For a short weekend trip to get out of London, Brussels is a perfect place – easy to get to, small enough for an extended weekend, english friendly.

How I left it

I was in Brussels briefly 3 years ago to meet old friend from one of the diving trips. You can read it here : Through the snow dust I see…I didn’t have a lot of sleep on the nights leading to the previous trip so it was a bit of a hazy trip. But Bert and Annake took well care of me.

This time round there was an opportunity for me to really get lost and really walk around the city, with my brain and conscience intact. It took just over 3 hours via Eurostar and we arrived at Brussels Midi Station. It was a nice sunny day prefect for a man with a camera to explore the city.

There are something nice about european cities that London doesn’t have, sunshine being one of many things. As London’s skyline evolved in the past three to four years together with multi-national and multi-cultural of the people who live there, it has become more and more like a metropolis, while other cities on the continent still have the village feel to them. Don’t get me wrong, that’s why London is nice and unique to the other place. But like all the good things, sometimes it’s too much and you need a little break in order to appreciate it again.

A skyline of Belgium from Palace of Justice.

Royal Palace of Brussels

The Galeries Royales Saint-Huber

Grote Markt

Brussels is full of Neoclassical monuments, squares and boulevards. On top of that, there are quirky buildings like this ex-department store turn museum from the Art deco era.

We decided to go to Ghent on the second day. You have to take a 20-40 minutes train ride from Brussels Midi to Sint-Pieters which was straight forward. The station is just outside town but it is just a short tram ride into the city.