Destination : Brugge to Brussels!
Monday (17th April), Steve and I grabbed a local train to relocate ourselves from Brugge to Brussels. Quite frankly, I was glad to see the back of Brugge and start a fresh after my horrendous run.... or runs.. quite literally!
Moving between Brugge and Brussels is really a no brainer and in just under an hour we were there.... As usual, it was the same story in every city we've arrived at...we ALWAYS seem to go in the wrong direction first (dragging our luggage behind us), so a massive block and then finally end up back on course only to realise that if we had gone the opposite direction we would have been at our hotel in about 2 mins flat... but who's counting ;p
Our hotel, Hotel Madeline was located at Rue De La Montagne or Bergstraat.... in a nice square called " Marche Aux Herbes" or "Grasmarkt". Right near by was the Hotel Ibis, a supreme chocolate shop and lovely choice of shops.. both food and fashion. On arrival at our hotel... we were informed that we had arrived too early for check in, still the hotel was kind enough to hold our luggage while we wandered around town for about an hour wasting time until our room was ready.
Thoroughly hungry the first thing Steve and I did was look for food and we found a kind of salad bar in the square. I to be honest wasn't feeling that hungry.. but after hardly eating for two days I figured I should at least give it a try. Steve and I picked up ourselves a couple of salads and sat down to waste some time and perhaps try and figure out what there was to do in Brussels... We then wandered around town a little through the Grand Place or "Grote Markt" and to see what the city had to offer... What I did find interesting on our exploration was that Brussels as a city operates in two languages. Dutch & French. Everywhere you go all the streets and all the shops and places are named in both languages... So how do you decide which one to use? What we did notice that all the shop attendants, supermarkets, post offices , hotel staff all predominantly used French. Still, out on the street your would hear a mixture of both languages...and the coolest thing was that a good proportion of the locals also spoke English.
Anyway, after wandering around for an hour.. we headed back to our hotel to finally check in. I was glad to get into our room because I was still feeling ordinary from Brugge and welcomed the opportunity to relax for the rest of the afternoon. Later on, after our afternoon rest we wandered out in search of some dinner and after finding some ventured back to the hotel to try and get a good night's rest...and I hoped that I would feel better the next day so we could explore Brussels a little more thorougly!
And on that note.... Bonn Nuit, Goedenacht, or Goodnight!
Moving between Brugge and Brussels is really a no brainer and in just under an hour we were there.... As usual, it was the same story in every city we've arrived at...we ALWAYS seem to go in the wrong direction first (dragging our luggage behind us), so a massive block and then finally end up back on course only to realise that if we had gone the opposite direction we would have been at our hotel in about 2 mins flat... but who's counting ;p
Our hotel, Hotel Madeline was located at Rue De La Montagne or Bergstraat.... in a nice square called " Marche Aux Herbes" or "Grasmarkt". Right near by was the Hotel Ibis, a supreme chocolate shop and lovely choice of shops.. both food and fashion. On arrival at our hotel... we were informed that we had arrived too early for check in, still the hotel was kind enough to hold our luggage while we wandered around town for about an hour wasting time until our room was ready.
Thoroughly hungry the first thing Steve and I did was look for food and we found a kind of salad bar in the square. I to be honest wasn't feeling that hungry.. but after hardly eating for two days I figured I should at least give it a try. Steve and I picked up ourselves a couple of salads and sat down to waste some time and perhaps try and figure out what there was to do in Brussels... We then wandered around town a little through the Grand Place or "Grote Markt" and to see what the city had to offer... What I did find interesting on our exploration was that Brussels as a city operates in two languages. Dutch & French. Everywhere you go all the streets and all the shops and places are named in both languages... So how do you decide which one to use? What we did notice that all the shop attendants, supermarkets, post offices , hotel staff all predominantly used French. Still, out on the street your would hear a mixture of both languages...and the coolest thing was that a good proportion of the locals also spoke English.
Anyway, after wandering around for an hour.. we headed back to our hotel to finally check in. I was glad to get into our room because I was still feeling ordinary from Brugge and welcomed the opportunity to relax for the rest of the afternoon. Later on, after our afternoon rest we wandered out in search of some dinner and after finding some ventured back to the hotel to try and get a good night's rest...and I hoped that I would feel better the next day so we could explore Brussels a little more thorougly!
And on that note.... Bonn Nuit, Goedenacht, or Goodnight!
