From Bruges to Brussels

By Sunday morning, we felt we’d seen as much as Bruges as we cared to in the rain, so we took an early train back to Brussels. After fighting with the automatic baggage check lockers for a few minutes, we were luggage free, and we headed in to town.

We immediately noticed that Brussels was nowhere near as friendly feeling as what Bruges was. For starters, the walk from the train station to the town centre went straight through one of those market places where everyone is yelling in different languages. After that, there was about 10 minutes of very empty, run-down, gray-building-lined streets. Finally we emerged into a more populated area, only to be insulted by a bus!

How rude!

Anyway, with the Christmas markets on, the little wooden roofs on the huts were the first sign of people that we saw, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little glad to see them. The great thing about being in Brussels is that we didn’t have any agenda, so we just followed the ebbs and flows of the crowd to see where it would take us – unsurprisingly, it was pretty much along the entire route of the Christmas markets.

We took a slightly different route back to the train station, and walked past a fairly amazing display of baby photos. There was probably only about 5 baby “models” on display, and each photo was of their faces, pulling different (and sometimes rather comical) expressions. By this time it was getting dark, and since the photos were backlit, they really stood out.

That was about all that Brussels had to offer us in the few hours that we were there, though to be honest, I think I’d probably had my fill anyway. I’m sure there’s a load of nice things elsewhere in the city, but with so many other places to explore in the world, I probably won’t be rushing back – unless it was for a culinary tour for more mussels, fries, chocolate and beer!