Yesterday we had a relax morning which was started very nicely by having breaky in the garden. One of the cats was very interested in sharing my breakfast, but I had to decline!
Greg and I took the metro into the main station (not the one near the Grand Place) and sorted out some plans for today. We needed to figure out how to get out to the Werchter Boutique Festival – it is a short train and bus ride away, but it is an all afternoon, all evening event. Well – at least until midnight as Metallica are getting old and have to be in bed by then. That is all sorted and today Wogan will let his hair out 😉 Gojira, Mastadon, Soundgarden and Metallica are the line up that bought us to Brussles…well one of us anyway. Greg assures me I will like Soundgarden, so we will see!
After that was all sorted we ambled around outside the station and through a large fruit, veg and everything else market. Greg got some lollies and I bought a fig. It was packed and pumping. Heaps of cheapy cheap clothes and shoes as well, sort of like the quality you might find in Bali for a good price…. I got a bit suspect that a skirt I bought in Paris, may have been a marked up version of some of the stuff I was seeing in Brussels! Arggg….
We kept walking and by complete accident found the Halle gate, which is a fortified city gate from the second part of the Brussels wall. It has been preserved and turned into a museum. For 5 Euros you can tour the place with an audio guide. It has old weaponry (read: cool old crossbows) and history of how the place was run.
A blue stone spiral stair case had been built into the place to help with access – it was very cool. You could explore the outside at the top as well for a pretty good view. The audio guide was quite extensive and there were things for kids…or big kids to play with along the way.
There was also an art exhibit of photography and sculpture on the top level – Austen would have dug it. The photography was in the blurry motion style he likes so much :) There were also some figurines made from recycled materials – bits of pen and all sorts – really well done.
After that we managed to wander off the map we had and get slightly lost….I’m not sure why this is still annoying at the time – it’s not like we have appointments to be anywhere! We did find a sculpture of a stork carrying a large Brussels sprout…so there you go!
We had dinner that night in the cafe strip nearby to our B&B – very nice Belgium food. We took a shot at the menu as it was all in French and the waitress didn’t speak English. It turned out pretty nice and there was a refreshing amount of green matter with the meal!
We are going to get ready to get our metal on now 😉
Seems you’re getting close to Holland. My brother Henks email address is : henk@1travel.nl, my Dad’s is : jpbordus@kpnplanet.nl hope you have time to meet up!
Have fun.