While in Haarlem, we booked a room in Brussels. We traveled from Haarlem to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Brussels. This was our first real train ride (not intercity). I must say that I quite enjoy train travel. The cabs are typically clean and spacious, the ride is smooth, and sometimes there is a little table in front of your seat for reading, writing, eating, etc… Also, in Europe, every destination is connected by train. It is quite an amazing system.
Upon arrival at Brussels Nord Station, we could see from the train storefront after storefront at street level (we were up higher). Each storefront had on display scantily clad women dancing and posing for passing potential customers. This must be Brussels’ red light district.
At Brussels Nord Station it seemed that things were a bit more run down. We had gotten used to the facilities in the Netherlands, which are extremely clean and well signed. Brussels seemed a little more weathered.
The first thing we did in Brussels was go to the international ticket counter to book our tickets for Paris for the next day. Everything was full since it is Easter weekend. The girl behind the counter was very helpful and funny. She managed to book us tickets to Paris from Lille. We would take a regular train from Brussels to Kortrijk, another regular train from Kortrijk to Lille, then a high-speed train from Lille to Paris.
Our next item of business was to find our way to the hotel we had booked. It turns out that the hotel was a bit north of the city center and would be a pain to get to (train + cab). We didn’t have a map, but were directed to a tourism office in the city center.
As we were walking, with full packs, we began seeing a bunch of hotels. We decided to stop into one just to see if they had any openings and for how much. Yes, and €70. We decided to go for it since it was right in front of us, near the city center, and not too much more and a hostel (€40 – 60). Good choice! We had a corner room that overlooked a public square. It was also nice to have the room to spread out all our stuff since it isn’t as easy in a hostel.
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We spent the evening walking around the city center. There is a very large pedestrian zone with lots of sidewalk cafes. Oh, and also, we found a café that had free WiFi and spent quite a bit of time there (uploading photos from Manchester, Amsterdam, and Haarlem). By the way, H&M is taking over the world! They are everywhere! I saw the same sweatshirt I bought in Minneapolis in Manchester, and I’m sure they have it in Brussels too.
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Brussels architecture is very ornate and weathered. There is also quite a few slick new buildings in the city center. The mix is pretty cool.
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The streets in Brussels are a jumbled mess. We walked around on random streets until we finally saw a tall building in the distance that we recognized.
While in Belgium, we sampled some chocolate, bought a waffle from a street vendor (delicious!), and drank Belgium beer (Jupiler, Ramee, Leffe, and others).
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I also noticed several back streets where the smell of urine was very strong. After that, I made sure to avoid any puddles or streams of liquid as I walked. Another interesting site: There was a really old, somewhat run down cathedral that had a urinal against the outside wall, right in front of the sidewalk. Very strange, but convenient I guess?!?
Click here to view all our Brussels photos.
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