Belgium

A twerp in Antwerp

Well, sorry to sound really geeky, but Antwerp has a far nicer station that Brussels. It looks like some sort of classical building, but inside it''s been seriously modernised, so a nice mix. Antwerp is a very fashionable, shopping city. It has statues everywhere, for some reason, and...

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martin_b on June 27, 2007 from Antwerp, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

Brussels is open again! Music, pictures, nuns and stuff

Had a nice continental breakfast with the daughter of the room owner, then set off to see some museums. Most of them are up the top of the hill, next to the Palace. Well, a palace, Belgium has several. I got soaking wet, not the best of days. I started off at the music museum in the Old England...

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martin_b on June 26, 2007 from Brussels, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

Brussels is a bit closed

Monday is not an entirely good day to be in Belgium...Belgium closes on Mondays. I'll skip all the places I tried to go to which weren't open. This was the day I was due to move to a B & B (cos the hostel was full up). I decided to go out to the Atomium, and then walk across to the B & B. I...

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martin_b on June 25, 2007 from Brussels, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

Grand places and more crap stations

Well, I got up late, but this hostel understands the need for a good nights sleep, so breakfast goes on until 10 or so. So I did get some muesli and a pastry. When I was ready, I walked across the city to the Grand Place. It was a nice scenic walk, via some churches (all with services on, so...

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martin_b on June 24, 2007 from Brussels, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

BA here

The train was fantastic: a two-storey jobby, very flash and modern. Great views from the top floor. BA is just a small town. On balance, it would have been better not to ask tourist information. Then I would have got off at Waterloo station like the all the other tourists, and it probably...

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martin_b on June 24, 2007 from Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

Slightly lost in Belgium

Then it got interesting. I got rather cocky and decided to walk back to the train station. It seemed a good idea in theory, I'd noticed all the junctions were signposted on the way to the Field. What I hadn't thought of it that they weren't going to be signposted on the way back. It went fine...

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martin_b on June 24, 2007 from Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

back to Brussels

When I got back, it was late afternoon/early evening. I wanted to find the puppet theatre, which is supposed to be good, so I went down the Galeries St Hubert and down the backstreets behind it. It's an astonishing area: it makes Las Ramblas look like a quiet cul de sac. Literally every building...

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martin_b on June 24, 2007 from Brussels, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

Arrived in beautiful Belgium and straight away started sampling the local produce, two of our favourites, beer and chocolates.

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alandkez on June 24, 2007 from Brugge, Belgium

from the travel blog: Europe 2007

Waterloo

OK, so after a walk-train-bus-walk, I actually reached Waterloo. You can't really miss it, because the victors (which wasn't the French, in case your history isn't good) built a bloody great conical hill in the middle of the Battlefield. As you walk up, you pass the pub where Napoleon...

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martin_b on June 24, 2007 from Waterloo Battlefield, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

Brussels, home of the crappest railway stations in the world, and sprouts.

Wouldn't you think that if you were building a gateway station, to welcome people from across Europe into your capital city, you'd make it quite nice...well, you'd be wrong. Brussels Midi station...it's dark, it's concrete, it has a maze of shops and no architectural value whatsoever. Of all...

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martin_b on June 23, 2007 from Brussels, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

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