Quick weekend trip to Brussels
Jun 3rd, 2009 | 11:43 AM
#1
Original Poster
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,049
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Quick weekend trip to Brussels
At the beginning of this year a friend living in Brussels told me that they were moving out of town. A very good offer from Iberia, and I had the perfect excuse to visit them before I had to fly over to Japan to see them again.
I haven´t been to Brussels in around 10 years, so it was a bit of a new thing for me.
I realized that there should be some very good weekend offers in business hotels. I found some good prices at the Marriott and the Crowne Plaza, but NH had a weekend special of 129 euros per weekend ( 1 or 2 people, breakfast included, check-out at 17:00 on sunday). I booked the NH Grand Hotel du Sablon, that was formerly a Jolly hotel. It is really well located, in the antiques shops area, less than 10 minutes walk from the Central Station and less than 15 minutes walk from the Grand Place.
Flight was uneventful, unless you take into account that I managed to get through security my swiss army knife, we had a delay of almost 50 minutes, there was an obnoxious group that was going for a stag party and spent all the time shouting and singing, and by the time we got off the plane it was 23:40 and I was going to miss the last train into town. There was one good thing, I had done my checking online and I had got one of the business class seats assigned to tourist class, so there was plenty of space to relax in the flight. Brussels airport was eerily empty, just the people coming out from our plane and the lights dimmed. There was just two policemen in the security booths, and the whole thing was extremely worrying. Bilbao airport is more alive at midnight than Brussels.
I got a taxi, expensive, but it was either that or getting a night bus to Schumann, and then trying to flag down a taxi in the middle of EU city. I arrived into the hotel shortly after midnight. Checking was quick and I fell into bed straight away with open windows (unbelievable in this town).
I woke up very early because I was planning on going to Bruges and I had to be back in Brussels by 15:00. There is a business center in the hotel with two PC´s and a printer, so I did my check-in, got breakfast ( very yummy, but the coffee was dreadful. Really bad in every place I tried it ) and was at the train station by 8:15. I had bought a week-ender ticket on the web and had the ticket printed out. I paid only 13 euros for the return trip, instead of 28 euros. Got on the 8:30 train, lots of people going to the beach. I arrived into Bruges at 9:30 ... and the Tourist Office was closed, but there were dancers and fire-eaters and jugglers because they were opening the new train station (the same as the old one, only better painted, I think), so I ran away into town from all that cheesy entertainment.
There was a market with awful clothes but great food, and not a single cloud in the sky. I decided to try to climb the Belfroy at the main square, but when I was almost up (near 350 stairs) a woman was stuck in the stairwell ... and I decided that going down would be a really good idea, before I got seriously dizzy. I saw some very cheesy wedding parties, opted not to get into one of the boats that cruise the channels and walked around until I got really upset with the heat (I know, I live in Madrid, but I don´t like the heat) and thought of coming back to Brussels. I bought chocolates at The Chocolate Line ( we have been eating them at the office. They have some really good ones flavoured with Coke and Lavender), grab a prawn baguette at one place called TousParis (very good) and got back to the station. I was back in Brussels by 13:30, and it gave me time to get to the hotel, get changed and relax a bit before meeting my friend at the Horta museum.
They are doing some renovation works at the museum, so there are rooms closed down. We had to leave the handbag and A´s coat at the entrance, and we also had to queue a bit to get in. It was lovely, specially with the garden full of flowers. The visit is really short, so afterwards we walked down to the Sablon square and sat at A´s favourite spot to have some beers. We talked a lot about this and that, mostly about work and friends and family ...
We looked for a place to have dinner. The only requirement is that neither of us really likes mussels, so we ran away from that dreadful Rue des Bouchers and ended up in the St Catherine area. It was the Jazz Marathon weekend, so there was music all over the place. We had dinner at one of the squares, coquille Saint-Jacques, hake in a lobster sauce and dame blanche. Food wasn´t outstanding but it wasn´t bad, either. Then we went back to the Grand Place. A´s wife, had managed to get a table there to sit down and listen to the concert. There were two other couples, and we talked and had another couple of beers while waiting for the sun to go down. The concert was nice, not very jazzy, but as the night was so balmy it was really lovely.
On Sunday A. was going to pick me up at 10 in the morning. There was more people at the breakfast than the day before. It was a great buffet, I must say, everything from scrambled eggs to waffles or apple tart. I checked out, walked around the antiques stalls set up in the Sablon and then went with A. to meet the kids and bring them their presents. We went back into the Marolles area and then they dropped me in the town centre.
My plane back home was leaving Brussels at 19:15, so I had time until I had to get to the airport. I walked around a bit, saw a queue at Filip Martin ( a chinese falsifier of belgian chocolates ), took some pictures and decided to have lunch at Brasserie Lola. Pretty good meal, except the coffee. Still dreadful. But the food was outstanding. A great asparagus salad, chicken tajine and panacotta with strawberries. With wine, water and coffee, it was just 60 euros and I thought it was a very good price. I bought more chocolates and macaroons at Pierre Marcolini to bring home to Bilbao, and then decided to go early to the airport. BTW, the Pierre Marcolini shop is amazing, I kept drooling and drooling.
Once at the train station I realized that the automatic machines only accept credit cards with the chip (I´ll get my new one in July), so I had to queue to buy the ticket. Trip was smooth and very easy.
I bought a few magazines before passing the security control. Security was long, boring and made the crowd in Madrid looked as if they were extremely professional. It took around 45 minutes to get through, and once again I passed the swiss army knife and a couple of cream tubes that I had forgotten inside the suitcase. Duty free was nothing to write home about, except that a bottle of water costed 3,20 euros ... in the plane it was only 2 euros.
Boarding was a nightmare, people pushing and complaining and hitting kids because their mums were trying to get the first to the queue ( kids have priority boarding in Iberia flights). We left with only 15 minutes delay, and my neighbour was an old spanish man who had moved the armrest because he was too fat. I put it down and then he kept banging on my arm and trying to take away my headspeakers to tell me to swap places with his wife, an equally obnoxious woman. I ended up growling, but to him it was the same. The high point was when he explained how he had pushed away one of the little kids because he was going to board before him and what was their mother thinking of.
It was so good to land in Madrid, walk across the airport and sit down in the metro into town ...
So, it was really nice to meet again my friends, weather was fantastic, food was good, hotel was a great price and the jazz marathon was a nice plus. But I found Brussels and Bruges expensive, the belgian people weren´t so nice ( I didn´t realize I was speaking french at a couple of places in Brussels, and got told off. Everything was lovely once I spoke in english or german), and I don´t think that I will have more excuses to visit. It´s not in my "have to get back soon" list, certainly. And I had a great time, but it doesn´t really reach me as other places (Paris, London, Berlin, Lisbon, Seville ...).
Pics and websites later on.
Cova
I haven´t been to Brussels in around 10 years, so it was a bit of a new thing for me.
I realized that there should be some very good weekend offers in business hotels. I found some good prices at the Marriott and the Crowne Plaza, but NH had a weekend special of 129 euros per weekend ( 1 or 2 people, breakfast included, check-out at 17:00 on sunday). I booked the NH Grand Hotel du Sablon, that was formerly a Jolly hotel. It is really well located, in the antiques shops area, less than 10 minutes walk from the Central Station and less than 15 minutes walk from the Grand Place.
Flight was uneventful, unless you take into account that I managed to get through security my swiss army knife, we had a delay of almost 50 minutes, there was an obnoxious group that was going for a stag party and spent all the time shouting and singing, and by the time we got off the plane it was 23:40 and I was going to miss the last train into town. There was one good thing, I had done my checking online and I had got one of the business class seats assigned to tourist class, so there was plenty of space to relax in the flight. Brussels airport was eerily empty, just the people coming out from our plane and the lights dimmed. There was just two policemen in the security booths, and the whole thing was extremely worrying. Bilbao airport is more alive at midnight than Brussels.
I got a taxi, expensive, but it was either that or getting a night bus to Schumann, and then trying to flag down a taxi in the middle of EU city. I arrived into the hotel shortly after midnight. Checking was quick and I fell into bed straight away with open windows (unbelievable in this town).
I woke up very early because I was planning on going to Bruges and I had to be back in Brussels by 15:00. There is a business center in the hotel with two PC´s and a printer, so I did my check-in, got breakfast ( very yummy, but the coffee was dreadful. Really bad in every place I tried it ) and was at the train station by 8:15. I had bought a week-ender ticket on the web and had the ticket printed out. I paid only 13 euros for the return trip, instead of 28 euros. Got on the 8:30 train, lots of people going to the beach. I arrived into Bruges at 9:30 ... and the Tourist Office was closed, but there were dancers and fire-eaters and jugglers because they were opening the new train station (the same as the old one, only better painted, I think), so I ran away into town from all that cheesy entertainment.
There was a market with awful clothes but great food, and not a single cloud in the sky. I decided to try to climb the Belfroy at the main square, but when I was almost up (near 350 stairs) a woman was stuck in the stairwell ... and I decided that going down would be a really good idea, before I got seriously dizzy. I saw some very cheesy wedding parties, opted not to get into one of the boats that cruise the channels and walked around until I got really upset with the heat (I know, I live in Madrid, but I don´t like the heat) and thought of coming back to Brussels. I bought chocolates at The Chocolate Line ( we have been eating them at the office. They have some really good ones flavoured with Coke and Lavender), grab a prawn baguette at one place called TousParis (very good) and got back to the station. I was back in Brussels by 13:30, and it gave me time to get to the hotel, get changed and relax a bit before meeting my friend at the Horta museum.
They are doing some renovation works at the museum, so there are rooms closed down. We had to leave the handbag and A´s coat at the entrance, and we also had to queue a bit to get in. It was lovely, specially with the garden full of flowers. The visit is really short, so afterwards we walked down to the Sablon square and sat at A´s favourite spot to have some beers. We talked a lot about this and that, mostly about work and friends and family ...
We looked for a place to have dinner. The only requirement is that neither of us really likes mussels, so we ran away from that dreadful Rue des Bouchers and ended up in the St Catherine area. It was the Jazz Marathon weekend, so there was music all over the place. We had dinner at one of the squares, coquille Saint-Jacques, hake in a lobster sauce and dame blanche. Food wasn´t outstanding but it wasn´t bad, either. Then we went back to the Grand Place. A´s wife, had managed to get a table there to sit down and listen to the concert. There were two other couples, and we talked and had another couple of beers while waiting for the sun to go down. The concert was nice, not very jazzy, but as the night was so balmy it was really lovely.
On Sunday A. was going to pick me up at 10 in the morning. There was more people at the breakfast than the day before. It was a great buffet, I must say, everything from scrambled eggs to waffles or apple tart. I checked out, walked around the antiques stalls set up in the Sablon and then went with A. to meet the kids and bring them their presents. We went back into the Marolles area and then they dropped me in the town centre.
My plane back home was leaving Brussels at 19:15, so I had time until I had to get to the airport. I walked around a bit, saw a queue at Filip Martin ( a chinese falsifier of belgian chocolates ), took some pictures and decided to have lunch at Brasserie Lola. Pretty good meal, except the coffee. Still dreadful. But the food was outstanding. A great asparagus salad, chicken tajine and panacotta with strawberries. With wine, water and coffee, it was just 60 euros and I thought it was a very good price. I bought more chocolates and macaroons at Pierre Marcolini to bring home to Bilbao, and then decided to go early to the airport. BTW, the Pierre Marcolini shop is amazing, I kept drooling and drooling.
Once at the train station I realized that the automatic machines only accept credit cards with the chip (I´ll get my new one in July), so I had to queue to buy the ticket. Trip was smooth and very easy.
I bought a few magazines before passing the security control. Security was long, boring and made the crowd in Madrid looked as if they were extremely professional. It took around 45 minutes to get through, and once again I passed the swiss army knife and a couple of cream tubes that I had forgotten inside the suitcase. Duty free was nothing to write home about, except that a bottle of water costed 3,20 euros ... in the plane it was only 2 euros.
Boarding was a nightmare, people pushing and complaining and hitting kids because their mums were trying to get the first to the queue ( kids have priority boarding in Iberia flights). We left with only 15 minutes delay, and my neighbour was an old spanish man who had moved the armrest because he was too fat. I put it down and then he kept banging on my arm and trying to take away my headspeakers to tell me to swap places with his wife, an equally obnoxious woman. I ended up growling, but to him it was the same. The high point was when he explained how he had pushed away one of the little kids because he was going to board before him and what was their mother thinking of.
It was so good to land in Madrid, walk across the airport and sit down in the metro into town ...
So, it was really nice to meet again my friends, weather was fantastic, food was good, hotel was a great price and the jazz marathon was a nice plus. But I found Brussels and Bruges expensive, the belgian people weren´t so nice ( I didn´t realize I was speaking french at a couple of places in Brussels, and got told off. Everything was lovely once I spoke in english or german), and I don´t think that I will have more excuses to visit. It´s not in my "have to get back soon" list, certainly. And I had a great time, but it doesn´t really reach me as other places (Paris, London, Berlin, Lisbon, Seville ...).
Pics and websites later on.
Cova
Jun 3rd, 2009 | 11:51 AM
#2
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 27,009
Likes: 0
Hi cova, thanks for the report.
<i>I decided to try to climb the Belfroy at the main square, but when I was almost up (near 350 stairs) a woman was stuck in the stairwell </i>
Reminds me of one scene in the movie, In Bruges!
I was in Brussels several years ago during the Jazz festival; that was lots of fun.
I like the location of the NH Sablon hotel. Had thought about eating at Lola last time, but the menu prices scared me off!
Too bad about the renovation at Musee Horta and room closure! You'll just have to go back again!
<i>I decided to try to climb the Belfroy at the main square, but when I was almost up (near 350 stairs) a woman was stuck in the stairwell </i>
Reminds me of one scene in the movie, In Bruges!
I was in Brussels several years ago during the Jazz festival; that was lots of fun.
I like the location of the NH Sablon hotel. Had thought about eating at Lola last time, but the menu prices scared me off!
Too bad about the renovation at Musee Horta and room closure! You'll just have to go back again!
Jun 3rd, 2009 | 01:52 PM
#4
Original Poster
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,049
Likes: 0
YK, it was certainly out of a movie 
I decided that it was a sign from heaven that I should get down instead of trying to continue climbing once she was calmed down.
I had already been to the Horta museum years ago. The renovations are supposed to be done on the kitchen and the servant´s stair, so it would be interesting to see it once they are finished. All this Art Nouveau buildings are really remarkable.
The Lola´s lunch was balanced with the baguette on Saturday, only 3 euros and a really good one. It was a good place to grab a sandwich. They had lots of fillings, salads, meats, cheeses and you simply ordered them and the kind of bread. It is called TousParis or ToutParis. In every trip I usually end up looking for one special restaurant. The two more remarkables have been in DiVino in Segovia ( I managed not to have the roast piglet ) and Altair in Merida (this one was absolutely amazing, including the wines). Strangely enough, as a woman alone I find it easier to go to these expensive places than to a fast-food place or a very touristic place.
Robyn, I was afraid of coming across as not very happy with the city. I had a great time with my friends and there are really interesting places, but ... I find it that there is something missing.
OK, pics next :
http://tinyurl.com/ptcpb6
http://tinyurl.com/q282dp
Bye, Cova
I decided that it was a sign from heaven that I should get down instead of trying to continue climbing once she was calmed down.I had already been to the Horta museum years ago. The renovations are supposed to be done on the kitchen and the servant´s stair, so it would be interesting to see it once they are finished. All this Art Nouveau buildings are really remarkable.
The Lola´s lunch was balanced with the baguette on Saturday, only 3 euros and a really good one. It was a good place to grab a sandwich. They had lots of fillings, salads, meats, cheeses and you simply ordered them and the kind of bread. It is called TousParis or ToutParis. In every trip I usually end up looking for one special restaurant. The two more remarkables have been in DiVino in Segovia ( I managed not to have the roast piglet ) and Altair in Merida (this one was absolutely amazing, including the wines). Strangely enough, as a woman alone I find it easier to go to these expensive places than to a fast-food place or a very touristic place.
Robyn, I was afraid of coming across as not very happy with the city. I had a great time with my friends and there are really interesting places, but ... I find it that there is something missing.
OK, pics next :
http://tinyurl.com/ptcpb6
http://tinyurl.com/q282dp
Bye, Cova
Jun 5th, 2009 | 07:18 AM
#6
Original Poster
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,049
Likes: 0
Hi yk,
weather was really great, I was lucky.
It seems that the kitchen wasn´t being shown before. What´s being done is explained in the website
http://www.hortamuseum.be
Bye, Cova
weather was really great, I was lucky.
It seems that the kitchen wasn´t being shown before. What´s being done is explained in the website
http://www.hortamuseum.be
Bye, Cova
