Belgium Trip

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a nice time at Easter and didn't scoff too many Easter eggs. I usually like the Easter weekend because it cuts down two of my working weeks to four-day weeks! I had a good Easter break different from the norm, hubby and I went off to explore three cities in Belgium and we had a really nice time.

We arrived in Brussels on Friday and walked around a bit before going off to find our hotel. Unfortunately we didn't really get to explore it much because it was snowing most of Friday. It's quite a big city, very similar to London, and was quite easy to navigate around. We did notice that there were a lot less CCTV cameras in the Metro and the city centres than you would find in the UK. The people we met were quite nice and friendly. Initially, I had been worried about how we would get on since neither of us speaks French or Dutch, but it turned out most people also speak English there too, if you ask politely. When we first arrived, a man came up to meet us and said something in Dutch. Hubby and I shook our heads, then he spoke some rapid French, and we still shook our heads. Finally he spoke to us in English and then we could have a conversation! Experiencing that makes me want to rekindle my desire to learn a new language though! It would have been lovely to understand what people around us were saying. Maybe that should be on my to-do list for the later part of the year.

On Saturday we took the train for a day return trip to Brugge, which is a lovely tourist town just about an hour from Brussels. I preferred Brugge to Brussels, because it had a nice small town feel to it and there were more interesting things to see and do. It has a canal going through the main streets, and we went on a boat trip on it. There was also a bus tour and a horse-drawn carriage trip around the city, but hubby and I decided to walk around instead as advised by our guidebook. We discovered lots of interesting independent shops with the things that Belgium is known for: beer, lace shops, antique outlets and of course, not forgetting the famous Belgian chocolate shops. There were huge Easter eggs in the chocolate shops, all looking so tempting. I could stay in the chocolate shops for ages. Eventually when we got tired of walking around, we went to have a meal and chilled out for a bit before we continued our exploring. In the evening, we hopped on the train and headed back to Brussels. For dinner I tried the local dish "Mussels in Brussels" which is mussels cooked in a white wine and garlic sauce served in a huge pot with fries. It was different, but I enjoyed it, well I love seafood.

On Sunday morning, we took another train to Antwerp and that was nice too. It's also a big city with it's own Metro system and lots of interesting architecture from previous centuries. We explored the city centre as much as we could, walking around, mingling with lots of other tourists, taking photographs and noting down all the places of interest in our tourist guide. Our travel guide had said that it would not be possible to see all that Antwerp has to offer in one day though. And it was true because we wanted to go to the zoo and I wanted to see the fashion museum but we didn't have enough time. Before we left though, we got some souvenirs (Belgian chocolates!) from the shops to bring back home, and we had dinner, finished off perfectly with tasty Belgian waffles and ice cream! On Monday we had a little time to see Brussels before heading back to England. It was a short trip but it was fun and I would love to visit Belgium again in the not so distant future. For now though, I'm back in the UK, back to the real world – of more work and less fun, lol. I'm already looking forward to my next trip.
Here are a few photos from the trip:

I'm celebrating today: it's my mum's birthday and I just want to thank God for keeping her alive to see another year. The past year came up with unexpected things, but I'm just grateful that she is alive. I spoke to her this morning and she was really joyful too. I know she will live for many many more years... Amen. I'm rounding off my gist at this point; hope you have a lovely weekend!