Busy Brussels

Being the capital city of the EU, good beer, chocolate, and waffles are definitely enough to make this city worth a stop on your itinerary. When I was booking our trip to Germany and Switzerland, I originally looked at flying into Amsterdam because of their cheaper fares. Then I saw a really good deal for round trip in and out of Brussels. Being a few hours drive from Germany, I am not familiar with many people I know who have been there. It was just enough to be mysterious for me.

I decided the best way to take Brussels in would be to begin the road trip first right after we picked up our rental car from the airport in Brussels and end in Brussels. I had a decent list of things I really wanted to do there. I read all about driving warnings for the city that said to really watch your surroundings because it is so busy. Nothing I read prepared me for how busy it was.

After we landed in Brussels, I didn’t particularly feel welcome in that airport but right away I appreciated that there were waffles in their vending machines around the airport. We waited for our bag for about 20 minutes before we realized it just wasn’t coming. We talked to the desk that handles pretty much all of the airlines when there is lost luggage. The lady who helped us was nice and helpful at first. She said if it showed back up that day, they would give us a call. I said we were going to be in Germany that night. We accepted what it was and picked up our rental car. The guy at the desk was very nice but the rental car ended up being eight times what we were quoted just to add insurance (being in a foreign country this is a must), and a GPS. We tried to go with one of the smallest and cheapest options knowing that Europe has some very narrow streets. The gentleman that assisted us at the counter also didn’t tell us about some additional charges up front. We paid for the car and immediately felt the hit to the travel budget.

Once we found the car in the parking garage, we eventually found our way out through the tight spaces. We got on the road towards Germany. Overall the interactions we had before we left Belgium had been pleasant and we were looking forward to returning. It was very green there. Landing in Brussels had resembled landing in London, or Colorado too for the one or two weeks in the spring when everything is green here except for the patches of land that are clearly farm lots. It is very similar looking.

Over the course of the next week, our dealings with the employees at the Brussels airport lost baggage department started to deteriorate as they couldn’t understand why I was upset with them for handing my bag to a company that did not have any contact information. When they called the day we landed to tell us the man who picked up our bag by mistake had returned ours and picked up his, they advised us that we would have the bag the next day as they were flying it into Germany and going to deliver it to us. Not hearing any other updates, we had spent that whole day waiting for the bag to show up rather than being able to do anything because they needed us to sign for it. When I would call to check on the status, they would tell me it was out of their hands and with a German company. I asked for any information on the Germany company to find out where it was. The bag never showed up. They were losing patience with me because they couldn’t give me any tracking information at all. The next day I called them again but still they did not have information for me and the lady in Brussels ended up yelling at me and talking to me like I was stupid because I tried to get tracking information that they now had but since we never got a claim number, we couldn’t access the tracking. Brussels was looking so much less appealing because all of my interactions were with rude and careless people.

We spent our entire vacation attempting to track a bag that we were actually ready to write off but I couldn’t update our hotel addresses with them because I didn’t have anyone to contact because the people in Brussels told me they didn’t actually have contact information in Germany. So, when we finally got the call the bag was delivered to our first spot, we would have to give up an entire day to drive back to northern Germany to pick it up. We finally got the bag but we were up in North Germany and we would forfeit an entire country on our drive and Amsterdam because we had planned on being closer to Brussels to spend almost the whole day there before we had to fly home.

The day before we left Europe, we were supposed to be in Brussels most of the entire day. Instead we drove in and as we crossed into Belgium, we had to stop for gas. We decided to grab snacks since it would be a bit until dinner. People were running into us at the gas station because they were in a hurry. It was almost as if all of the people of Belgium had collectively known that we had been in altercations with some of their own.

As we started getting into Brussels, the traffic was just at a standstill. Our maps estimated it would be 30 minutes to get to our hotel that was less than two miles away. But then we still didn’t move and it was turning into an hour to get less than two miles. After 30 minutes of barely getting one block, I told JD to park the car and we were going to get out and walk around and get as much of the city in before everything closed as we possibly could.

We checked into our hotel to use the facilities after a long drive and just to feel a little better from sitting that long. The guy at the front desk truly didn’t care much about the business but he wasn’t rude. He just didn’t seem to care. We walked all over the city and everything was closing or closed by that point. We didn’t get to try a beer, we didn’t get to do any cool tours. We just were there too late.

While walking around the city though, we took in the old buildings that stood in between lots of newer feeling buildings. It was a big mix of modern and historical. There were lots of buildings I would have loved to have been able to see the inside of but since they were already closed, there wasn’t anywhere to tour. I decided then and there that when I do Brussels next time, I will not be renting a car and I will take transportation everywhere. The city is made for walking. Many streets do not allow vehicles on them and are for foot traffic only. Even the police patrol mostly on horseback in areas. I usually prefer to walk around cities anyway to make sure I can take in as much as possible. Walking allows you to see street art otherwise known as graffiti, statues and fountains, shops and restaurants that can be tucked away. We found a lot of murals that were very well done while we were walking.

After a while of walking, we walked back to our car and drove it closer to our hotel which didn’t have parking, so we had to park in a garage close enough that we wouldn’t be walking for a long time with all of our luggage on our way out the next morning. It was a bit of a walk and once we got our suitcase back, they had broken the wheel in transit. The cobblestone walkways in areas were tough to maneuver that suitcase around but we did it. We were certainly not the only ones walking for blocks with a suitcase and it makes one realize how spoiled they’ve been to not have to transport a suitcase for blocks because there is parking most everywhere with hotels now, or at the very least, there are places where cars can drive up to the front of the hotel. Our hotel in Brussels just had to be situated on a foot street only.

We found a Hard Rock Café that was still open for dinner after all of our sightseeing and went there. We were glad we did because the Grand-Place of Brussels at sunset and night time is beautiful. The buildings have almost a pink hue to them at sunset and after dark, they are so lit up that it really feels like it is out of a dream. It is by far my favorite thing I got to see in Brussels. We had to wait for a table that night. The service was slow and the attitude we had been dealing with continued but we were enjoying our food and things to look at inside the restaurant.

The next morning as we were getting ready to fly home, we found we did not have any hot water. We advised the front desk of this and the told us to “just turn the handle the other direction” and didn’t believe us when we said we had. They disappeared for a while and came back and said we were right that there just wasn’t hot water in our room. The manager didn’t even come up to apologize. She stood in the background saying things to the guy that was helping us. It wouldn’t have been terrible if we hadn’t been leaving to fly home for over 17 hours and by the time we got home, we hadn’t showered in 48 hours and had walked around and been stuck in a car that whole day. We were at the restaurant so late and still had to pack and get everything ready to leave the next morning so we didn’t shower that night before bed. We once flew home after snorkeling really fast off Miami Beach and could only rinse in the beach shower, so you can imagine we still had sand in certain places. I didn’t think any flight would make me feel more gross than that flight but wearing the same clothes for a week and only being able to buy replacement underclothes, and then barely getting a change that sat in a stale suitcase for days, and not getting a shower before flying home for over 17 hours definitely topped a 4 hour flight from Florida with some ocean water and sand on my body.

I was dreading this blog for a while because I just love to travel and I don’t like to leave a place with negative feelings. It has taken me months to get to a place where I have convinced myself I owe Brussels another chance. Looking through my pictures has also made me realize how little I appreciated so many things there. It may be really busy with people, and inconvenient hours, but it’s such a big part of European history that I know I have to go back and do things very differently.

Packing List: Walking Shoes, comfortable clothing, durable suitcase, list of places you want to see an a map, camera and accessories, dryer sheet for your suitcase or air freshener, A suitcase that is very distinguishable as your own, Types C and E plug types, Euros

DO: Feel free to speak English because Belgium is broken out into French and Dutch but they prefer English so that you don’t risk speaking the wrong language in the wrong region, Be ready to walk a lot, Plan to be places you want to see early, Pay attention to signs, Watch for bicycles and runners, Have a beer, Have some chocolate, Have an authentic Belgian Waffle, Buy chocolate from convenient stores, Be patient, Verify your receipt, Watch out for other drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists when driving

DON’T: Litter, Drive (if you can help it), Expect things to be open late, Crowd or stay in a photo spot so that everyone can get a picture, Get involved if there are demonstrations going on - not all are legal demonstrations and it is best to just avoid getting involved so as not to get arrested, Wear anything very flashy

Grand-Place of Brussels

Grand-Place at Night

Smurfs Mural

I do love this walkway

Do you see the officers on horseback?

He didn’t know he was in the picture

An example of a historical building just there

Godiva on the left and Manneken Pis (Dutch for Little Pissing Man” and the original dates back to 1619 and is in a museum but this replica was created in 1965. There are many legends around this little guy. You can see he’s very popular amongst tourists.

More close up

Traffic everywhere