We had no idea where to start. Around the area of the railway station, and our hotel, it's rather bleak. We got a tourist map at the railway station and headed to where we were advised. The walk there was not through the best part of town. Around 40 minutes later we knew we were in a better location, having found a Marriot hotel with a McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Dominos all right outside. We spent some time finding the tourist bus so we could have a guided tour around the city.
The bus ride also started out a bit confusing, as they took our money and hoofed it across town to meet up with another bus on which we could start our tour properly. By now we weren't too impressed with Brussels, and first impressions do count.
Where we swapped buses, there was a protest happening as part of the "ASEM8 - BRUSSELS 2010" event. We're still not sure what that is. Not a large number of protesters were there, but the police were equipped with riot gear and barrocades. Actually on the rest of our city tour there were police everywhere. Roadblocks, cars, vans, motorcycles, helicopters, you name it the police had it in large numbers.
Once on the tour, it was very interesting. The parts of the city we toured did not seem overly easy to tour on foot. Large wide roads, big boulevards, large buildings, and large parks everywhere. Mostly, a lot of modern buildings making up the Euro parliament, all very clean, but sympathetic to the older architectures. Very impressive.
The bus then headed out of the city and suddenly we arrived at the Atomium. A relic of Expo '58, we had never even heard of it but as soon as we saw it wanted to hop off and go inside. So we did! There is a lift that takes visitors to the top sphere, and from there the view is quite amazing looking over the old Expo '58 site. There are also escalators, and in some cases long stairways, to the other spheres. It is very large and each sphere has three floors inside. Both inside and out, this is spotless clean as if it were built yesterday. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring this.
Next we continued on the guided tour, and hopped off just past where we started. From here Helen headed us towards the more central part of old Brussels. This is beautiful, with old buildings and also is a tourist trap.
As you all know, we love our food. On previous travels, we failed to find Mississipi Mudcake in Mississipi, and we failed to find Dundee cake in Dundee, and Scones in Scone. But here in Belgium we found Belgiun chocolates everywhere, and Belgiun waffles, and Belgiun Beers. We sampled all of them and weren't disappointed. Brussels is a great place to eat and drink! The bar we sat in to try our beers was mostly full of local folk and not expensive. A few beers later and we were ready for bed. We walked back to our hotel, only getting vaguely lost on the way home. A good nights sleep is required as tomorrow we get the rental car.
(Written by Mike, posted by Helen)
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