We arrived in Brussels and took a train from the airport to Etterbeek.
The fare was a very reasonable E3.50, and we arrived at a station that
could have been in the inner west of Sydney. A little shabby, but
friendly and functional.
We arrived in Brussels and took a train from the airport to Etterbeek.
The fare was a very reasonable E3.50, and we arrived at a station that
could have been in the inner west of Sydney. A little shabby, but
friendly and functional.
Public transport, trains and trams, was good in Brussels.
Rather better than Sydney, in fact.
Brussels prides itself on being a city where design flourishes. Our hotel, The White Hotel, was no exception. Artists had been designing on the walls.
It is also a "green" city, well served by parks and reserves.
This is a picture of Kay taken in the major park to the south
of the city centre. The building in the background is to be a
restaurant. It is being contructed on an island within
one of the lakes.
Brussels is also served by many imaginative restaurants...
...this picture shows part of the old town, a nest of tourists
and so also restaurants.
We tended to eat further afield, though we deliberately took on meal on the Rue de Bouchers and watched the spruikers harass the passers-by in an attempt to drum up business.
Of course, Belgium is the home of fine chocolate.
This entire display is edible, mostly chocolate, whipped up
for Halloween. Many shops literally have chocolate fountains in
their windows.
The design flair is everywhere. You see it in the architecture,
in the decoration on the buildings, in the transport. Note the
steel-and-glass elevator that carries people into the old town.
The centre of the old town is the Grote Markt. Once upon a time
this is where the merchants gathered to trade.
Sydney may have a harbour over Brussels, but Brussels retains
the marks of being an old city. There are "outcrops" of ancientness
such as this magnificant castle, visibly moated once upon a time,
but now standing incongruously amongst businesses and residences
of recent construction.
We remember Brussels as a city of design, and of art ranging from the most beautiful classics, to modern scribblings, by way of Magritte. We also think of it as a diverse, multicultural, working city, whose inhabitants are not required to bend over backwards to cater to tourists, with the result that it is not always so easy to find your way around...
