Brussels February 2007

Another catch-up post.

No doubting I'm a romantic, well I try at least, it doesn't always work out.

Valentines Day 2007 I made Jackie home made pizza and we had a picnic in our flat. I had bought Jackie tickets on the Eurostar to Brussels but a weekend trip. Just 2 nights. I had toyed with the idea of Paris but I thought we'd want to save that for a longer trip. In hindsight I wish we did go to Paris because it ended up being a long time before we got to Paris and we loved it when we got there. Brussels on the other hand was probably one of our least favourite trips, not bad, just average.

The Eurostar was great. This was when the Eurostar still left from Waterloo, which was pretty close to home. Getting a train to Europe was a novelty which didn't wear off.

From Brussels station we found our hotel which turned out to be in a relatively uninspiring part of the city. The room was fine and the breakfast was buffet so we were pretty happy.

It was still winter, so pretty cold and grey. We walked around town taking in the sights. Impressive old arcitecture, churches, the massive Palais du Justice (which was closed up, under renovations).

We did manage to get our first taste of Belgium beer, in Belgium, that was a bit of a highlight.

I went for the traditional mulles at dinner.

The shopping precincts were impressive.

One of my favourite stories of the trip (and of our marriage actually) is Jackie telling me how she had learned French at school and would be able to dust off her language skills. I was looking forward to this. English was pretty prevalent in Belgium but the locals switched between any number of languages.

Anyway, we get to this impressive sweets shop (pic below), Jackie is a sucker for treats so we go an get our pick 'n' mix, Jackie's going to have a go at doing the transaction in French. I waited in anticipation. Jackie approached the counter, the staff member took one look and asked "English?" Jackie looked confused. Staff tried again "Francais?", Jackie's stumbled response "Um, uh, YES!".

Parlez-vous Francais?
Yes!

Not, Notre Dame 

Very impressive, indoor shopping

Palais du Justice

Anyway, we walked around, soaked up the sights and the atmosphere. Had a nice dinner.

Buffet breakfast and back home on the train.

While it wasn't the most memorable trip, it was easy and we'd learned that we had some work to do on our language skills.