The morning of the 22nd Katrin and I had breakfast in a lovely little bakery on the way
I had done the least amount of research on Brussels than any other city. A plane ticket from Brussels to London was my cheapest option and I was planning on the city being more a hop-over point than a destination.
The train deposited me in the north business district of the city, walking out of the station into an urban jungle of skyscrapers was not what I was expecting. After getting lost, and lost again following terrible directions I finally found the check in location for my hostel, the hostel itself being another 10 minutes away right in the center of the old city. I became increasingly annoyed with the check-in location, first locked out then their card reader broke and insisted my card was declined.
With all the logistics finally figured out, I followed a new map to my hostel and once I stepped into the old part of the city my stress melted away and I was taken up in the charm of the city center.
Brussels is famous for chocolate, beer, waffles, and fries. The heavenly aroma of all of these drift through the city center relaxing at least me for sure and everyone else as well I'd hazard to guess. I joined the stream of tourists wandering through the cobbled street leading to the Grand Place, the center Plaza of Brussels. And for all the hassle of having to check in half a mile away the hostel location makes up for it. It's right on the Grand Place, 20 feet away from the central location of the city.
I met some great girls in my room, one from India and one from Brazil. We chatted about our travels and the similarities and differences of our countries and cities and had dinner together in the hostel kitchen before bed.
They were both up early and continuing their trips the next day and in the morning I set out into the city by myself, first into the Grand Place admiring the ornate and beautiful buildings around the perimeter of the square. In one corner I heard someone explaining the purposes of the various buildings in English (hooray!) and I joined the free walking tour. I learned that all of these buildings had at one time been guild halls, and the only one that still is a guild hall is the Guild of Brewers, the most important industry in Belgium.
Our tour guide was very good at his job, leading us around the major locations in the center of Brussels. First the Manneken Pis, the famous statue of a little boy peeing that is the pride and joy of Brussels. He has over 900 outfits and on very special days pees beer or wine instead of water. He has occasionally been stolen and either found or replaced immediately with a backup kept in one of the museums. The legend says that an opposing army was planning on blowing up the wall around Brussels, they lit the fuse and ran for cover. But a passing little boy saw the lit fuse and peed on it, thus saving the city and he became a legend.
The true story is less heroic though, the symbol of a boy peeing used to mark where in the city the poor could sell their urine to leather tanners.
We walked through the old city, observing a performance by the stilt walkers of Brussels, marching down the street in front of the Manneken, some on stilts about 12 feet tall. Then around to the best fries in Brussels and the guide also pointed out where one could find a Trappist beer, a very special and expensive kind for 2 euros.
He led us up to the royal park and took the opportunity to give us a brief history of Belgium's extremely dark history in the Congo, then seriously sobered showed us the Palace and a lovely view of the old city from the stairs to the museum platz.
There the tour ended. During the walk I had made the acquaintance of a fellow solo-traveling girl from Wisconsin who had also skipped breakfast. We decided to go find a famous Belgian waffle and were joined by another member of our tour, a student visiting from the Netherlands for the weekend. We went back to the Manneken, a popular little boy, constantly surrounded by people. According to the guide the streets near the little statue hold the city's best and cheapest Belgian waffles, 1 euro per. They get tourists with toppings, Belgians only ever have plain waffles maybe lightly dusted with powdered sugar; this perfect confection will cost the promised 1 euro, every topping after sugar is 1 euro as well.
If there is a heaven, I believe it smells like a Belgian waffle shop. The waffles themselves exactly walk the line between bread and a confection. With a waffle in each hand we left the Manneken's crowded district and went back to the Grand Place, finding coffee to assuage my persistent caffeine addiction. Having already seen all of the major locations of the city before noon we went to Brussels' next major attraction, the bars. Belgium has some spectacular beers and we did a tour of the three most famous bars in Brussels, the Brown Bar, Celtica, and Delirium, the Guinness world record holder for most commercially available beers on tap in the world. At last count over 3000.
At 6:00 I said goodbye to my new friends, picked up my luggage and walked back to the train station. Navigating tickets, the train, then then the airport, security and finding my gate all quite tipsy was an interesting experience. I was sober by the time the plane took off, and ready to get to England.
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Because of the distance, I have some family in England that I have never met, chiefly my Dad's sister, Tessa and her daughter Chantelle and her family, Rushie, her husband and their two sons Jem and Zach. I had been in talks with Chantelle to meet her and stay with her family my first night in England, and after a short flight and a long line in customs she picked me out of the crowd right away.
Even though we had never met before, Chantelle felt like family right from the moment we met. It was a seamless introduction; she is a lovely person and I was happy to get to catch up on the last 24 years in the car on the way home and at the house before bed.
The next morning I met the boys, and we ate breakfast together while Chantelle showed me our grandmother's photo album, holding photos of our great grandparents, great uncles and aunts, and cousins. She also knows many family stories and shared them with me all morning until it was time to go back to Heathrow to pick up mom.
Mom arrived safely in Heathrow, customs took her awhile too, but soon she found us and we were on our way. We had lunch with the whole family at the neighborhood pub near their house, talking about our travels and eating really tasty pub food.
After lunch we said goodbye and Chantelle took us to the train station via Windsor and Eton College. We got on a train and made our way to our Air B&B in London near the Vauxhall Station. We were both too exhausted to do much more than eat a snack at the restaurant downstairs and collapse to sleep.
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The next morning marked the beginning of our one and only day in London. In the planning stages of the trip we had accidentally allowed for over three days in London and found we didn't have any time at the end of the trip to see Scotland. So we went a bit extreme in the other direction and cut London down to a day. In the morning we made our way to Victoria station, the starting point of all the double-decker hop-on-hop-off bus tours, finding a decently priced one and getting onboard.
Mom is still recovering from receiving her second fake hip and is getting around very well, but walking all over London wasn't an option, and neither of us felt like navigating public transportation. Bus tour was our best sightseeing option and it also provided facts about each area we went past.
One day in London is obviously not enough, but I knew that if I didn't go into any other building, I really wanted to see the British Museum and the Egypt exhibit in particular. Most of the museums in London are free, so we and about a million other people entered the museum and hung a left into the Egypt wing. The Rosetta Stone is the centerpiece of the exhibit, behind glass with lights shining down on it. Most everything else though isn't behind glass. Signs ask nicely to please not touch the artefacts but you can. You can put your hand right onto the stone sarcophagus of an Egyptian queen who reigned 5000 years ago, get in the face of blank-eyed pharos missing noses, touch the stone feathers of eight foot tall statues intended to guard Byzantine throne rooms. It's wild and totally stunning.
We spent a few hours in the museum, visiting ancient Greek pottery, Roman statues from the Parthenon, and ancient as well a contemporary Japanese art. But with our short amount of time left looming we left the museum, ate some lunch and headed back out into the street.
The tour took us over and around through the city, Rick Steves puts it well when he says that London is England's L.A., Washington DC, and New York, (I'm going to add Seattle too for the tech element) all the country's major industries have hubs in London including politics. The sheer amount of people and layered elements of the city are enough to make your head spin. Parts of London are flashy and demure, new and old depending on where fires have gone through, some parts have exquisite urban planning while others are a mash of streets fitting together like broken pieces of glass. London is the only city I've been in that feels wholly like a new and and old city all at once.
We went by the Tower of London and got off at St. Paul's Cathedral but found it costs 17 pounds to enter the church so we turned around and got back on the bus, passing the re-creation of Shakespeare's Globe Theater and the London Eye. Both catching street names we've read in novels and history books alike.
In the late afternoon we got off the bus and crossed the bridge nearest to Parliament and Big Ben, walking around Westminster Abbey to the quieter residential street behind the cathedral. A restaurant opened in the cellar of the cathedral a few years ago and after the hustle and bustle of the metropolis, the most quiet place of a quiet place like a Cathedral was right where we wanted to be. We had afternoon tea with the greatest pot of Earl Grey I've ever been lucky enough to taste, tea sandwiches, scones, and a few small desserts. Tea at the Abbey was a relaxing way to end a hyper-stimulating visit to the big city.