of central Brussels.
After getting settle in we followed Google maps into the old town. Our hotel was very close to the Cathedral of Saints Michel et Gudule, which has a beautiful front facade, but we didn’t venture in.
A short walk along Rue de la Montagne brought us to a busy touristy area with lost of cafes, so we guessed we were near our destination, the Grand Place. But before we got there we came across Galerie de la Reine, a beautiful Victorian shopping gallery which reminded me of similar galleries in Leeds and Cardiff. Naturally many of them were flogging fridge magnets and chocolate, which is a big deal in Brussels.
The Grand Place is the central old market place, and was largely built after Brussels had been bombarded with incendiary cannon balls by the French in 1695 as part of the Nine Years War. The French used the tower of Town Hall as their target, and much of it was destroyed along with a third of the walled city.
The Buxellois are resilient people and rebuilt the Grand Place better than it was before. It is lined with very fancy guild halls which flamboyantly display the commercial wealth of the city, which was one of the biggest and richest in Europe. The finials of the Flemish gables glisten with gold leaf and the tower of the Town Hall looks like a Gothic rocket, really quite spectacular.
Looking at lovely architecture does make one thirsty, and luckily in the Rue des Bouchers we came across a bar, the Delirium Cafe. To be fair, you are practically tripping over bars in Brussels, there is no shortage of them since that’s where you get the other comestible the city is famous for, beer.
Since it was the Delirium Cafe, I had a glass on Delirium Tremens. It is very tasty, 8% alcohol and fortunately comes in a 250 ml glass. I could feel the effect, which was quite pleasant. But the bar was a bit of a tourist trap and had the most horrible toilets I have been in for a long time, so I wouldn’t recommend it.
Our next stop was the Place Royale, in a part of Brussels that was built by Austrians, so it looks a bit like Vienna. The history of Belgium is a bit complicated (like all history really), and Brussels fell into the hands of the Spanish Hapsburgs, then the Austrian Hapsburgs, then Napoleon took it. So the architectural styles depend on who was in charge at the time.
On the way from the Grand Place to the Place Royal we came across the Brasserie de la Madeleine, which was more-or-less a pub, so I quite liked it. It wasn’t a touristy place so they sold Jupiler (a bog-standard lager) for €5 a big glass, which was just what I needed.
After more site seeing we went back to the hotel and sat on the balcony to rest our weary feet. Later we went to a Thai restaurant on Rue de Congres called Better Than Hungry and ate a huge pile of delicious noodles, washed down with more Jupiler.
Antwerp Tuesday 6 August 2024
On our second day we took the train north to Antwerp, a city I know almost nothing about before we got there. It only takes about 40 minutes on the train, and there are plenty of trains from the Central station.
Antwerp Central station is huge and built like a cathedral, a massive statement of Belgian confidence in the 19th century. I have never been to a station where som many people were stopping to take photos. No one does that at Waterloo station.
It is almost a straight line walking from the station to the Grote Makt, which is Flemish for Great Market and sounds like someone clearing their throat. Part of the walk is along Meir, which is Antwerps Oxford Street. It is pedestrianised and lined with familiar chain stores, you could be anywhere in Europe.
A fancy entrance way took us into one of the most extraordinary shopping centre I have ever seen, the Stadsfeestzaal. It is a huge hall with an arched glass roof, and the walls are decorated with elaborate plaster work picked out in gold. The Belgians certainly like gold decoration on their buildings. Like most cities it had a branch of Flying Tiger, so we had a look around and bought some bits of tat we don’t really need.
On a side road nearby was Rubens House House, where Rubens lived for 30 years with his family and painted many of his great works there. Sadly it was shut for renovation, so we didn’t see the inside.
I recently visited a National Trust house called Kingston Lacy and saw a stunning portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria, an Italian noble woman who Rubens painted in Genoa.
The old town in Antwerp is smaller than in Brussel, but still very impressive. It has a huge Gothic cathedral of Our Lady that towers 123 metres above the city. Close by is the Grote Makt (Great Market) which has a huge town hall and grand guildhalls topped in gold. A statue in the city show a mythical hero called Silvius Brabo throwing the severed hand of a giant called Antigoon. The Dutch for “hand throw” is handwerpen, which is how (allegedly) the city got it’s name. In the 16th and 17th century, Antwerp thrived on shipping trade on the river Scheldt and was one of Euope’s richest cities.
Around the corner from the market place is the Vleeshius (flesh house) which was a guildhall and market hall for the cities butchers. It was completed in 1502, and had space for 62 butchers.
Trade on the river Scheldt made Antwerp very rich, and it was protected by a castle called Het Steen, which roughly means The Rock. I’m surprised Dwayne Johnson hasn’t sued them yet. It has been rebuilt and modified over the centuries, but still looks very impressive. There is a museum inside, which we didn’t explore, but did go up on the roof to enjoy views of the city and the river.
A kilometre along the river is MAS (Museum an de Stroom), which was built in 2011 to house a collection of 470,000 objects. The architecture is very impressive, made from red Indian sandstone and curved glass.
We spent a couple of hours there, and could easily have spent much longer. The view from the room is amazing, especially the view towards the port, which is the second biggest in Europe (after Rotterdam).
The strange looking contraption floating outside MAS is a grain pump which was for transferring grain from ships onto barges for shipment into Europe.
Ambling back towards the station we stopped at a bar for a Duffel and then at Frituur t Stad, a very good chip shop to eat Belgiums second finest product. We had a medium sized portion between us, with mayo and peanut sauce. It cost us 6 Euros and was so filling we didn’t need to eat any dinner!
Antwerp Wednesday 7 August 2024
One day was not enough to see Antwerp, so on our third day in Belgium we went back again. We got off at Antwerp-Bercham station so we could visit a district called Zurenborg, which my guidebook recommended for its architecture. It didn’t disappoint, there are several streets with a wonderful collection of Gothic, Neo-Classical, Tudor and Art Deco Houses built at the end of the 19th century.
I have never seen so many really stunning Art Nouveau houses together, real gems with mosaics on the walls and circular windows. The streets are quiet and pretty, its well worth a visit.
Since we were in a cultural frame of mind we got a bus to Middleheim Sculpture park, a few kilometres away. To be honest it was a bit dull. There were lots of modern-ish sculptures set in grassland in a fairly uninspiring park. But then again, I don’t really enjoy sculpture unless I can recognise what it is.
One item on display was a large stainless steel tank with plumbing attached, which I suspect was a birthing pool. It was in the same vain as the famous urinal call Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, equally mystifying.
Luckily there was a very nice cafe in an old manor house, where we had a delicious sandwich and a Bolleke. What a great name for a beer! My favourite art work was next to it, a droopy yacht.
After returning to Brussels we went out in the local area and visited a resaurant called Caberdouche where I had meatballs and more beer, La Couffe I think this time. All the beers I sampled were strong and tasty, but only in small glasses. It wouldn’t be healthy to drink a pint of 8% lager!
On our way back to the hotel we walked up the Rue de Congres, and at the end was the Colonne de Congres, which commemorates Belgiums first National Congress in 1830.
It was early when we got to the hotel, so we sat in the hotel garden and had a beer. Julie surprised me by treating me to a Belgian waffle, it was bloody delicious!
Antwerp Thursday 8 August 2024
On our last day in Belgium we returned to the old town for a better look at some of the old buildings. The Broodhuis (Bread House) is a big Neo Gothic building on the site of a 16th century building which was demolished (before it fell down). The museum is very good and has many historic artefacts and models of Brussels in the middle ages.
The main attraction for local people is the original Manneken Pis, a statue of a small boy having a pee. For some bizarre reason it is a much loved symbol for Brussels that schoolchildren get excited to see. The statue in the street is a copy of the one in the museum. In the city centre there are also a female version, and a doggy version. I’ll bet it freaks out people from Utah.
Away from the Grand Place there are some lovely quieter streets to explore, and cheaper cafes to enjoy.
We walked up Boulevard Anspach, a busy shopping street to see the old stock exchange, the Bourse. It is a huge Neo Classical building that looks like the Parthenon or the Royal Exchange in London. Inside it is a Beer Museum, how very Belgian.
From there we took the Metro to the Upper Town to see the Parc du Cinquantenaire, a huge formal park built at the time of the evil King Leopold. He owned the Congo as a personal estate, and treated the local people in the worst possible ways. He was so bad that the Belgian government took it off him and turned it into a colony. I’m sure the local people were very grateful.
It is a lovely park, and has a huge monumental arch and several museums. By then we were museumed-out, and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine reading books.
Walking back to Motel One we went through the European Quarter where all the huge EU building are. It was very quiet because the bureaucrats are on holiday. Even the Old Hacks Pub looked dead, they are probably missing all the custom they got from Nigel Effing Farage when he was a member of the European Parliament.
Conclusion
Go to Brussels and Antwerp, they are a great place to visit for a short holiday. They are so easy to get to, only 2 hours from St Pancras on a comfortable train. I managed to consume all the Big Belgian Four: Beer, Chocolate, Chips and a Waffle. None of them are healthy, but all are delicious.
These are the beers I drank and they are all good:Jupiler, Delirium Tremens, Stella Artois, Duvel, Leffe Blonde, Leffe Brun, Bolleke, La Chouffe and Barbara Blonde.
I drank them over 4 days, and only small glasses, so that’s perfectly alright.
Luckily we had perfect weather, which was great for site seeing. We didn’t hire bikes, but there was plenty of bike hire places and scooters as well. The public transport is very good and easy to use.
So there is more to Belgium than Stella and Tintin, go there.
timharnesstravels 