Today was an early start, as most days are of course in this trip. We had allot to get to today, as this was to be the day we explored an entire city in one day period. Next to our hotel this morning was a nice cathedral that we decided to explore. Because this wasn’t on our bucket list of items today, we decided to take a quick peak inside and continue walking south towards our first goal of the day. This was to get to a restaurant called Maison Dandoy, which is a locally famous place for BELGIAN waffles, which of course was on our list to eat while in the city. The other was mussels since they were known for them, but we decided to try those later in the evening.
We decided to eat waffles first, then head to the town center, known as ‘Grand Place’. This area is the local gathering place, and during our time here in 2018, the world cup was playing full steam ahead, and the local fans were gathered in this plaza. This was a fun experience to witness, even though we didn’t have an allegiance to either team. It was cool to see how Europeans are incredibly passionate about their soccer. Brussels had a New York city feel to it with a slight bit more history, but the monuments we were about to discover made this city one of my favorite of the trip.
As we meandered through the city, we had a general idea of what we wanted to see, however our walking route was more based from point to point, as opposed to a straight line….meaning we decided to check things off our list to see, and as we came across them figure out the next spot. We headed eastward to an area known as Mont Des Arts…which featured a terraced garden park of sorts, and had one of the prettiest displays of public flora I’ve seen this entire trip. We walked through this area, appreciateing the old town architecture and the outdoors before we came to the monument pictured below. This is known as the Parc de Cinquantenaire.
This unique park is homed to Military museums and terraced gardens, and was not actually yon our list of things to see, but due to it being on the map we were pleasantly surprised to have seen this. Granted we were only walking by and didn’t have time for a tour, we were still there for long enough that we were glad we were able to see this. Since it was midday by now, we decided to head back toward the city center, and see a few small things before heading to our hotel to clean up for the evening, as we were to search out a great spot for dinner. The only thing left for us to see that was on our list was the city park, where the Atomium is located.
This park is called the Parc de Laeken. In it, there is plenty of walking space and gathering areas for outdoor activities, but the thing I found most impressive was the architecture of the monuments presented here as seen in the picture above. It took us about 30 minutes to get through the park, as it is a relatively large area. The Atomium was our goal though for the day to see. As you can see below, the building looks like an Atom! In each of the circles in the building, there are displays and museums teaching of the history of molecular studies, and of course at the top, one is presented with an incredible view of the city. We did pay for this tour, and I believe it was worth the money to attend.
It was time to head back to the hotel to clean up. We were to head toward the Grand Plaza again and find a spot for dinner. On the way there we came across an amazing church called National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Koekelberg. This was such a lovely surprise, that we decided to eat at a restaurant that overlooked/ was next to this church. This was one of the largest churches on this entire trip, and since it wasn’t on my researched list of sites for Brussels, it was a great way to end the last day in this amazing city.
Tomorrow we had another early morning and a train to catch to get to Amsterdam, thus after dinner we decided to have one more beer, and then head onto the hotel for the evening. Time to continue the adventure tomorrow!
BOOKED in Brussels (16) July 17-Brussels (27 minutes) (6:10-6:36 IC 1505)
EXPENSES
4.10 laundry
3 tea
2.50 laundry drier
2 snack
4.20 train fee
23 atomium museum
5.60 lunch
4.20 train
1.20 coke
36 dinner
3.80 beer
11.49 beer and snack
Total- 100.89 (18.49 + 72= 90.49)