The Home of Beer and Chocolate and Sprouts?

---

Both myself and Gina are from Ireland. We'd planned this trip months ago, a quick dash for a long weekend off to Brussels and on to Brugge. Hardly off the beaten track, but a track nevertheless. I'm a nervous traveller on aircraft, so was delighted to arrive in Brussels main airport unscathed after a wonderfully calm (and may i say cheap) flight from Dublin. We were very surprised to find the train to the city centre so easily, and even more surprised to find that it was a mere 5.60 euro for 2 people. Of course, i spent the next 10 minutes at the platform explaining to Gina that this was an incredible thing, proceeding to breakdown the costs from other airports!

We arrived at Brussels Noord (Belgians have a distinct loving for double o's), and followed a google map i'd printed, down towards our hotel. Of course i got distracted and ended up walking us about 5 blocks past our hotel. Nothing worse than telling someone, we have to retrace our steps. Eventually found the Hotel Ibis on rue Joseph Plateau, a very nice hotel with simple, clean rooms, and in our case a nice view over a peaceful square.

After dropping a few things off we hit the road. Anyone who knows us, will know that we pride ourselves on being able to sniff out McDonalds, and you can be sure we found one! Someday i'll go through the fine details of what makes mcdonalds a memorable dining experience, but i think it will warrant an entry of its own! After filling up on practically no nutrients, we pulled out the map we'd got from the hotel, and steered course for a park on the other side of the Grand Place. When we arrived, it was lunch time, and lots of people in suits were standing around listening to live music by a bandstand. Seeing as it was a warm day and we were already thirsty again, we got a beer and sat on the grass listening to the music. Wonderful to watch daily life passing by. Funny to watch a bow legged jogger doing laps of the park, and each time he'd come round looking more and more sweaty, and more and more bow legged than before until eventually he grunted past one last time, and disappeared, probably into a waiting ambulance.

Next stop was the Grand Place, it certainly is a grand place. Large, old buildings almost enclosing you, especially strange given how big the square is. People sat around on the cobble stones and drank or chatted, while the more flush tourists sat on wicker chairs with a long drink and glanced out with a motion of approval (can't be sure whether it was for the beverage or the grandeur of the square, or our attire!)

When evening came, we decided to do what every Irish person does when they come to another country, go to an Irish pub! I know its strange, but you have to think of it this way...everyone in the world has seen a river before... yes? Well, what if you are in a forest, and you hear the sound of running water, don't you want to follow the sound? Its pretty much the same thing for most Irish people! We feel drawn to something that sounds inviting and familiar. Its a real novelty to discover Irish bars around the world, even though some of them are far from irish in their flavour. We were drawn to O'Reillys on Ansplach. No, that wasn't me clearing my throat, that is the name of the street. We found actually pronouncing some of the street names really helped us clearing that phlegm that was hanging around though.

We visited Grand Place again at about midnight and discovered that it becomes a haven for young people with cans of alcohol! Grand place is very beautiful at night, shame that in just the time that we were there, two men started a fight with each other, and on the other side of the square a teenager decided tripping up innocent passerbys would be hilarious.

Everywhere you go in Brussels, you are greeted by signs for genuine belgian chocolate, and signs advertising the number of different types of beer on sale. I mean how many types of beer can you drink in a night! We didn't stick around to find out, we were tired, and decided it would be wise to get ourselves some sleep.

---

Photos

The View from our Hotel
Charming square, just off rue Joseph Plateau. Beautiful spire to the right of the picture

What an interesting combination!
Wonder is that such a good idea, no harm to try it once though

Chilling in the park
Can you see the jogger?

Sure t'is a grand place
It really is pretty.

They're everywhere
Really liked this idea. Cycling just sounded like hard work though, plus we like to get round on our feet

Rollerblade Protest?
The bad part of us, really wanted to see someone fall. I'm sorry!!

Gina enjoying the view
Someones got to do it!

Comments

[Rach]

Blog
ANSPLACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oops sorry, am suffering with a cold at the moment ;-) cool blog...looking forward to more entries from yis!!