Sophistivacation

Today we fly back to Edinburgh, but not until late evening, which means we have almost a full day in Brussels. As we had to check out of the hotel, we thought it best to take it easy and have a lie in. We left at 11am, so our first stop was brunch. The Waffle Factory is famous, although there are many dotted around Belgium, but we thought we would try it anyway. We both went for waffles filled with savoury fillings, which reminded me of a calzone. I chose one with goats cheese, spinach and sun dried tomato along with a latte, although it was so small, and cost 3 euros; the waffle was worth it though. After brunch, we decided to find the comic strip museum as Brussels is extremely famous for its comics, such as Tintin and the Smurfs. We decided not to go in as neither of us were particularly interested in the comic strips but I did take a few picture in the main entrance. We also walked past the Everard t’Serclaes monument which apparently brings luck and grants wishes to all who touch ...

After a reasonably early night, and a pretty late alarm, we got up feeling a bit more refreshed.  Our first stop of the day was breakfast at Le Roy d’Espangne at Grand Place where I was determined to have my first Brussels Belgian waffle. I wasn’t disappointed, even with the healthier option of fresh fruit. We had decided to do the hop-on hop-off bus and try and get our bearings, plus one of the places we wanted to visit was at least a ten minute drive out of the centre. As we walked up to the station, we heard “POLICE, POLICE” and saw two undercover officers tackling two men to the ground about 2 metres from us. We have no idea why they were arrested but we thought it best to move away and find the city sightseeing bus stop. The buses were lined up just along from Brussels central station so we boarded the one with blue line (line 2), ready for a day of exploring. Our first stop was the Atomium, originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World Expo. The structure is 102 metres t...

I don’t want to tempt fate, but this has been very easy so far! We walked to the train station and bought the tickets from a machine; we must have looked confused because one of the station employees asked us if we were ok and if we were heading to Brussels. Granted, our next stop was Brussels but we weren’t confused; I think we were more surprised that it seemed easier than buying a ticket in the UK. We had 5 minutes to get the train, but given there were only 10 platforms, we didn’t get too worried. We found a table seat for four across from a couple with a dog. The dog was small and cute until it started barking; apparently, it didn’t like the conductor as he had a hat on...at least, I think that is what the woman was trying to tell us as she was speaking Flemish (technically not a language, but a dialect)! The train journey was reasonably uneventful after that and as Brussels was only an hour away, it passed quickly. Our hotel was literally a 2 minute walk from the station, so it w...