Brussels Day 2

Elselien and me just ripping up the town!

That rest didn’t last long though! Bright and early the next morning we had breakfast at the hostel and hit the road! We bought a group ticket for the tram all day so that we wouldn’t completely wear out our feet the first day. This was our lazy day, as we called it. We started out at the big flea market at Place du Jea de Balle. I bought a cute pair of heels at a store near the market for a fantastic price (not to brag about prices, but I kind bargained my way into a great deal and I’m pretty proud!), but I really wish I could have taken home some of the paintings, antique furniture, vintage clothing, books, etc. that was available at the market. If you think an American flea market is great, you should see a European one! Our antiques just can’t possibly even touch theirs! Oh well, a pair of new, cute, leather heels will have to do.

Then we followed the path up adorable, winding streets to the Palais du Justice, the Bridgettines, la chapelle, Sablon (a church with another great market place where I bought some lovely silk bags), the Beaux Arts and eventually the Elselien and I split off to the Rene Magritte museum. Of course, “ceci n’est pas une pipe” is not on display there, but there were plenty of others to see. Not to be nerdy, but I sure wish I had my theory notes with me while I was there! There was an entire floor about his word-art and I would have loved to discuss some object-sign business while I was there. Of course, poor Elselien would have had to listen to me going all art theory on her, but Amber would have been so proud! Haha. After that lovely museum, we tried our first Belgian waffles! YUM! They weren’t like the “Belgian waffles” that we make in America though, they are much sweeter. We had ours without any toppings at all and they were plenty sweet. We met up with Vincent and Katrin again to tour the Chocolate Museum, but unfortunately, and without notice, they scheduled a group tour and therefore wouldn’t give us a tour because they were full. I really wish they had posted notice earlier that they were closing early. We could have made other chocolate tour plans. Then thru indecisiveness and faulty plans, we ended up not getting to tour a chocolate museum at all. Bummer. Next time I’m in Brussels, I guess. We did however get to visit the Atomium (or as we call it, Atom thing). It’s the huge atom shaped building thing that was built for a world’s fair. We didn’t go to the top because it didn’t really seem that exciting, but we did visit it. For our final activity of the day, we visited the European Commission (which is a total snoozefest of architecture) and then a Brussels version of Arc de Triomphe. Then it was back to the hostel to rest our feet.

Finally to start posting about my trip!

The short of it: one week around Belgium and then two weeks at a watercolor painting course in Southern France. The long of it: I first traveled up to Spokane the night before my flight and then caught a bright and early flight out of there. I then flew from Spokane to Phoenix, Phoenix to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to Brussels. I nearly missed the plane from Frankfurt to Brussels because of that bloody airport. Seriously, take note. Do not get a short connection in Frankfurt. The transfer between the two terminals is total murder and you have to go thru security, passport control, customs and the whole nine yards at each end of it. They only gave me about 45 minutes between flights and that was a disaster. I ran through all parts of that airport and arrived, completely out of breath, at my plane just as they were closing the gate. Yikes! That was a close one! Thank goodness I caught that. After three other flights, I really did not want to miss the last leg of the trip. Then by train from the Brussels airport to the Brussels North train station to meet my friend Elselien. Quite a long day, if you ask me….but you know me, I didn’t stop there!

We checked into the Van Gogh hostel in Brussels in the afternoon and met up with Vincent and his friend Katrin. We then headed to the main station to purchase my ticket for the trip down from Antwerp to my painting class in Gramat, France. We also explored the downtown area including the main squares, grand market place and Manneken Pis which is the original sculpture of a little boy peeing in a fountain and it’s become rather a symbol of Belgium. Eventually, after about 30 hours of traveling, I crashed into bed at the hostel.