Tour guide in Brussels

  My cousins, Laura and Hayley from England, came over to visit me in Belgium last weekend. I got to test my tour guide skills... It was the opportunity for me to show them around Brussels and although it was a short visit, they arrived Fiday evening by Eurostar and were leaving Sunday morning, my Mum and I decided that we should show them what Brussels has to offer!

My cousins have been over to visit before but never around Christmas. They were pleasantly surprised about the Xmas spirit here...
Friday evening we took them to the Atomium. Last time they came, it had not been cleaned and it looked quite different! They thought it was lovely to see it all lit up and shiny! Unfortunately we could not go up into the Atomium as as it closes at 6pm. We would have gone to the restaurant but apart from having to book, 50 euros per person for a set menu was too much for our pocket ! Another time maybe...

The next day, Saturday, we were up early and we went shopping to stock up on chocolates. Wonderful Belgian chocolate, the best in the world (I know the Swiss don't feel that way...!) and my family in England love them. I think we nearly bought up the whole shop - they had to buy boxes for lots of people and we could not resist taking one home for us to sample as we walked around!! We then took the train into the centre of Brussels, what a surprise for them to see the redlight district of Brussels North!! Yes we have one here too!! Although I must admit not so big as Amsterdam but we can see ours from the comfort of the train so we didn't even have to get out in the cold!! 

Once we arrived in Brussels, we went to the famous Grand-Place, I never get bored seeing it, it is so beautiful  ! The Christmas tree stands tall in the market place and there is a crèche! We then walked over to see the famous Mannekin Pis, you can hear everybody  around you saying: "is that it? he is tiny!". But like my cousin Laura says that is part of the charm, it would be weird to have a huge statue there! We carried on walking around the little cobbled streets. And at the end of one of the little road there is the less famous Janneke Pis, the little girl crouching down to pee. You feel like you are uncovering a secret when you find her, she is so hidden away! We had a break in a little cafe, so we could drink our hot chocolate and eat some lovely crèpes!

Now we're back on form and ready to walk around the Christmas market, it was so busy but we still managed to buy things on our way around. We headed towards the huge ferris wheel, thinking it would be great going up there! Once we finally made it through the crowd, we caught a glimpse of the price : 50€ for 4 people!! Wow can't believe people would actually pay that much. A little bit disappointing as we won't see Brussels from the sky! 

 

We head back towards the Grand Place to see the square all lit up. As we get there, a light show starts! Wow, it is great!! You really get into the Xmas spirit watching it! We were nearly all singing along to the songs! The whole Grand Place was ooohing and aaahing as we watched the lights dash and dart across the Maison Communal.
It was a short visit but we got to see what we wanted and after nearly 4 hours of walking around we were ready to head home... The next morning it was time for them to leave ... I was sad when we dropped them off at the Eurostar Terminal but then it's only two weeks before I see them all again, and I spend a family Christmas in England!!