Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Brussels, and what a shocker it was. Bruges was so picturesque and charming, and Brussels… well… isn’t. At least, when we first arrived and walked from the train station to our hotel, my reaction was “hmm, perhaps we should have stayed in Bruges”. Being a big city, there is graffiti everywhere, traffic noise, and hurried people everywhere. A pretty big change after coming from calm and relaxing Bruges. My mood worsened when we rounded the corner to our hotel to find that there was massive street construction underway right in front of it. Ugh.
Our hotel however is very nice, and our room is very large and comfortable (and we were given a room as far away from the construction noise as possible). After spending an hour or two unpacking and settling in, we set out to explore our neighborhood (in a shopping and cafe-filled area known as le Sablon) and found that it was nicer than it looked at first. The large church nearby was under renovation (in a big way, most of it was blocked off with a plywood wall) but we continued to walk around and found a great view over the city. Later at night we walked to both the Manneken Pis (funny little statue, I’ve nicknamed him ‘pee boy’) and Grande Place. The latter quite a few of the historic buildings covered in scaffolding and tarps for renovation work. The Grande Place has one additional eyesore marring it’s historic beauty… a temporary stage has been erected for some Jazz Festival happening here for the next 3 days. Hrmph!
One additional note about Brussels: Know some French (or bring a phrase book). All of the guide books and travel documentaries on the city has said that English is widely spoken here, and it is fine to speak English to everyone you meet. So far we’ve run into several servers, bartenders and shopkeepers (even some of the staff at our hotel) who don’t speak much (if any) English. We’ve found our limited grasp of the French language invaluable here, and without it getting by could be a bigger challenge. Oui!