This was part of our recent visit to London. We left at noon on Friday, arrived London at 3.30. From Victoria we went straight to the flat and relaxed and listened to some CDs I had taken with me until Aquiles got home from work. He then cooked for us and we watched a funny dvd which had him in fits of laughter that I had brought with me. Have you ever seen The Emperor's New Groove? It's absolutely hilarious and set in Peru.
Saturday morning I was up first at 4 am and managed to get the others up soon after. I had allowed half an hour to get to Waterloo but what with having to run for a bus and very little traffic we were there by ten past five and didn't need to check in until five to six. The time soon passed though and then we were on our way. Eurostar trains are really comfortable and fast and the experience was new for Aquiles. But he was fast asleep even before the train left the station so didn't know much about the journey. There were two stops on route at Ashford in Kent and then again in Lille, France. I slept the first part of the journey as well, only waking up after we had emerged from the tunnel, and the countryside scene was very different on the other side - snowy landscapes that were even more snow enhanced when we crossed from France into Belgium.
We arrived in Brussells at 9 am our time, 10 am theirs, and a very helpful security guard gave us all the info we needed to get ourselves into the centre of town. I had the opportunity to use my rusty French and managed just about to get myself understood. It's amazing that I understand French so perfectly but struggle so much with speaking it ever since learning Spanish. We bought all day travel cards for the underground trains or subway or metro as it is known by there. They ran out of tickets after I had bought mine so while Ann and Aquiles waited to get theirs from a ticket machine I ascertained which line we had to travel on and even helped some other people on their way who were unsure of directions.
We didn't have to wait long for a train and 9 stations later we got off at Plaza Rogier which was right in the heart of the commerical district. Although no snow was evident in the streets it was incredibly cold and I sure was glad I had worn my fleece overcoat and had brought along scarf and gloves. Aquiles’ first priority was to look for a nice place to eat, not having had any breakfast, and it took quite a while as the food outlets in the shopping areas mainly offered burgers, pizzas, doner kebab or other fast foods and we wanted something nicer than that. We eventually decided to have cous cous which was a mistake as it was one of the worst cous cous I have ever had and Aquiles wasn't too impressed. I chose Tagine for Ann knowing she would prefer that but somehow they missed her dish when cooking our order, which meant by the time she finally got it we had nearly finished ours, so all in all our first eating experience in Belgium was a bit of a disappointment.
We then spent the rest of the day walking and exploring, seeing some of the sights and shopping. For me the best shopping experience was the supermarkets - with so much delicious food on offer, wide variety of interesting beers etc, I could not resist buying lots of things - assorted beers, goose, venison and duck pate, two types of spicy sausages, jamon serrano, chorizo, cream cheese flavoured with peperoni and paprika, three different types of cheese, chilli flavoured anchovies, a mountain produced sauccison for Colin plus other things for him as well. We came across a Christmas market where I bought some fantastic perfume destined for someone as a Christmas present (and wished I could afford more than one it was so nice!), plus further presents for Mum and Colin. We also enjoyed hot spicy gluewein there. In one huge square there were spheres like giant bubbles with Christmas scenes inside which were really impressive, surrounded as they were by ancient buildings. In another was the largest nativity scene I have ever seen - we took a couple of photos in front of it. The weather was the worst part as at times it rained and other times it snowed, and one's face felt frozen with the cold. It is definitely several degrees colder in Belgium than it is in England.
Later in the afternoon we came across a street full of sea food restaurants with fantastic set menus on offer and the patrons outside persuading people to enter (something very reminiscent of Cusco, Peru). We didn't need much persuading, even though we were not terribly hungry. The dancing flames of a gas log effect fire on top of a pedestal and under a canopy in the centre of each restaurant was also inducive to persuading us to enter. It was heaven to sit down after walking so many hours, only a couple of feet away from the flames and by the window so we could watch the passing scene outside. We lingered there for a couple of hours enjoying the warmth. The fish soup was out of this world, and our main courses and desserts were equally as delicious. The patron had given each of us a complimentary drink, a kind of sweet rose wine which was delicious too. Definitely on a future visit to Brussells I will make my way there as I got them to write down the name of restaurant and street for future reference. (Restaurant “Le Petit Bruxelles”, Rue des Bouchers 4, 1000 Bruxelles).
By the time we left there it was time to make our way back to Le gare du Midi. Luckily I remembered the destinations at each end of the line we had to take (Simonez towards town, Clemenceau towards the station) and we got back without difficulty and found where to check in. There was another supermarket below the station so we ended up buying more goodies, in my case more beer. In the end it was a struggle to carry everything - Aquiles had taken a rucksack which converted to a mini case on wheels. Definitely on a future visit to Belgium I will take something similar as I would have bought even more things had I not been limited by the amount I could comfortably carry. Luckily there was room for a bottle of wine and beer in his rucksack and Ann also helped me carry some of my things on this occasion.
All in all it was a great day out, made even better by having Aquiles with us who is such a fun person and we were having a good laugh all day long. We are going to do the Paris Eurostar trip again in the summer and take him with us. On the train journey home we mostly slept as we were absolutely exhausted. Back on English soil we were phoned by a friend saying that an andean band were playing in North London, but even that failed to revive me enough to want to venture out again once we got home! We arrived back at Waterloo at 10 pm, and were back at the flat by 10.30 where all we wanted to do was relax. Toti had cooked a delicious supper for us and we shared some of the lush Leffe beer that I'd brought back, and then we rounded off the evening by watching another dvd I had brought with us, The Secret of the Andes, an intriguing adventure story set in Peru with andean music soundtrack. I was sound asleep long before it ended though!
Next day it was another early start and we caught the 9 am bus from Victoria which got us back to Bristol at 11.15 where Colin picked us up and we got home again just in time for picking up Mary and going to our usual pub for lunch. All in all a great weekend!
