Sun burnt and tired we said goodbye to Paris the next morning without any reservations, happy to move on from the big city and the traffic. We vowed not to fall into a tourist trap again.
This was the morning of Friday the 12th that we hit the road for Belgium. We arrived after a short drive and booked into a site in a beautiful place called Wezembeek-Oppem, it was half suburb, half farm land and a welcome change from the busy city. The site is surrounded by lush green forest and is about a twenty minute metro ride to Brussels, during which you pass the infamous Kunst-wet station. I could not contain my inner adolescent each time we passed it. Brussels was absolutely amazing. Every second shop was a chocolate shop every other a waffle and then there is the occasional pub thrown in for good measure. The Grande Place (town square) was so amazing but unfortunately we have got into the habit of forgetting our cameras so lets all thank Google for the photo below.
We made our way passed Kunst-wet into Brussles city center on Saturday night to hunt down a couple of Jazz clubs we had read good things about on the net. We found L'archiduc after walking in circles for a couple of hours. It was very small but very stylish and Miles Davis had once graced it with his presence. There was suppose to be a pianist playing but like we also discovered the next time we went there, there was not. I think the promise of live music is just a marketing ploy.
L'archiduc
We stayed despite this and luck was on our side when a Norwegian couple sat down opposite us and shared our table due to lack of space. Usually I would rage against such and invasion but we were on holidays so I though, what the hey. That could have been my newly discovered free spirit talking or maybe just the wine. It turned out Sven, Svens come in droves over here, and his girlfriend Ragnhild were great fun and Sven extended an invitation to join him and some friends on a big night out on the Monday. Drinking on a Monday! We agreed and parted ways. This of course was easier said then done as little did we know we had just missed the last metro back to Wezembeek. Our only option was a taxi but it took us so long to hail one we thought we must be doing something wrong. This is the point at which the subject of blame arose. When a taxi finally stopped, I guessed he sensed our long wait and desire to be back in the comfort of our van that he got us home in no time flat doing 160 kilometers whilst talking on his mobile phone. Very talented if you ask me. My knuckles are still white.
On Monday we celebrated our six month anniversary with a pizza. The best pizza ever! Yes it was a Pizza Hut pizza but it was a great change from pasta with tin tuna (we have moved on and up from peanut butter). We then made our way back into Brussels to a bar called Monk to meet Sven.There was the two of us, Sven, another Norwegian girl and two guys from Iceland, I think their names were Eggle and Steagle. Being so far from home and a little out of our comfort zones it was great to have a night out with people that felt like old friends. It was a night to remember...if only I could. We did not move from our table all night, my face was sore from laughter and I drank more then someone that belonged to a species with only one liver should. The highlight of the night was a story told by Eggle and Steagle about one drunken night from their youth. Their escapades ended with a heading in the local paper that read “Petrol Crises Blamed for Youth Arrested Siphoning Petrol with a Hose and a Coffee Pot”. Remind me to tell you the story some time.
The rest of our time in Brussels we spent recovering and exploring the forests and surrounding areas. Oh and jump starting the van. We found the Abbey Rouge Cloitre which Chris remembered from his last visit. It took us sometime to get there but it was well worth it. It was in the middle of a beautiful forest and it served great coffee.
Abbey Rouge Cloitre
With six days in Brussels under our belts we decided it was time to move on to Germany.
1 comment:
you guys rule!
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