Brussels

I love 4 day weekends, and 3 day working weeks!  Well, it was only a 2 day working week for me because I was off sick on Monday.  I'm STILL sick can you believe it!  Very annoying, but it didn't stop me enjoying the wonderful Belgian sunshine for two days.

My friend from work and I left on Friday morning to get the train from Duisburg to Brussels.  We had looked up train times on Wednesday and knew exactly what we wanted, being sure not to accidentally choose an expensive, but quick ICE train.  We arrived at the ticket office in Duisburg and apparently the train that we wanted was a private one that they didn't sell tickets for at Duisburg!  So we had a 4 hour train journey with 3 changes instead of a 2 and a half hour train journey with 1 change.  Oh well not the end of the world.  We had snacks and prosecco to keep us amused.

We finally arrived in Brussels to blazing 30 degree sunshine, and lots of tourists.  We had expected it to be a bit quieter due to the recent events, but all that was different was a big police and army presence.  You couldn't walk down a street without passing someone with a machine gun!  I found it quite comforting though to have such a visual security presence.  Needless to say, everything was fine, and we encountered no problems.

Our hotel was ridiculously cheap (due to the bombing recently), so we ended up in a 5 star hotel for just 60 euros each.  Our room was lovely, and the hotel was literally on the next road from the Grand Place (the centre of touristy Brussels).  Perfect!

We wandered to various tourist locations, such as the Manequin Pis, which is a little statue of a boy weeing into a fountain.  He is famous, and has about 40 different outfits to celebrate various things.  We went back on Saturday and he had one on.  We mostly just ate and drank for two days.  We had a wonderful Cesar salad, a goats cheese and bacon salad, a nutella and banana waffle, glazed macadamia nut Hagendaas ice cream, a huge cheeseburger from 'Quick burger', pick and mix from a sweet shop, and some wonderful Macaroons from a posh chocolate shop.  As well as lots of relaxing drinks in the sun, people watching and being really judgy about what everyone was wearing, while enjoying ALL the mojitos, wine, speciality beers, cosmopolitans and bubbly from the hotel's 'bubble bar'!  Wonderful.  

We went into all the little touristy shops, and spent a long time choosing some beer and a glass for Matt.  We had a really great time.  The train on the way back was 4 and a half hours!  and was hotter than hell, so it was quite uncomfortable.  We got home at about 5.30pm.  

The flat is roasting hot, and really dirty because lots of leaves and dirt fly in when the skylight windows are open, but you need them open constantly! Today I am just having a chilled out day.  Matt isn't home until Wednesday, so I can just do nothing, and try to get better.  I'm sick of being sick!