martin_b

Slightly wet...

martin_b — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I had to change train at Kortrijk on the way to Ieper. It's smaller than the big cities I'd been visiting, but with hidsight, it would have been nice to make space for smaller places like this. The town square has a nice bit of modern art, and there's a museum of some sort in the building behind. Sadly I didn't have time to explore, both because of train times, and because of that innocuous looking cloud. I got VERY WET INDEED.

Waterloo

martin_b — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

OK, so after a walk-train-bus-walk, I actually reached Waterloo. You can't really miss it, because the victors (which wasn't the French, in case your history isn't good) built a bloody great conical hill in the middle of the Battlefield.

As you walk up, you pass the pub where Napoleon stayed. It does cost to see everything, but the museum is good, and it is worth paying to go up the hill (the Butte de Lion).

Some days, they say you can see the ghosts of the French army, still surveying the Battlefield...

If I went again, I think I'd try to hire a bike, as it would make it easier to get there from the station, and cycling round the Battlefield would probably be good: it's not possible to get to all the memorials on foot.

Looking at the memorials I did see, it was interesting that while the English and Prussians built monoliths commemorating some officers, only the Belgians actually commemorated all their troops.

I came away with a far greater understanding of the Battle...definitely a worthwhile trip.

more Ghent....

martin_b — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Well, still feeling grotty, but after enjoying breakfast, I went and looked at the castle. It is quite plain inside, although with several displays about medieval torture (the counts weren't entirely nice people!)

The castle does also give some great views over the town.

Ghent

martin_b — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I didn't really get my head round Ghent, partly because I was ill, partly because I didn't spend enough time there. It's a funny city: if I was going to buy a house in Belgium, this would be the place, because it seems to be on the cusp between being a run down partly historic city and being the Manchester of Belgium. It's got history...maybe it's as nice as Bruges...it's got bars and student life, and modernity...and yet it's neither faceless like Brussels, nor defined by history.

And it definitely can't be seen in a day and a half! Not if you really want to understand it.

A quick tram in from the station got me to the main square: usual stuff, cathedral, belfort, really fancy buildings...

Here's the belfort, which I went up. I got in the way of a rather fast moving bunch of German tourists with a stroppy guide at the top. Personally, if I see someone enjoying the view, I wait until they have finished...not this guide. Anyway, it does give a very good view of a very big city.

And Ghent also has the most amazing hostel...it's brilliant! Right in the centre (2 minutes from everything), with a view you'd pay a lot of money for, modern clean rooms with only 4 beds a room, and a very nice breakfast the next day. Friendly staff too. These are views from the bedroom window.

Just round the corner, well a couple of corners, there's the design museum.

Quite dramatic, and it's pretty good inside too- I liked these art deco rooms.

And just round the corner again (lots of corners!), there's the famous Castle Gravensteen, which is pretty dramatic.

There are some stunning canals about as well: I didn't take the classic views, so you get these slightly less good ones instead.

In the evening, I found a particularly snooty Italo-Belgian restaraunt near the Brabantdam...the waiter clearly didn't want me there :-) It was very average, he had nothing to be snooty about.

a fine cold...

martin_b — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

For the next couple of days I was really really suffering...I think it was just a cold, but it was really getting to me, very chesty. So I'm a bit vague, and didn't enjoy things as much as I could have.

Anyway, I went by Arentshuis, which has these classic Battle scenes carved into it.

Then I went in the Groeningemuseum, which has a small but perfectly formed art collection, before heading to the station...and Ghent.

More Bruges (ok I've run out of inspiration)

martin_b — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Well, this was the first thing I saw today...I stll can't figure out how these guys thought they could get this pane of glass, in a huge wooden frame, through the window they were trying to fit it to. It just didn't fit- I stayed aroudn a while watching the free entertainment, and waiting for it to break, but sadly it didn't, it just reached a stalemate with the glaziers.

This is a godshuis...sort of like an almshouse, Belgian style. They are still all over Bruges, although not all as cute as this one.

Just behind the cathedral there's another quiet spot: it's amazing how like sheep most visitors are, they never go off course.
It's quite beautiful, with the canal, little gardens and sculptures, and old buildings like these. This sort of wooden building is how Bruges used to look...but unsurprisingly it all burned down, so this one is about all that's left. They aren't allowed now.

I went into the cathedral after that. There's a museum bit at the far end, which not many people pay to get into, but it has these incredible early medieval painted tombs.

Like all of Belgium, Bruges has an impressive square, well two squares, with a big tower, which gives great views. Nuff said :)

I thought I'd see some of the less-known bits, so I went North East, along the canal. Boules was just an added bonus! It's quiet, but scenic.

Eventually I reached the canal round the edge of the city (sort of a wet ring road: I guess it started as part of the city's defences), and found this windmill. Quite nice, but a bit noisy: there's a real ring road just outside the wet one.

I went along the cnal for a bit and then went back towards the centre. I was feeling a bit hungy, so when I found a sweet shop it seemed a good opportunity. It turned out the owner only spoke Flemish...well, she was about 80. Nice lady, and her daughter helped. They had a curious and unsanitary sweet procedure. You had to pick the sweets you wanted out of the jars, and put them in a not very clean looking plastic container. She was so nice I felt obliged to buy some anyway, as she rambled on I think about how if I was canadian I'd have been able to speak French or something.

Anyway, the sweets were bloody awful! I guess the moral is don't buy sweets from sweet shops in Bruges that look like they are as old as the cathedral.

I felt quite ill as the evening went on, and struggled to eat what should have been a very nice north african meal. I later found out I had a stinking, chesty cold, so I can't really blame the sweets.

For the evening, I walked through a park in the South of the city, where there was a free festival on. It wasn't up to much though, so I carried on South, toward the cinema that the nice lady at the theatre had told me about the previous night.

She had her directions spot on. Unfortunately she didn't have a clue about distances so I was walking for aaaaages....and aaaages...and aaaages....

When I eventually got there it was (again) a superb facility. I saw Ocean's 13, which was just ok.

Walking back...11pm on the outskirts of a belgiam city, in the dark, few streetlights...I took a "shortcut"...it wasn't...I walked back again...I did reach the hostel eventually.

Brugge=Bruges

martin_b — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Well, it soon became clear why this is the city tourists come to. It may not have more attractions than the other cities, but they are nicely squashed together: Bruges only has one industry, and it's tourism. Quite right too mind, every street is a historic delight.

It often feels like you're in Holland: they have clogs, canals, windmills, cute steppy roofed buildings...not much difference between my perceptions of the two, really. Which I suppose makes sense historically.

The hostel (the Europa) was a great improvement on Antwerp's...and while it's outside of the centre, as soon as you cross the canal you're in a really nice historic area, on a direct route to the centre.

And that's where I went...and found the beguinage, which is a sort of monastery. Every town seems to have one, but this one is special. It's so quiet, so calm and relaxed it almost makes you want to be a nun. Almost. There's a great round common in the middle, filled with slanting trees, and around it all these little old white houses. And the odd nun. Luckily not too many tourists make it round the corner, although we did have one exceptionally loud party of germans who were being very ignorant and taking no notice of the signs asking for silence.

Yes, a very special place, and there's also a little museum showing the insides of one building. Inside there was also a lady making lace, which is quite astonishing to see. the speed with which she moved the little bobbins is amazing, and how she kept track of where they all were I don't know.

Over the bridge out of the beguinage, the canals start, and views of the centre of Bruges start to appear. The cafe nearest to the bridge does excellent crepes!

Also special is Sint-Janshospitaal, the next place I got to. It was a huge complex, I think connected to the knights of St Johns, and inside is a fantastic pillared space, which was the hospital and now houses various treasures and artworks.

It seemed only proper to do the tourist thing and get a canal tour...this is the back of our driver/guides head...and that's me...the only pictures from the boat that didn't come out blurred, but it was definitely worth it anyway: it gives a very different perspective to the city.

This is the Smedenpoort, one of the gates to the city. I ended up here after a walk through the centre. It's a nice slightly upmarket area, and I had something to eat here in the early evening, and then thought I'd find a cinema. Now, there were meant to be two cinemas. I found the first one, but couldn't find the second. I eventually figured out this was because it had been turned into a theatre...and a curious one at that.

It's called The English Theatre of Bruges, and all the plays are in English. As I was the only customer at that point, I had a chat to the lady running the ticket office, who knew Stockport...small world isn't it. She had impeccable taste in music, and eventually we reached Scott Walker, who she knows better than I do! But then liking Scott Walker is a bit like being in some sort of secret club (like driving a Reliant Robin or something), so it didn't really matter. I'm not sure her marketing technique to new arrivals was the best though: "don't go into the theatre until the last minute, the music is awful".

Anyway, eventually the audience arrived/ reached double figures (just), and we all went in...she was right, the music was awful.

The play was called The Joy of Wine...it started off a bit dead, maybe because it's difficult to warm up an audience of 11 or so. But then somehow the offbeat very British humour started to make sense...and people started to laugh...and by the time we had reached the wine tasting I was cracking up. 10/10 for the play, and I hope the theatre succeeds, but the numbers are a bit worrying!

left overs...

martin_b — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Well, good riddance to that hostel!

I made my way straight to the station, but had a while to wait for the train to Bruges, so I took around the streets to the North. I hadn't realised there's a whole new area up there, and I managed to find a fabric shop where I bought some fabrics for Wendy, very reasonably priced, and very Belgian I think.

Anyway, Bruges beckoned...

Printing and stuff

martin_b — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Think I've already mentioned breakfast. I sat next to an American woman who had checked in at the same time as me.

It quickly came clear this was a very large mistake. She didn't like the hostel. She didn't like Begium or Belgians. She didn't like France. In fact, I'm not entirely sure she liked anyone in Europe. There may be some Americans she liked, but if so the list certainly didn't include an embassy staff who she seemed to think were engaged in some sort of conspiracy against her.

I did try to cheer her up with some positive comments, but I was pissing in the wind. God knows why she was in Europe, maybe she dislikes Americans even more.

Anyway, I eventually dragged mysef away from the nourishing breakfast and the eloquent uplifting conversation, and walked into the South West bit of Antwerp. A nice sunny day, and eventually I found myself at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts.

It's a mix of modern art downstairs (an excellent Belgian biased collection) and old stuff upstairs. While the new stuff was good, the old stuff was typically overblown Rubens and the like. No, I don't know what this represents...but at almost twice life size it's quite imposing!

After a slightly random further walk, very atmospheric though, I reached the Museum Plantin-Moretus.

This for me was one of the unexpected highlights of the whole trip. It's a courtyard house, that was the headquarters of one of the oldest printing houses in the world. And they kept everything. Every book, every receipt, every woodcut, and it seems almost every printing press even.

This place is astonishing, unlike the rebuilding of Rubens house, this is all original, down to the gilt leather covered walls in some rooms. Every room has some new wonders.

Below is the oldest print room in the world, filled with original printing presses, including the two oldest surviving in the world.

I spent a long time here. It's wonderful. Very hidden away though, you'd hardly know it was there from the outside.

After a further wander round the squares in the centre, that was about it. Some cinema in the evening (another wonderful Belgian cinema: I never realised we had such crap cinemas in England.)

A twerp in Antwerp

martin_b — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Well, sorry to sound really geeky, but Antwerp has a far nicer station that Brussels. It looks like some sort of classical building, but inside it''s been seriously modernised, so a nice mix.

Antwerp is a very fashionable, shopping city. It has statues everywhere, for some reason, and clearly there's a lot more here than just tourist stuff. These elephants are on their way to the zoo :)

I walked down the main shopping street: it is impressively grand, as are the prices in some of the shops. I hadn't really read up on what I wanted to see, but I quickly found Rubens House.

This was very impressive, remarkable even, until you learn that it was almost completely rebuilt in World War 2. Only a few bits of the outside are real. Equally remarkable, but in a different way, and it did take the edge off.

The more I saw and heard of Rubens, who Belgians are very proud of indeed, the more I became to doubt the basis of the art we see in galleries. Rubens over-eggs his work, not because it's useful, but because that was what the rich wanted. The result is a style so overelaborate and contrived that any talent he might have had is concealed. He was clearly a man who was at home with politics and commerce, and worked the world to his advantage, but there must have been many more talented artists who didn't, and are forgotten today.

Anyway, I carried on down in the direction of the main squares. The cathedral here, which is also in the last shot, is way more impressive than that of Brussels: it soars up, and inside it carries on soaring, with even impressive ceilings. It is of course filled with overdone work by Rubens and his ilk, but never mind.

The main square is impressive, in the same vein as Brussels, but can't qute compete. It has a good try though! Nice fountain too.

I kept heading in the direction of the river, and eventually got there: it's called the Schelde, and it's roughly Thames size, perhaps. Quite impressively big, and the fact that the city is only on one bank makes it more striking still.

There's a maritive museum on the front, housed behind an impressively fairy tale castle.

Anyway, by that time it was getting wet and late, so I hid in an Italian restaraunt for a bit, then took a tram to the hostel. It looked quite good form a distance, lakes around it, and lots of greenery. Appearances can be deceptive, because it's a complete dump. The whole place smells, there's one internet machine, showers are miles from the rooms, and there's only one per sex anyway, dorms are huge, and as for breakfast, it might as well not be there. Bread and jam and cheese and tea basically.

While a lot of the faults are down to the location, so many of them could be solved by better management, very simply. There's no vibrancy at all. I could run it better.

Mostly cartoons

martin_b — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Well, the last day in Brussels, before moving on. I got a visit from another cat as I was packing up. It wanted to go out of the window, and sit on the balcony looking at the world below. Or maybe that was just the cat equivalent of borrowing a cup of sugar and it was just being nosey.

Anyway, I left it happily on the balcony, and went to round off a couple of last bits in Brussels. The main thing was the Comic Museum (Centere Belge de la Bande Desinee): there is a rival one, but I think this is seen as the best.

Once again, it's in an art deco building, not as dramatic as the music museum but still good. There are obviously cartoons everywhere, but it's very vibrant, and there are also some life size figures, which is quite fun.

There are also some little models of scenes from the life of cartoonists/animators. I think they're really well done.

And then there's the decor itself, of course.

Although many bits are obviously in French/Flemish, it's still well worth a visit: the humour and feel of the things comes across well, most of the time.

Brussels is open again! Music, pictures, nuns and stuff

martin_b — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Had a nice continental breakfast with the daughter of the room owner, then set off to see some museums. Most of them are up the top of the hill, next to the Palace. Well, a palace, Belgium has several. I got soaking wet, not the best of days. I started off at the music museum in the Old England building. Here it is again as a reminder...

It's a reasonably well restored building, and apparently took a lot of rebuilding, reconstructing some of the original details. Sadly, the light levels inside don't work too well with my camera: they seem to be kept low to protect the instruments.

But the real star is the museum itself. There are probably 4 floors of different displays and historical instruments, and you get given a set of headphones. As you go round and stand in front of the displays, the headphones play music of the instruments you are looking at.

It's really an amazing place and I spent hours in there. I've never heard music like it before, and they seem to have a truly comprehensive and definitely fascinating collection.
The only room which is light is one in an adjacent linked building, which has some very curious compound instruments.

This place even has the best cup of tea in Brussels as well, in a nice restaurant on the top floor. They don't serve it with milk...and it's so nice you don't need it at all. I suspect from the crowds coming in for lunch that it may serve rather nice food too.

Most of the rest of the daytime was spent in the huge are gallery that's up with the palace. It's spread across 3 buildings, all linked together, and it would have been even bigger but some of it was closed to make a Margritte Museum.
A truly amazing collection, both old art and modern art, and lots of stuff by James Ensor. Ensor was a very odd man who started off drawing perhaps like Walter Sickert or Whistler, and ended up drawing quite quite mad comic art.

After that, it was pretty much time for tea. I walked in the direction of the People's Palace, and found the church of Our Lady (Sablon).

The bit I could see was dramatic, it's an excellent building, but unfortunately half the church was behind boards for some sort of renovation. However, I did meet a very nice elderly nun, who only spoke French but had a nice smile. She was very pleased that I'd asked her whether photos were allowed, which they were. I've never been thanked by a nun before.

After that I found a very nice area with lots of antique shops and bookshops and even stamp dealers (the Belgians do that sort of thing still). I had some mezze in a Lebanese cafe, and saw Brueghel's house in passing.

This was in the church at Kappellemarkt. They had a very different take on death in those days. guess it was just something you had to live with, not try to ignore as we do.

No cats at the B & B tonight.

Brussels is a bit closed

martin_b — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Monday is not an entirely good day to be in Belgium...Belgium closes on Mondays. I'll skip all the places I tried to go to which weren't open.

This was the day I was due to move to a B & B (cos the hostel was full up). I decided to go out to the Atomium, and then walk across to the B & B. I got to Heysel, via the Metro, fairly easily. When I got there though, it was raining about as heavily as it can rain, so I hid in the station for a bit. The famous/tragic stadium was just across the way.

When it stopped a bit, I headed down to the Atomium. It has the quality that it's almost impossible to take a bad picture of it.

As you get closer, it's even possible to do some arty abstract pictures, and the sheer scale of it does get quite impressive. It was refurbished a couple of years back, so it looks especially bright and shiny now.

Inside, it's still fairly space age, and full of...small children, and cute cars! Well, only these few cars. If you can choose your moment to get in the lift to the top when the queue is less than 30 people, go for it! The stairs and escalators inside are atmospheric, and you get snatches of other spheres going up.

The views from the top are pretty good as well: the whole of Brussels is in view. This is the avenue leading down past the royal gardens (Belgium is obsessed with royalty, you'd think they weren't really a democracy yet), where I was going to walk, but it was wet and the queues made me late as well.

So, I took the metro to Rogier, nearer the area I was staying, and walked North for a mile or so to the B & B. The area turned out to be very Moroccan/Arabic, and it must be an excellent place to buy cheap clothes: prices start at 1 Euro, and 10 Euros is a fair way up the scale. I kind of wished I'd left everything at home and just bought on the spot.

The B & B was more a room in someone's house. It belonged to a lady called Nadine, who used to be in advertising or something but now made up market wedding videos. It was certainly an unusual place to stay: the house itself looked narrow and shabby form the outside, and dark and gloomy at first inside, but it soon became clear that it was at one time really high class. Massively high ceilings, (higher ceilings by far than the victorian house I live in) lovely stained glass windows downstairs, ornate plasterwork, lots of light and a sort of salon feel.

Also, a collection of cats and one lively dog. The whole place had a sort of run down/comfortably arty/alternative lifestyle feel. My bedroom had a low bed, a tv which only worked in black and white, huge piles of books, and decor consisting solely of female nudes, both prints of famous works and a large hand drawn piece. There was a very large bathroom, which suffered from a lack of light, ie they weren't any, apart from one little one over the mirror. It also suffered from a lack of soap, although on the other hand there were half a dozen bottles of perfume, so nobody left smelling bad.

On the whole, I liked it.

Anyway, it was early afternoon and the weather cleared, so I walked back to the centre, through a small botanical garden. It used to be a big garden, but the planners of Brussels kept chopping bits off, and chopped it in half with a road as well. You could tell from some of the signs that the park head was pretty pissed off. It was a bit sad: even the botanic collection had been moved somewhere else. It's a shame, because with a little work, it could be something astonishing.

Brussells' planners are not brilliant: the old bits of the city are great, but there are are too many concrete monoliths elsewhere.

The cathedral looks very impressive from the outside: very classic looking. On the inside though, it's just boring and very sterile, I was expecting better.

It does have this cool reliquary though, whcih still has a saints hand in. It's really unusually for even fake relics to survive these days, and I thought this was fascinating.

Back down the hill, near the Grand Place, I went into the clothing and lace museum. It's very quiet and calm, tucked away in a little back street, a nice change from the rest of Brussels.

Blimey, I didn't realise how much I stuffed into this day until I wrote it down...it's like a holiday all to itself.

Next, I did the thing that every visitor to brussels has to do (it's the law)- see the Mannekin Pis. The peeing guy. The comment everyone makes, is "is that it?". The only outstanding thing about it that it is peeing. It's tiny and not attractive otherwise, and a lot of people walk right past it (one of the museums has a video of people walking past it without noticing or saying "no, that can't be it").

It does wonders for the tourist shops, mind! You can't move for lace, chocolate and waffles.

I bought some lace edging for Wendy, then wandered sort of South-West from there.

Every other corner seems to have a stunning church, all of them better than the cathedral, but relatively ignored by tourists. Lots of shops as well; in the area I was in lots of comic shops, record shops and stuff. I ended up eating in a noodle bar close to Place St Catherine, and then wandered towards the Galeries St Hubert so I could see a film.

I found a huge shopping street (Nieuwstraat) on the way, and then an extremely mellow square hidden away, the Place De Martyrs. You can probably figure that name out! A great place just to sit and pass time, all grand but not overbearing white buildings, with a big memorial in the middle. I sat there until it started raining, then hurried to the cinema.

The cinema was excellent: very arthouse. I saw "A guide to recognising your saints", which I don't think has really hit the uk yet. It's very gritty in a lowlife American way, very gripping and in parts very sad. So engrossing and believable I wanted to shout at the screen at one point...I'd recommend it.

And that just leaves the bath episode. Got back to my room, filled the bath. no soap but luckily I had some liquid soap for the hostels. Little light but I moved the table lamps and sort of made do. So, I'm relaxing in the bath...I hear the bedroom door come open. Hmmmm. Burglars? Wind? Neither seemed likely. I got out, dripping wet, put a towel round my waist, carefully didn't electrocute myself on the lamp on the floor, and saw...a cat! A big fluffy tabby cat, which was more startled than I was, and ran under the bed.

I don't know what the best thing to do is in this situation. I jammed the door a couple of inches back open so the cat could get out, and got back in the bath.

When I got out, the cat had gone. It did come back later, introduced itself and marked me as its property. It seemed happy enough after that.

back to Brussels

martin_b — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

When I got back, it was late afternoon/early evening. I wanted to find the puppet theatre, which is supposed to be good, so I went down the Galeries St Hubert and down the backstreets behind it. It's an astonishing area: it makes Las Ramblas look like a quiet cul de sac. Literally every building is a restaurant, all bustling with lights, signs and waiters looking for custom, and I was able to walk along in the rain down this narrow street, sheltering under one awning after another. The alley leading to the puppet theatre is so small that I walked right past it. Eventually I found it: the latest production was Faust, which sounded just right, but sadly it wasn't on the nights I was in Brussels. One of those places to remember to book in advance next time!

I ate in one of the restaurants, which was as adequate as restaurants trying to catch tourists always are, and cheap so I can't complain.

Back at the hostel, I got to have a chat to a new roommate, a guy called Cyber, probably the only Algerian in a wheelchair in Brussels at that particular time. He'd come over for the free music festival that had just finished. It did seem a long way to come for a not exceptionally big music festival, but maybe he was a dj or something, I dunno. He asked whether I was going to go to Algeria: I asked "is it safe?" He went quiet for a second, then started smiling and said "for you, probably not right now!". Ok, I'll give that one a miss then.

Slightly lost in Belgium

martin_b — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Then it got interesting. I got rather cocky and decided to walk back to the train station. It seemed a good idea in theory, I'd noticed all the junctions were signposted on the way to the Field. What I hadn't thought of it that they weren't going to be signposted on the way back. It went fine for a while...but then I got to a junction where I just didn't know.

This was a bit worrying. I formulated a sentence in French and asked an old wrinkly woman which way I needed to go. My confidence took another shake when she said she couldn't understand me! As usual, eventually we figured it out.

So it worked out well really: I even found a big Belgian deli on the way back. All the signs outside were in English, presumably to look up market. In England, we'd probably be putting deli signs in French for the same reason, funny old world. Nice cakes anyway, and peach flavoured Lipton's ice tea, which qualifies as deli food in Belgium. They do like their tea.

I took a wander round BA before my train left. Quite a lot of shops for such a small place, and no chain stores either: lots of independent fashion and the like. No toilets of course, this is Belgium after all. The station toilets were firmly locked.

BA here

martin_b — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The train was fantastic: a two-storey jobby, very flash and modern. Great views from the top floor.

BA is just a small town. On balance, it would have been better not to ask tourist information. Then I would have got off at Waterloo station like the all the other tourists, and it probably would have been obvious where I needed to go. As it was, I was theoretically nearer, but there were no signs or anything.

I asked the station bloke. He looked like nobody had every asked how to get to the nearby most famous battlefield in Europe before. In fairness though, he was really helpful, and I eventually found the right bus stop. The bus driver was actually a man that didn't speak English: I'd kind of got used to absolutely everyone doing so by now. Anyway, eventually, after I'd started to realise just how bad my French was, we came to a mutual understanding that yes, this was the right bus, and yes, he would shout at me when we were there. It worked.

Grand places and more crap stations

martin_b — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Well, I got up late, but this hostel understands the need for a good nights sleep, so breakfast goes on until 10 or so. So I did get some muesli and a pastry.

When I was ready, I walked across the city to the Grand Place. It was a nice scenic walk, via some churches (all with services on, so I didn't get to visit), and other places. This little statue was in a square tucked away behind the beguinage. It was accompanied by a man calling the staff of an old people's home "fascists". I'm not entirely sure why but it did spoil the mood a bit. As I got closer Grand Place itself, it started to get way more touristy.

Grand Place is the sort of place that makes your jaw drop just a little bit. It was the medieval centre of the town, and it's where the town and all its guilds tried to make the most impressive show possible. They succeeded, and it's been there ever since, as I understand it. Unlike some, it didn't get damaged much in the wars, although it did burn down in the 17th Century: they just built it even better.

Pictures are probably best.

It's even better in the flesh. I popped into the tourist information office, and got a taste of the rich depth of Belgian humour. "Hi, do you speak English?" "Yes, do you?"
He did give me directions to Waterloo as well, although with hindsight it might have been better if he hadn't.

Anyway, shrugging off the attentions of a guy trying to sell me a leather jacket, I left the square to head for the central station. On the way, I passed the Galeries St Hubert, which contain lots of tourists and some very posh shops. Oh, and a small cinema that shows 8 different films every day. It's actually twice as big as the picture shows, and very impressive.

The whole route to the station is quite impressive, lots of ornate buildings. It is all a bit touristy though, but you can see why. The Central Station is almost as bad as Brussels Midi: it actually has a brilliant main hall that reminds me of New York's Central Station, but most of the station is actually underneath that. Let's just say that if I wanted to shoot a horror film, the basement floors of Central would do very nicely. Dark corners, shattered concrete, it's the sort of place that makes you feel very alone even in a crowd of people.

My aim was to get to Waterloo, or more exactly Braine L'Alleud. To kill time before the train came, I took a look up the hill. As you go up, towards the royal palace and all the museums, there start to be some great views across the city.

Near the top of the hill, is this restored art deco building, which now houses the music museum (more later). It was the first in a store chain called Old England (which was neither). It's not quite Gaudi but it is pretty.

Brussels, home of the crappest railway stations in the world, and sprouts.

martin_b — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Wouldn't you think that if you were building a gateway station, to welcome people from across Europe into your capital city, you'd make it quite nice...well, you'd be wrong.

Brussels Midi station...it's dark, it's concrete, it has a maze of shops and no architectural value whatsoever. Of all stations, this is the one I most wanted to get out of...and yet, it's so badly designed that even trying to leave is difficult, and trying to leave in a particular direction almost impossible. The signs to whatever you want point (if you are lucky) in a vague direction, and then peter out. If you're lucky, and find your way through the confused foreigners, you might find a map on the wall. Even then it's not simple.

This was also my first encounter with Belgian toilets. I found the map, found a toilet...it was closed: there was an arrow pointing vaguely off to one side, but no real clue as to where the other toilet was. eventually I found one way at the other end of the station...and then like almost every toilet in Belgium, you have to pay. If the staff spent as much time keeping the toilets pristine as they do getting money out of people, I wouldn't mind so much.

Eventually I got out, and started walking to the hostel. It was a dirty, run down boulevard, that had obviously been important once. By this point I was thinking Brussels had as much charm as Salford. If you don't know Salford, it's well worth a visit: the locals are very friendly and it's very much unspoiled by tourists.

As I was walking along, there was some sort of impromptu celebration on the other side of the road: 4 or 5 carloads of young Asian kids (Moroccan?) stopped their cars, started beeping their horns, shouting, dancing, and generally holding up the traffic. The traffic generally wasn't pleased, but they didn't seem to care. I was tempted to take pictures, but then I didn't know what they were celebrating. If it was some sort of terrorist attack on London, say, then it might not have been appreciated. On the other hand, maybe someone had just blown up the station- that cheered me up.

By this time I was beginning to think that Belgium was quite different to what Lonely Planet told me! Maybe the train had gone to Beirut instead? It kind of got worse as I went close to the canal (I guess I should have guessed when it was called the Boulevard d'Abattoir that it might not be the best bit.)

The canal, while not scenic, is at least interesting, and has lots of little wind turbine things on the other bank. I don't know if they were just decorative.

The hostel, "Generation Europe" was just beyond that. It's quite pleasant, clean and up to date, and while the room was quiet the whole place does have a lively atmosphere. My room had 4 bunks, but I was the only one there: an american guy came in later. He seemed to be on some sort of whistle-stop tour, had just arrived in Belgium and was leaving for Amsterdam the day after. I'm not convinced that sort of speed really helps you see much of a country!

Having got settled in, I went for a walk, and some food, in the early evening. The area I was in was part of a suburb called Molenbeek, I think. It was extremely, vibrantly Asian, filled with general shops, takeaways, and lots of clothes shops: from fabrics to asian tailors to sari sellers. Rusholme looks tame by comparison.

Leaving this vibrancy behind for now, I found myself back at the Canal de Charleroi, and crossed over...and at last found the historic Brussels I'd been expecting. I wandered randomly, enjoying the views, and eventually ate in a restaraunt with tables in this square, the Place St Catherine.

That's the church of St. Catherine. I ate in a place called Jacques, which specialised in seafood (I had Wing of Skate and fish soup: not bad, but quite French presentation.) It was run by an odd waiter who I ended up feeling a bit sorry for. He was continually almost running between the restaurant itself and the square, where everyone was sat, across the little road in between. When he got there, he was then trying to deal with about 10 tables, speaking about 4 languages seemingly fluently, and dealing with idiot Brits who didn't even seem to like fish. He gave me sparking water rather than non-sparkling, but it seemed churlish to complain when he was doing all that!

A quick dash through France

martin_b — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We only stopped momentarily in Lille, but I'm still counting it as France! The French countryside up from the channel seemed pretty bland and flat. Lots of well-orchestrated greenery, and no hedges. Not really my cup of tea.

Lille itself, we couldn't see very well from the train, but it didn't look any great shakes.

As we got towards Belgium the scenery did get a bit livelier, but still not exactly dramatic. Anyway, we were soon in Brussels.

Rushing around London...this trips cockup

martin_b — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Getting to London from Stockport was easy enough, with Wendy's help for a lift to Wilmslow. It was an odd route though...I won't put it on the map, but we went Wilmslow-Crewe-Birmingham-Coventry-Rugby-Watford-London. Draw than on a map and see how straight it isn't!

Anyway, I had some time to kill, so I went to the British Library, which is very near the stations, has free lockers for luggage, and a nice cafe.

I had lunch and looked around their exhibition called Sacred, which is really good and shows sacred texts from Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

My locker key had an unusual choice of numbers...was this an omen???

Whether it was or not, it was just after leaving the library and getting to St Pancras station that I realised that my Eurostar train actually left from Waterloo International, which is on the other side of London. AAArgh!

2 tube trains later, I did make the train on time.

Eurostar trains are very very long, and very very empty as far as I can see. No wonder they are broke. They are clean, but feel a bit sterile, all beige and grey, and weird headrests which restrict your view while not being very comfortable.

They are fast however. The channel takes no time at all, and it wasn't long before we reached Lille.