Blogs from Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium, Europe - page 7

Bon jour from Brussels! After a 3.5 hour train ride, we arrived in Brussels at 1330. We continued our theme from Frankfurt and we stepped out of the train station into the red light district. Andrew and I hiked through a number of interesting individuals into a much better area and found our hotel. And what a hotel! Hotelbloom! (that is the actual name) is a spectacular place that is a work of art. Creativity is everywhere. Each room is decorated by a different European artist, so every one is unique. I have posted a picture of the room but suggest you look up the website for the full effect. The room itself is huge and extremely comfortable. After settling in, we headed for the Grand Place, the center of the old town and main tourist ... read more

Thoughts 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! ... read more

Thoughts on countries so far: Scotland - Cold, windy, beautiful! 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 - TBD, but so far interesting. We took our time getting up since we had no set time to catch the train to Brussels, Belgium, and they leave fairly often. So, after ... read more

Though the forecast was for rain, it was a mostly sunny, breezy day. We had another good run on the Brussels underground today. (Good run = no errors, backtracks, or missed stops.) Brendan had a full day planned for us. We went first to the Royal Army and Military History Museum. It turned out to be much larger and more elaborate than we expected. Most of the signs and write-ups were dual language French and Dutch so we opted for the audio tour widgets that are recorded in English. This turned out to be great as that provided much more info than was on the signs. (How could we tell? We just could.) For example I now know all about the lineage of the monarchy and what each one looked like. After that we headed off ... read more

Walking around Brussels is easy and fun. There are lots of great sites near our hotel - interesting arvhitecture, statues, fountains, and more. There are always tons of other folks out walking too. Today was sunny and the humidity was higher than we are used to so even at 60 degree out we felt warmer than we usually like. We walked from our hotel up to Grand Place. This is a very large cobblestone plaza bordered by large beautiful buldings. There was a flower market in the middle and lots of families were there. While there, we visited the city museum. It was great. Even though there was quite a crowd outside, the museum was lightly attended. It presents a history of Brussels in art, sculpture, and artifacts. The part we liked the best was the ... read more