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Friday was Chloe's last day at her school, and because it was the end of the term, her school had a planned half-day, which allowed us to get an later-afternoon Eurostar train from London to Brussels. And like our trip to Paris in summer, we thoroughly enjoyed the direct, non-stop high-speed train trip... smooth, quiet, 2 hours and it drops you off in the center of the city.
After arriving and getting to our hotel, we dropped off our bags and headed out into the city to get our first glimpse of the markets and get some dinner. It was then we realized that our hotel was in a great spot to do both... the closest part of the markets was just a couple minutes' walks away, and there were restaurants aplenty around. Prior to dipping into one of the restaurants, we did get to see the one light and music show that was put on in the Grand Plaza... here's a grainy video clip of it.
On Saturday, we took our good ol' time getting ready, but eventually headed off to take a hop-on/hop-off sightseeing bus tour of the city. It's a beautiful city, with gorgeous plazas, parks and gardens, and a lot of European charm to it... grand cathedrals, cobblestone streets, etc. We hopped-off at the "Atomium" stop, a preserved structure and exhibit from the 1958 Worlds Fair. In its current form, the Atomium structure is a museum of sorts with part dedicated to its own history, and part dedicated to general science. The most interesting part, for us at least, was the structure itself, for how many times does get to roam around inside something that replicates a 165-billion-times magnified iron crystal? (More on Atomium can be found here.) Afterward, it was back on the bus and back to the area of our hotel for some lunch, and a nice little afternoon nap before heading out to the Christmas Markets at night.
Feeling refreshed after our naps, we headed out to take in the markets and other various attractions... and, of course, a stroll of the market wouldn't be complete without some gluhwein. According to the brochure, there are over 240 stalls for visitors to stop at. Being it was a weekend evening, there were a fair number of people strolling along like us, so it wasn't possible to see every one of the stalls, but we did get to see a lion's share. At the end of the main market plaza were the ice skating rink and ferris wheel. It seemed only right and festive, so Chloe and I laced up some skates and made our way around the ice for about 30 minutes (Peg wasn't too keen on the idea, so watched our stuff) and then made our way to the wheel to get an aerial view of the market plaza. It was then off to find a proper Belgian dinner - mussels and beer - followed by a visit or two to some chocolatiers, before calling it a night.
We had hoped to visit Bruges on Sunday, but given that we didn't get to bed until midnight, we thought the better of trying to get Chloe to a 9:15 am train and decided to stay in Brussels to do a little shopping and finish off our weekend. The one thing we were on the look-out for the entire weekend was a Brussels Christmas Tree ornament. Given the number of stalls, and that it was a Christmas Market in Brussels, Peggy and I thought this would be a slam dunk. To our surprise, it wasn't easy at all... we found ornaments, and things with Brussels on them, but not a combination of the two. We decided to get creative and buy two identical Brussels magnets, with hopes of making them into an ornament by removing and discarding the magnets and then gluing the backs of the remaining pieces together!
Our weekend excursion eventually wound down, and it was time to get back to the train station, and the Eurostar, and London and our flat where a final week of UK living awaited us.
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A slideshow of pictures from the weekend can be found here.
Below is a brief video clip of some street musicians we walked by... you might be able to hear the tail-end of "Flight of the Bumblebee" at the beginning of it.
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