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National Basilica
National BasilicaThoughts on countries so far:
Scotland - Cold, windy, beautifuly! Drive on the wrong side. People are friendly. Galic is weird! Really like Irn Bru soda! Neil, our guide rocks!
Germany - Warmer, but windy on the Rhine. Enchanting towns. Everyone rides bicycles. Inexpensive for a tourist area. Dogs are everywhere... even restaurants, stores, and train stations!
Luxembourg - It may be the country with the highest income per capita in the world, but they don't keep their streets and public places very clean! Spend some money on public maintenance! Clothing... women's at least, is expensive! Lower Luxembourg City (Base?) is quite pretty.
Brussels - Very diverse in people and buildings. A lot of historical places. European Capital, and buildings to show for it. Never seen so many Kebap or Doner meat restaurants. Waffles are grrrreat! Crepes good too. Need more than a couple days to really explore. Transportation is varied, plentiful, and confusing.
Forms of transportation taken this trip - Walking, taxi, bus, train, tram, metro, boat, plane. Not planning to cycle.
We slept in a bit late again, until 8am or so, then headed out to see Mini-Europe, my final choice
Inside Basilica
Inside Basilica this morning. Since the National Basilica we'd seen yesterday from the tour bus was along the way, we decided to walk there. It turned out to be a bit further than we though or seemed, but we finally made it. Manoli went inside to check it out and take some photos. Afterwards, from looking at the tour bus route map, we figured it didn't look like Mini-Europe was much if any further than we'd already gone, so away we went. Again, it was a lot further than expected! By the time we got there it was noon or so, so we sat down near the Atomium and had a tuna salad sandwich and cappuccino/coffee. We hadn't seen any signs indicating just where Mini-Europe was, but according to the flyer's map, it was somewhere just North and maybe West of the Atomium, so we headed that direction. We finally found a sign pointing the way and headed that way. When we entered, we were greeted by at least a dozen or so different restaurants, mostly from different countries in Europe. After walking past all of them, we reached the entrance to Oceade, the water park part of BruPark. We asked and
Flea Market on way to Mini-Europe
Flea Market on way to Mini-Europe got directions to Mini-Europe, presented our tickets from the sightseeing bus and got a 1 Euro discount, each. Still, it cost 13 Euros each, but I will say it was quite unique and worth the money.
When we entered Mini-Europe, we were sort of coerced into having a picture taken with their mascot, who strangely enough spoke Spanish. We declined to buy the photos on the way out though. Mini-Europe, since I hadn't said anything about it yet, is a collection of models of famous buildings and even villages from all over Europe. There are something like 350 different 1 to 25 scale buildings, with some environments and a few other things thrown in. Many of the scenes or buildings had sound or animation buttons that the kids just loved to push... over and over! We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Acropolis, the bull ring in Sevilla, Big Ben, and myriads of other recognizable, and not so recognizable, structures. Many of them had awesome details. I think we were there for like two hours! They also had a restaurant/cafe and a gift shop.
When we left Mini-Europe, we'd already walked so much that there was no way we
Atomium
Atomium were walking all the way back to the hostel, much less city center, so we started looking for a bus or metro that could get us near the hostel. Unfortunately we still had to walk a long ways, but we finally came across a Metro station, Bockstael. Also unfortunately, we had a very hard time trying to figure out how to be sure we took the right metro, since none of them had names we recognized. We decided to check the ticket machine, only to find out the nearest station to the hostel, Yser, was not listed! After asking for help, it was brought to our attention that we were using the train ticket vending machine, not the metro! The nice folks then pointed us to the right machine, where we found out you can't buy tickets with cash, only mobicards or debit cards. Well, at that point we just decided to go for it and bought two tickets using our debit card and headed down to the metro. We caught the right metro, got off at the right stop, and after exiting located good old Tram 51 we'd previously taken from Midi station to our hostel. Yippee!
When
MiniEurope 1
4 of the great miniatures at Mini-Europe we returned to the hostel, I finally took the time to finish yesterday's blog and post it, then it was time to head out for our last meal in Brussels. Along the way, Manoli picked up our last gift and we were sort of coerced into eating at La Petite Fontaine. I say coerced, because first of all, a waiter sort of begged us to eat there, then when we sat down, he presented us with their dinner menu. The problem there was that the sings out front showed a selection of dinners for 18 Euros and another for 12.50 Euros, but the menus he gave us didn't have any entrees even for less than 20 Euros! When we pointed out the signs, he went back inside and came out with the 18 Euro plastic menu. When I mentioned we weren't big eaters and were more interested in the 12.50 Euro menu, he first told us that was only for lunch (while I was standing in front of the big billboard showing the dishes), then told us okay, we can pick from that menu until 8pm. Hmmmm. Anyways, the 12.50 Euro menu had a choice of appetizers, entrees, and a
MiniEurope 2
4 of the great miniatures at Mini-Europe dessert. Manoli chose the fish soup for her appetizer and mussels and fries for her entree. I chose the shrimp croquette for the appetizer and steak and fries for the entree. Manoli said her soup seemed a bit more like flavored broth than soup, but her mussels were delicious, as she quickly polished them off. My croquette was quite tasty, but only one smallish one. The steak and fries were good, but the steak was too well done for my taste. We waited a while between appetizers and entrees, and forever to get our dessert. They finally brought two small waffles with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. With water and coke, the bill came to 33.50 Euros, a bit on the steep side for us, but hey, it was our last meal in Belgium.
After dinner, we wandered back to the hostel to pack for tomorrow, stopping along the way for some more Belgian chocolates. Tomorrow we leave for an overnight stay in Dublin so we can catch our flight back to the States the next morning.
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