Belgium - February 2015

Never did I expect that I would decide to go for an immediate vacation and here comes my first trial where flight tickets were purchased on Wednesday night while I am flying to Brussels on Friday morning.

5th February 2015 was indeed a taxing day for me having to fulfil a training task in Birmingham which took me a minimum of 3 hours for a single train journey while needed to rush back on the same day to catch the last train service in order to overnight at the Gatwick Airport. On my way back to South West London, I get to chat with this awesome gentleman where we tease and laugh together throughout the journey until we took our separate path at Waterloo and he was indeed a good traveling companion and has made my day.

Based on the past experience I had in London City Airport, I presumptuously assumed that the night would rather be warm and bearable. Nonetheless it turns out to be freezing cold in the Gatwick Airport but providentially one of the café is opened 24 hours hence I am able to grab myself a cup of hot chocolate and panini to spent my hours on this sleepless night.

After a slight delay on the flight schedule, I touched down safely at Brussel-Zaventem at 9.50am and started looking for my way to the gathering point at Bruxelles-Midi. As one of us is without an active phone service, all we’ve got is only a picture designating the gathering spot. But surprisingly without any difficulties, we managed to find each other and all three of us were glad to be able to meet up again after the last parting in London and decided that this gonna be a great trip ahead for the long weekend.

A key picture that holds our destiny in this trip...lol

6th February 2015 - Friday
* Bruges

This is another special day where 3 ladies from different residing countries gather together (US, Belgium and UK). A 1.5 hours’ drive to the north fully demonstrated to us the complicated traffics in the country.

We arrived in Bruges at 1.00pm and needed to decide what we should have for our lunch. After strolling for some time along the streets, we finally decided to pick a Thai Restaurant to satiate our hunger. The fried noodle and fried rice was disappointingly below average, but the hot coconut dessert was surprisingly tasty (Total at €33.00).

The walking tour starting at Bauhaus Hostel was led by a humorous dude and we get to taste the famous waffles, fries, chocolates and beers in town. During the break while sheltering ourselves from the cold, we fell in love with the local fruity beer - Rodenbach Rosso in red.

 

My last trip to Paris was stuffed with escargots, and this trip was with mussels! 3 of us enjoyed 2 full pots of mussels for dinner (Mossel Wijin - €23.00 & Mossel Brugs - €23.00) at Central Bruge Restaurant and yet we are still craving for more…what a high cholesterol lifestyle we have!

7th February 2015 - Saturday

* Brussels

Waking up with breakfast readily on a plate is such a wonderful moment, thanks to the girls empathizing my hardship having sleepless night at the airport thus preparing these mouth-watering mushroom toasts. This also posts a new idea in my recipe log that I could try it the next time on my own.

Again we joined another walking tour at Grand Place under the lead of a young solicitor - Berber who actively presented to us almost every important point of the city and making each session as interesting and lively as possible. We learned about the past, the present, the why, how and when about Belgium and I am now becoming more interested in their history.

After the tour, we walked around the city freely and other than the famous Manneken-Pis, we tried looking for Jeanneke Pis as well in an alley at the south of the Grand Place. Passing by Rue de Bouchers, there were even guys that shouted “Hey wait a minute…can I kiss you?”, but my typical answer was “of course…NOT”!

I thought I would never like macaroon due to my last taste of it in Zurich, however Laduree changes my mind and I am now in love with this circular cake at €1.90 per piece. To satisfy our craving for mussels, we took our dinner at Café Leffe and ordered the stewed beef (Carbonnades à la Leffe Brun) - €18.80 and Moule Piquantes (Spicy Mussels) - €25.00. Instead of being spicy, the taste was rather unique and delicious and therefore we gluttonously ordered another pot of Moules Crème D’ail (Garlic Mussels in Cream) - €25.00 before heading back to the central square.

8th February 2015 - Sunday
* Brussels & Leuven

Visiting the local market place is definitely a great choice to engaged oneself deeply into the local culture. And we found a food that is similar to “Roti Canai” and the taste was rather good. But again, I lost a pair of my gloves and thus having to spend €7.00 on a new one and considering if I should be attaching strings to it the next time or I will have to stock-up a dozen at home.

The afternoon was spent visiting the most popular touristic attraction and the symbol of Belgium - The Atomium, which is originally constructed for Expo 58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. We intended to visit as well the chocolate fair but were backed-off due to the long queue and crowd at the entrance. The next touristic destination was supposed to be the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart – Koekelberg but we missed the entrance and had parked distanced away from it but nonetheless we still get to enjoy our walk in the Elisabeth Park.

 

Never will I missed any chance of having my favourite ice-cream even during winter, and I enjoyed the 3 scopes cone (melon, strawberry and vanilla) with a waffle for a tea-break at Cinquantenaire. Even so, I am still able to devour another full Chipolata set (Mashed potatoes and Sausage) - €7.99 at Lunch Garden Restaurant for an early dinner before we drive Ms. Ow to the train station. After sending her off at Bruxelles-Midi, we continued our night in Leuvan. Touring around the township of universities reminds me of all the good times I’ve had during my student life. Gazing at the magnificent architectures featuring the gothic designs, I am stunned with the beauty of the buildings and was again appreciating this trip.

 

9th February 2015 - Monday

* Brussels to London

Thanks to Ms. Ooi who hosted us during our trip and we had enjoyed so much together touring around the cities of Belgium. And thanks for the ride to the airport early Monday morning and I do look forward to our next meet-up together which will probably be years after.

I have always the misperception that Belgium would be one of the wealthy countries in Europe; nonetheless this trip shows me the real state of this nation and again I get to rectify my interpretation and have again learned something new. Life is all about seeing, appreciating and learning...as always :)