Belgium, May 2023

6 May – Woerden to Brussels – We had a 12:40 Flixbus to Brussels booked so we managed to enjoy a leisurely pack-up before walking down to the train station to travel to Utrecht. We are pretty good with the Dutch trains now and the NS App is the best transport app we have ever used. It will be a shame to have to delete it once we leave The Netherlands. We reached Utrech with a couple of hours to kill so we sat in the comfort of the “Tagged-On” area. The big stations in the Netherlands have very large controlled areas, which require a ticket to access. All the shops and food outlets are in the controlled area as well, which means the only people that are in there have a ticket. We found that the areas surrounding the major train stations in The Netherlands are clean and don’t seem to be such a magnet for homeless people that they are in other countries. Maybe the system works.

We ended up being in a bit of a rush to catch our bus, emerging from the wrong side of the station and walking further than we had to. Our bus arrived shortly after us but we found that our specially booked front seats were occupied by another couple. We showed them our ticket but they just turned away and ignored us. The driver sorted it and moved a few people around so we could have our seats. It is crazy when you actually feel bad about things like this because we had paid extra to book these seats and the other people had not, but we still did. Christine got an evil eye from the old woman we had displaced.

The landscape changed very slowly as we drove inland, mainly due to fewer canals. There was little indication that we had crossed the border and entered Belgium but a few tiny hillocks started to appear and there were a few actual forests dotted around. We dropped off some passengers in Antwerp before heading to Brussels and the Gard Noord, or Northern Station. What a change from Utrecht. Admittedly, Gard Noord seems to be in the throes of an overhaul but it was a dump. We had to lug our bags up a massive flight of steps because there are no escalators or lifts that we could find. We struggled with the ticketing process before asking for help from a group of three young people standing nearby. The girl turned out to be a Melbournian currently living in Berlin, the other two from Brussels. I told one guy where we wanted to go and he suggested platform 5 would do it. I asked him about buying a ticket and he said that because we were so close to the centre of town we should ignore it, no one would check. Once at Gare du Midi, we would have to get a ticket for the Metro to our final destination. We thanked them and got on the train on Platform 5, right alongside a uniformed official. We were terrified she was going to ask for a ticket the way they do in Germany but she wasn’t interested. Finally, after alighting at Gare du Midi and finding the Metro, working out the ticket system and getting on a subway, we were bound for our destination in Audeghem, a suburb of Brussels. The apartment proved to be just as described, with one thing left out. Nowhere did it say that it was near the top of Square du Sacre-Coeur, not as steep as its famous namesake in Paris, but still a long steady hill climb towing our luggage behind. Belgium is one of the Low-Countries. There aren’t supposed to be hills. We arrived, greeted by our host, unpacked and only ventured a short distance to a small grocery shop to get some eggs for dinner and alcohol to sooth the soul.

7 May – Brussels – When we got up it was raining, after breakfast it was raining and by lunchtime, it was still raining. We had considered going in to the city centre but the rain put us off, as well as the fact that it was Sunday and Belgium seems to be more like Germany than The Netherlands, in that everything closes. Around us, the only things open were a 24 hour Servo which sold a few staples, and a little convenience store up the street that at least had a good range of fruit and veg. By 1:30, the rain had eased to tolerable levels and we set off to walk the neighbourhood. There was a bus waiting in the nearby terminus so we took the opportunity to work out about buying tickets. It proved easy, with a machine on the bus. This would give us access up and down the dreaded hill.

We noticed a regular stream of people all heading in one direction so we asked advice from one woman who had paused on her bike. She said that they were heading for a forest area, down the bottom of the hill (meaning we had to come back up). There was a lake in another direction that we knew about from Google Maps but our guide suggested the forest was better.

Off we went, down hill in the light rain. The houses around here are beautiful and must be very expensive, some being three storeys and most having a substantial yard attached with gardens, unlike the terraced houses at the top of the hill. It was a beautiful walk, and when the forest opened out, it was obvious that it was worth the effort. The brilliant green of the forest is stunning to people used to the dull green of eucalypt forests. The understorey was really thick in places and some of the trees were very tall and straight. On checking Google Maps, we found the forest is the The Sonian Forest and stretches a long way towards Waterloo (of The Battle fame). It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is composed mainly of beech and oak. We used Christine’s plant identifying App to check on several interesting plants, find  a stand of hazel and some sweet chestnuts. It was very beautiful. Emerging from the forest, we walked through the lake area, more of a sculptured park, and admired the different waterfowl. It never really stopped raining but it was light and there was no wind to speak of, so it was quite easy to tolerate.

Fortunately, the last guest in the AirBnB had left a frozen lasagne so the lack of shopping was not an issue. We enjoyed it, so thanks to the last guest.

8 May – Brussels – Today we braved the public transport system to head off into the city. The rain has gone, to be replaced by fog and cool temperatures. We avoided the dreaded walk down the hill by catching the bus. It was only a couple of stops to the Metro Station and we managed that, bought a whole day card for 8€ each and set off on the Metro to Brussels Central. So far, so good. We even managed to find our way out of the Metro. Some major road works just outside upset our walking plans a bit but after a couple of wrong turns we found the right path towards our destination, the place where we would have to come tomorrow to catch a tour to Antwerp. We always like to check things out in advance. The address given proved to be the Main Tourist Bureau so all was good.

Our next stop was only a 100m walk to the Grand Place, the huge medieval plaza for which Brussels is so famous. This has been described as one of the best plazas in the World, and it has earned UNESCO ranking as a World Heritage Site. This call is completely understandable. It is absolutely amazing. One huge building was originally a Bread House in the market, surely the most elaborate such building anywhere. Nowadays it is the Brussels Museum. Every building around the market was covered in ornate carvings and statues, and most had lashings of gold leaf on display. The crowds were starting to build up and it is always handy to stand near to an English speaking tour guide to pick up some bit of info. The most spectacular building was the Town Hall, sporting an enormous spire and a seemingly endless row of statues adorning a ledge on the third storey. Remarkable, a lot of the stonework on the lower sections showed no signs of any mortar, the carved stones fitting perfectly together with no gaps at all between them. That such a glorious square could have been constructed in the 16^th Century and be made up of market buildings, public buildings and guild houses rather than churches, is incredible. Major damage was done to a lot of the buildings in 1697 when an invading French force bombarded the square with flaming cannonballs. No only were a lot of buildings severely burnt, but a lot of old masterpieces were also lost.

We wandered through some of the surrounding narrow streets, admiring the quaint cobbled streets, mostly filled with cafes and high end fashion shops. We came across the Stock Exchange Building, a large stone Neo-Renaissance building, currently undergoing refurbishment. Opposite is St Nicholas’ Church, whose walls date back as for as 1000AD. It too suffered during the French bombardment, and inside, there is a cannon ball still visible half embedded in one of the huge supporting columns.

One of the famous sights in Brussels is the Manneken Pis, a small statue of a little boy urinating. One of the legends has him putting out a lit fuse of some explosives set to destroy the city walls. Every second shop seems to be selling small models of this lad in some form or other. We thought we had come across it down an alleyway but to our amusement, it was his female counterpart, Jeannek Pis. Whereas the original dates from 1619, the girl only came on the scene in 1987. Later, we came across the boy, to find he had been dressed up in a suit. Apparently, his clothes change on a regular basis. Somewhere else, there is a Zinneke Pis, a dog.

It being lunchtime, we headed for a row of sidewalk eateries and settled on a favourite in Holland and Belgium, fried chips and sauce. There are lots of stalls and small shops that sell chips in upturned cardboard pyramids with a choice of eight or so sauces. These stalls always have a line up, so popular are the chips. They proved to be hot, crips and non-greasy so we could see the attraction. We help them down with a sausage of unknown pedigree but equally delicious. The stall offered a selection of seven different Belgium beers, but we noticed they ranged in alcohol content from 7.5% to 9.5%, too much for us in the middle of the day (or any time for that matter). We managed to find a regular pilsener so we were able to help the chips go down without falling down. We were joined at our table by a friendly couple from Colorado, who were visiting Brussels as part of a Rhine River cruise. We chatted for a while about our respective travels, grateful to find someone to talk to after weeks of non-English speaking people.

Our stomachs replenished, we set off to take the Metro to Gare Midi. Our next move will be to take the Eurostar to London and we were keen to check out just where to catch it from and what is involved. Getting to Gare Midi meant going to Artes-Loi and changing lines. What a performance. After the amazing efficiency of The Netherlands, Belgium has proven a bit chaotic. The rule in rail or Metro stations seems to be that only every second escalator works and lifts are to be hidden from view. We followed signs and went in circles a couple of times, before some officials noticed our concern and shunted us into a lift. We finally made Gare Midi, which proved to be a little more organised, and found the “Tunnel Train” sign. Everything there looked like an airport, with the normal security checks and immigration counters.

Happy that we knew what we were doing, we set off to walk to a feature known as the Port de Hal, a medieval gate once part of the old city walls. The area immediately outside the station was like so many others, dirty, smelly and filled with people just standing around in groups. We scuttled through the area and located a long park that contained the castle. The walls have long since been demolished, along with all the other gates, but this one has been preserved and stands imposingly over the surrounding city area. We admired the structure from the outside, not bothering with the armament’s museum inside.

We re-boarded the Metro just down the road, changed lines again at Artes-Loi (we’re getting better at this) and rode the Metro back to Hermann-Debroux. There is a large supermarket next to the Metro and, being a Monday, it was actually open (do I sound bitter?). We stocked up on food for the next two days and caught the bus up the hill to home, once again, exhausted, as we should be.

9 May – Antwerp – With an afternoon excursion to Antwerp booked, we lazed around in the morning. There was little choice really because it was raining consistently and the forecast indicated little let-up for the day.

We prepared ourselves for rain with coats and umbrellas and headed down the hill. We found it easy going down and quite pleasant walking in the rain, with next to no wind. Once again, we mastered the Metro and made our way to Gare Central, going on to the pick-up point at the Tourist Centre. Our guide was Margurite, a woman only a little younger than us, who would conduct the tour in English, (the majority) and Spanish, in two dialects, including one that would suit a Portuguese couple. We set off to walk to the tour coach, all trotting behind her blue umbrella. A few people had not brough umbrellas and looked like they wanted to go home.

The coach made its way out of Brussels along the same route we had followed coming in on the Flixbus so we at least got an explanation of some of the interesting sights we had seen before. We sat opposite a Canadian couple and across from a couple from Ohio so we all chatted away about our respective trips. The American couple had won a cruise anywhere they wanted with Royal Caribbean via a raffle.

The coach deposited us in the harbour area and it was a short walk up to the Main Square. This was similar to the one in Brussels but not as spectacular, it being overall smaller and the buildings lacking the ostentatious gold trimmings. The steady rain meant that we could not fully appreciate the square and left to head to the cathedral.

Every European has one or more huge cathedrals or massive churches. Antwerp’s is one of the greats. Begun in 1352, it has an interior length of 118m and a towering spire of 123m. The inside is an enormous complex, with numerous alters, names and cloisters capable of holding a staggering 25,000 people. It still functions as a church. It is also home to four wonderful works by the Master Painter Ruebens. These were typically large trifold works, with a main centre piece and two supporting wings that can fold in to protect the painting. Our guide talked though about each one, and it was amazing to be able to see these works and know that they had been painted in the early 17^th Century. We seldom do cathedral tours but this one was interesting, made more so by the knowledge that the world outside was extremely wet and cold.

After the cathedral, we were given time to find a coffee or snack. We found a warm dry spot inside a Belgian Chocolate house and indulged in a beautiful coffee but ignored the very tempting array of chocolates and sweets. Then we hit the umbrellas again and explored the nearby streets. Almost everything had closed up, with the rain keeping the big tourist crowds away. There are chocolate shops galore with highly inflated prices, along with lace shops, the quality being amazingly good and the prices surprisingly low.

The group reconvened and we walked slowly back to the bus at the harbour, stopping to learn more about the town square and the old city walls, of which little remains bar a short section and a watch gate. I think everyone was more than happy just to get back on the bus and head for Brussels. By this time, it was peak hour and it took an age to get out of Antwerp, the guide doing her best to point out things of interest while we were stuck in traffic snarls.  We departed the bus, made out way through the continuing rain to Gare Central and collapsed onto a Metro train for the trip home. Luckily, there was a bus almost straight away so we didn’t even have to walk up the nasty hill. It would have been a much better trip without the persistent rain but it was still worth it. Antwerp is a city with a fair bit to offer. We only had a small taste.

After dinner, we prepared for the next day’s move across the Channel.