April, 2003
After some pondering over holiday destinations for a mini-break, we decided Beglium might be nice. It has beer, so Iain was happy, and I'd holidayed there with my parents a few times and had a somewhat nostalgic fondness for the place.
Thanks to the wonders of lastminute.com, we managed to score cheapish rooms in a rather nice hotel. This was the view in the lift on the way up to our room. We didn't take any photos of the room itself, but be assured it was pretty nice too.
Everyone takes photos of the same things in Belgium: the Mannekin Pis, the Grand Place, and the cathedral. We were no exception to this rule, mostly because, well, most of the rest of Brussels is big anonymous concrete buildings or building sites.
The Manneken Pis
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The Grand Place.
More Grand Place.
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Cathedral exterior.
Cathedral interior.
The cathedral was surprisingly light inside. I'm used to european cathedrals being sort of dingy and dim , so this wass a nice surprise. Still, at least it has the usual out-of-place seating arrangements.
An ornate pulpit.
We somehow forgot to take photos of all the pubs and bars we went to. Nor did we take pictures of the endless monotonously barren backstreets we got lost in, or the teashop I bought some lovely violet tea in.
We did take one photo of this arcade, for some reason. We weren't there during the Brel festival, alas. We still managed to have a good time in Brussels. If we ever go back, maybe we'll even do some of the less obvious touristy things.