Mussels in Brussels

By 'eck, it's been a month since my romantic weekend in Brussels....It's about time I shared some of my photos here, don't you think?

Loverboy and I booked a rather spontaneous trip to Belgium for the end of May/beginning of June, and in our true style - at least where trains are involved - we cut it rather fine, and only boarded the Eurostar a couple of minutes before it left St Pancras!  Phew!

On arrival in Brussels... 

We had a pleasant journey with a little reading, a little napping and a little giggling, and made it to our hotel before noon.  Our hotel was nice, but had the smallest lift in the world, which amused us greatly!

Now I must say that Brussels was not what we were expecting - I'm not sure what it was that we were expecting, exactly...but this was not it.

Overall we had a lovely romantic time, and enjoyed exploring the city, however despite some beautiful architecture, we were overwhelmed by the blandness of the place.  From the grey, miserable subways, to the lacklustre atmosphere, we just found it a really boring city!  Let's just say that when we look back through our photos, it seems like a fun place to visit, but in reality it was void of that certain je ne sais quoi...

Undeniably, the main plaza and the surrounding area is beautiful - the architecture is simply exquisite, and the area is quite bustling.  We usually tend to seek out off-the-beaten-track areas, rather than the tourist hotspots, however in the case of Brussels, we found the more touristy areas to be the the most interesting and vibrant.

Of course we sought out the main tourist attraction - Manneken-pis - which is a small water feature statue of a little boy weeing.  It is on the smaller end of the scale, and shall we say, rather underwhelming...

These guys were a little more impressive...

Perhaps the cruelest dash of expectations was the food. I am constantly astounded by the bad rep that British dining gets, as London has some of the best restaurants in the world - yes, like everywhere, it will always be possible to find bad food, but on the whole it is not hard to find a delicious meal. In fact, I could probably get a better moules marinière in London than the sandy one I got in Brussels.

Accompanying the mussels was a plate of cold, limp chips, as well as a plate of garlic bread which our waiter kindly offered to bring us - which upon arrival was a few old slices of cold soggy baguette, topped with cheese and tomato paste, which had been reheated in the microwave - we were charged 6 euros for this culinary masterpiece!

This was the worst breakfast I have ever attempted to eat...

This croque monsieur was definitely a crock of something... 

I will admit, not all the food in Brussels was bad - we had the best meal of the whole weekend on our last afternoon....

Plus, we enjoyed some tasty chocolate and macaroons...

Now what Brussels does do well, is doors.  Yep - we saw a lot of really cool doors during our exploration of the city!

There are also some great museums in Brussels, the most exciting looking one being the Atomium.  This iconic building was constructed during the 1958 World Fair, and the exhibits are held in the various 'atoms' that make up the structure.

The nearby expo buildings are also a treat to the eyes - this time less scientific and more art deco.

However, it is the art nouveau style that Brussels is famous for, with architects such as Victor Horta incorporating this style of art into the architecture back in the 1890s.

Whilst the architecture was attractive, the metro stations were not.  I don't know if it's that nearly every metro station is currently being renovated or what, but every time we entered the depths of an underground station, it was like entering a dungeon!  That said, they ran a great service, and some of them featured art works decorating the platforms.

It is also worth noting that Brussels is cobble-stone central.  They may well be pretty to look at, but comfortable to walk on, they are not!

Unfortunately, we had great expectations of the vintage shopping and flea markets, which were not met.  The flea markets were full of junk, the vintage shops and markets were mostly full of 80s.  There was one vintage shop which we heard was full of 50s clothing - yeah 1850s!

My thoughts on Brussels sound a little harsh, and granted, it is not somewhere that we would rush back to, however we did still have a wonderfully romantic weekend, enjoyed exploring somewhere new, and came away with some great memories and funny anecdotes.

 It's hard not to enjoy yourself when this is your partner in crime.

We arrived back to a sunny St Pancras Sation - next time we will go to Paris instead!

Home sweet home!