Brussels, Belgium

Posted 11.April, back dated to be in chronological order.

I'm so far behind on my blog posting with Paris, that I thought maybe I should play a catch up game and post some of the recentl pictures and stories before I forget about them.

Through our usual sense of planning, we wound up further out than we'd planned from Paris. Our GPS puck was broken, so we were trying to find LPG on rural roads... and well, instead of driving 14 km to a campground, we drove 162km to Peronne. Interestingly enough, the surrounding area is the location of the WWI battelfields - some of the first trench war fare.

Sadly, Paris left all of us very sick and run down. We spent virtually a full four days at the campground, doing nothing but trying to find our energy. Besides, it was raining... not much fun to be sick and out in the rain too.

By the time we got the energy up to move on (still no GPS puck), we realized that we were really far East in France and there really wasn't much more that we wanted to do. Why not? Let's go on to Belgium.

Statue welcoming visitors to Belgium

Goal: Visit Brussels
GPS of our campsite (inside the campsite): 50.76081N 4.54751E
Campsite Name: Camping Druivenland (in Overijse)

• Very friendly owners - super helpful and one of the warmest greetings we've received at a campground trip to date. The site has been in the family for 3 generations now!
• 16 amp electricity
• Some of the touring pitches have water and grey water drainage
• Large field for tourers - difficult to access for units over 10m (we are 10.5... had to drive down to the dump station to turn around, then back up the hill to make a very tight turn onto the access road for the tourist field. They were kind and allowed us to leave through the side gate, which is much easier). Potential for soggy ground in the rainy season - we parked on the access road as the ground was quite wet.
• Site has no interent access
• Check prices carefully - we were charged full rate (+kids) simply because we arrived Easter Sunday. There were no other tourers on the premises... and we didn't get a discount for a 7-day stay (we stayed 8) even though it was posted on the door.
• Local bus service is available, but the bus runs only once an hour weekdays and once every two hours on weekends. Bus drops you at the entrance to the metro.

30.Mar -Sunday - we tried to venture in to town. Made it to the metro by about 12 and there was a massive flea market in process under the ring road overpass. Dan suggested stopping and exploring and I reluctantly agreed (I had wanted to go to the "big" market in Brussels proper). If memory serves me correctly, Dan had to virtually drag me away. It was so much fun! Our only mistake was not grabbing a waffle from the waffle van...there was no other food and the surrounding area didn't seem to have any restuarants.

Got off the bus at Overijse proper and popped in to Tavern de Met. Very much worth the stop - we ate well and left happy. In fact, we ate there a total of 3 times during our 8 night stay in town! Loved the atmosphere and the food was really good.

The Met - atmosphere.


The Met - food that tastes as good as it looks.

31.Mar-5.Apr
We were still recovering from Paris and very low energy so weren't as productive and busy as normal. And, we had several chores (not to mention schoolwork) that required immediate attention (for example, fixing the GPS puck as Autoroute doesn't seem to be available in Brussels).

We did a lot of wandering and gaping at buildings. Some of these buildings it seems were built to compete with the building next door in terms of decorative detail. Getting around the city was easy with the group day pass for 10 EURO (valid for up to 5 people). We had one frustrating afternoon looking for Internet access and found a free public hotspot at the tourist office! Not only that, but the staff were super helpful and the exhibits inside kept the girls busy for half an hour while we took care of some online business.

Brussels is the capital city of the EU so I was initially surprised at how dirty it seemed. The subways, streets, sidewalks are pretty disgusting and there's tons of graffiti everywhere. Everywhere we went, we saw beggers - particularly women with small children, sitting at the entrance to the subway stations. It was a little depressing, to be honest. When you think about touring Washington D.C. though, I think our capital city is probably not much cleaner - certainly has some areas you would avoid at night.

Favorite Outings:

Cantillon Brewery - Found this the second time we went looking for it.The entrance is quite unimposing and in a neighborhood that we didn't feel entirely comfortable in. Very fascinating tour and well worth the time. Cantillon is still family run and is the only brewery that still uses spontaneous fermentation (open air vents in the ceiling).

Atomium- Sadly, I forgot the camera. We bought in to this tourist trap from the '50's and had fun with it. Shaped like an iron atom, magnified some 300 billion times, visitors experience an elevator ride to the top (some 80m in a matter of seconds). Three of the four sections are open for examination and it was a little like walking back in time with the oversized posters from the 1958 World's Fair along with a furniture exhibit from that era. It was a little expensive, but like I said, a relatively fun experience.

Wandering the Grand Place - the pictures don't do it justice. Even in the cool early spring air, people were out, enjoying the sidewalk seating at the cafes. About every other store window was a chocolatier. Yum! We found the budget way to experience gourmet Belgian chocolates was to buy the easter candy at 50% off. Yummmmmy!

One view of Grande Place.

Looking down a side street.

One of many chocolatiers.