Brussels

I really do love Brussels as a relaxing place to enjoy all the food and drink you could possibly need or want!  This was my third visit, but my first with just Matt and I.  Matt was visiting the British School of Brussels on Friday with two colleagues for his dissertation on the use of personal laptops for the kids in school.  This school already does it, and it was good research.  The school sounds incredible actually.  They are a non-profit school, so spend several million a year on resources and equipment.  Our school could learn a thing or two definitely.

I got the train from Duisburg after work on Friday.  It only takes 3 hours, with one stop on the fast train, which is pretty good really.  I met Matt and a chap from the Brussels school (who is also on Matt's Masters course) at 10pm at the station, and we went straight for cocktails and beer in some lovely little bars that only a local would know about.

On Saturday, we just wandered and drank and ate.  Since i've been to Brussels twice before, and because it's nota very big city, with not many touristy bits, I had to work quite hard to take photos that I didn't take the last two times.  I think I mostly succeeded, although it's impossible to walk past the little statue of a boy, 'weeing' into a fountain, without taking yet another photo of him in one of his 100 outfits.  I did have to get a bit creative in order to take new, exciting photos.  I ended up taking some photos of the posh chocolates in the shops that I had been to scared to take before (the people working in the shops are quite stern).  I became very stealthy indeed, which deserves a lot of credit considering how big my camera is!

We, of course, stopped for lots of drink stops, and it was in one of these pubs that we ran into our friend from school, who also decided to stay for the weekend.  9 mojitos and a 'tasting tray' of beer later and we were ready for some food!

We had the obligatory Belgian waffle...

... and the obligatory maceroons.

There was a free concert in the Grand Place too which was fun on Saturday night.

... and for something different, we tried bubble tea!

... I bought a 2017 diary from the Tintin shop, and Matt had a huge bowl of mussels.  All in all, a fabulously relaxing weekend.