Winter Europe Trip 15th December 2022 (Thursday) Day 19 Brussels, Belgium

 (This posted is written on 29th October 2023, I finally have time as the school year is coming to an end and I really missed our Europe trip) *Look at that, I managed to update my travel journal till Day 19!

The next morning, we woke up to have breakfast at ibis and it was super underwhelming, full of people but just the very basic as its a cheap 3 star hotel. It was so bad or we were just bored with hotel breakfast that we did not take any photos. We were disappointed that there wasnt even waffles or crepe even though we were at Belgium, kind of worse than the three stars hotel we stayed in Copenhagen. Anyway, that was the last day during the trip when we had hotel breakfast, we totally skipped it the next day and ate at a cafe before heading to London. P totally condemned the hotel due to the fact that we did not have wifi for both days. Sigh. 

Back to the Grand Place in dayilght

Took some time to help P with his jump shot, totally Munich feel

Ended with couple photo

Artist in action 

After breakfast, we went back to our room to nap again and got out at 2pm for some sightseeing as that was the only day we have in Brussels before heading to London the next day. It did not feel as cold as Amsterdam and there were also lots of tourists around, so the vibe was good. 

Starbucks is another landmark here

Went in to take a look but didnt get anything

Filled with people

After taking lots of photo of the Grand Place in daylight, we started heading towards the Manneken Pis as that's the iconic landmark of Brussels, its a walk of about 15-20 min away from the square. The world famous manneken came about as a remembrance to the brave little boy who saved his country by peeing on the fuse of the explosive, its a well known story that I had heard for ages so visiting the peeing statue is a must. 

Colourful crosswalk 

Had read lots of review of how small the actual statue is

Lots of tourists trying to get their photos

As we got nearer to the statue, there were many shops selling souvenirs related to the peeing boy and we saw more and more tourists walking around. This area has a lot of shops and eateries, plus the murals on the wall attracted many people.

Very cool standing bar just next to the statue area

Waffle and ice cream looked so good

Trying the fries is a must in Brussels

We finally got ours

Chocolate version of Manneken Pis

Belgian chocolate museum 

The little boy had abs and there were penis shaped dessert

Hmmm...

After taking lots of photos with the statue, it was time to fill our stomach and indulge in Brussel's desserts and snacks. There is always a debate for the best place to get fries and we saw lots of those shops as we walked to the Manneken Pis, we finally just decided to get from this shop that looked good and there were people queueing up to get the fries. It tasted not too bad when the fries are piping hot.

Wall mural of funky Manneken Pis

We visited a church

Away from the hustle and bustle

Iconic Belgian comics Tintin

Wall murals certainly spiced up the place

A long stretch supporting LGBT

After eating the fries (the portion was big), we walked around taking photos of the murals scattered all around Brussels city and then headed back to the Grand Place once again. It was 4pm+ then and we decided to get back to the hotel room for a nap (again!) before heading out as we were feeling a bit tired and sleepy.

Winter Europe Trip 14th December 2022 (Wednesday) Day 18

 (This posted is written on 29th October 2023, I finally have time as the school year is coming to an end and I really missed our Europe trip) *Look at that, I managed to update my travel journal till Day 18!

Boarded train to Brussels

The seats were comfortable on 1st class

We reached Brussels!

Brussels train station

Our room

Very basic room

Basic shower room

Our next country and city was Brussels, Belgium and it’s another new country that we have not visited before. Amsterdam was a really cool city but we gotta be on our way again. When applying for Schengen visa earlier this year, P got his visa into Norway through the Denmark embassy and we were required to get the train tickets together with the visa application. When P was at the Denmark embassy, he messaged me to get the tickets (we did not have to do that for the June Germany trip) and I had to search for the train tickets on the spot.

The train ride from Amsterdam to Brussels was less than 2h and we managed to get 1st class tickets at a reasonable price (113 euros). At Brussels, I chose Ibis hotel which was one of the nearest to the station and it was just a cheap 2 star/ 3 stars hotel. The room was very basic but I think it was fine since we were near the train station and tourist areas.

This area looked very christmassy

Giant Christmas tree

The iconic Grand Place at Brussels

Photo together

This very grand square reminded me a lot of Munich

After checking in at 1pm, we took a nap and only emerged from our room at 6pm+, it was all dark outside when we finally got out. There was a laundromat near our hotel and the last time we did laundry was on Hurtigruten heading to Tromso. That was a week ago and we were really glad we could find a laundromat nearby to get our clothes cleaned. 

Hard Rock Cafe is a landmark at the Grand Place

Japanese meat skewers yakitori

Asian food!

The menu attracted us as P missed Asian fare

Brussels is not a exceptionally big city and its known for a few things: Grand Place, murals, Menneken Pis, Food (fries, waffles, mussels) so it was weird that we wandered down an alley from the Grand Place into this row of restaurants and ended up choosing a underwhelming Asian food. P was still craving for fried rice after Tromso thai restaurant so we decided to give it a try. There were actually some patrons on the second floor, served by PRC speaking staff (who didnt know I understood their language), food was so-so but cheaper than Tromso asian food and managed to fill our stomach.

Heard that there was a good Christmas market in Brussels

But somehow we only found the decor and nothing much

Passage du Nord

After dinner, we collected our laundry and place them into the dryer, then walked around looking for the Christmas market but we did not find them. There were beautiful decor just very near to our hotel that duped us to believe that it was the Christmas market but there were just a few stalls and few people wandering around, we even almost got scammed by a few random people guarding the entrance to the carpark. We went into the atas looking old style shopping mall Passage du Nord and there were many chocolate shops looking grand and nice.

Some of the eateries nearby

Yeah! Totally agree!

Shops were close but everything looked so nice

Souvenir shop

Brussels known for its lace

Popular shop near our hotel for waffles

We had to stop for yummy Belgian waffles and ice cream

The chocolates looked good when we were there but we were not thinking of getting souvenirs (except for P’s family) so we only bought some loose pieces to try. There was a popular waffles shop near our hotel and we could not resist the dessert which looked so good with all the whipped cream and P’s favourite banana chocolate combo, so we bought one back to the hotel. It was very filling and a good dessert to end off the night.

Unfortunately at ibis hotel, the wifi was down after we woke up from our nap, right up to the time we left for London two nights later. Changi Wifi was good enough for Germany in June but gave us a lot of issues this Europe trip whenever we crossed borders. The hefty rental price didnt justify us renting it and we decided to just go with Singtel roaming services for further trips.