Today is Friday and our first day in Brussels. We allowed ourselves a bit of a lie-in due to the wild bed time the previous night. Siân (this time sleeping right beside the alarm) sprang out of bed at around 9am, whereas Bussell had other ideas and was rather reluctant to get up.
Like in Paris, we were entitled to free breakfast so we scurried along to the 'canteen mock up' of a breakfast area. There was a wide selection on offer and after finally realising where the plates and trays were, we ran around like children in a sweet shop! There was cheese, ham and bread and all the other things you would expect to find in a continental breakfast. Mitch and Lucy (particularly the coffee-connoisseur former) made the most of the coffee machine to get their caffeine fix.
Having decided to take the European Walk guided by the map provided by our hostel, we made our way through the multi-cultural area of Brussels (which Dan particularly liked), ending up in what was the spitting image of Bristol's very own St George park. However, instead of facing corner shops and a Tesco, we were surrounded by Art Nouveau fronted Belgian houses.
From here, we walked down to the European Commission building where Mitch got very excited.
"I'm going to work here one day!"
Eurosceptic Dan, however, was not so keen.
The buildings weren't so picturesque, but a long boulevard lead down to Brussels' Arc de Triomphe, which is where we were heading next. The arch itself is an asymmetrical structure with a war museum in one of the wings. Seeing as it was free, we went in and had a look around. Our lack of knowledge about Belgium's military history proved a hindrance, and we keenly felt the absence of resident historian Harry Leonard. Nevertheless, we still had a nice time looking at the mannequins proudly exhibiting the national uniforms, even a particular specimen with the startling resemblance to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Child Catcher. (Lucy: I liked the planes!)
Belgium's reputation for excellent fries lured us to a stall presumably run by a man called Antione and imaginatively named 'Antione' to buy our lunch. Embarrassingly, Siân had the most difficulty ordering in French. The end of lunch started the point where Lucy and Dan started demanding waffles.
By now, Lucy needed a wee and it had begun it pour with rain. For these reasons we followed a series of signs pointing in the direction of a museum. When we went inside we were pleasantly surprised. Despite consisting of only one gallery no bigger than a tennis court, the curators had somehow squeezed several gigantic murals onto the walls. Mostly religious or mythological paintings, we wondered how they'd got them in the room. In competition with the impressiveness of the paintings was the selling point of a free toilet.
Round the corner from here was the EU's Parliament Building. Adjoining this is the Parliamentarium, an educational and interactive museum dedicated to the history of the European Union. Needless to say, Mitch was in his element. Upon entry, we were issued with media guides which translated the exhibits into the user's native language. To begin with, we all found it interesting but we soon tired of the pseudo-propagandistic nature of the displays - "we" being Lucy, Dan and Siân, of course. When we finally managed to drag Mitch away, it was time to catch the metro to the Atomium, which is on the other side of town.
We didn't think to check closing times, so when we arrived we realised we only had an hour to look around. Quickly buying our tickets, we joined the long line of people waiting to go up in the lift. It took a little while, but we eventually crammed ourselves into the little pod to go up. The ceiling was made of glass, and the lift operator informed us (in English, French and Flemish, no less) that in 1958, when the Atomium was built for the World Fair, this was the fastest lift in Europe. It was indeed fairly speedy, and we were soon a the top. The view, however, was somewhat disappointing. Being rather removed from theatre centre of the city, we couldn't really see that much, and we weren't really that high. The queue to go back down stretched round the perimeter of the room, so we joined it immediately and saw the mediocre panorama from there. The building is far more interesting from the outside, and the other floors contained small, somewhat bland, exhibitions.
Dan and Lucy still demanding waffles (NB: assume this continues through the narrative, as they didn't stop for almost two days), we got back to our metro station and took a train back to a nearby station called Kunst Wet (no comment).
In the Parc de Bruxelles, just down the road from our hostel, there was a travelling fair, where we'd spied a stall selling €3 vegetarian burgers, so we went there for tea. The burgers were really good, but also fairly small, so Dan and Lucy also ate at the hostel bar whilst Mitch and Siân snacked. The latter two were sleepy and keen to go to bed, but the others insisted on staying in the bar, listening to salsa music and chatting with their new friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment