This has been my second time visiting Belgium, after my trip to Brussels in 2018. This trip was with my parents, siblings and partners following successful trips to Krakow and London in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
After some discussions of what there was to actually do in Belgium, I regaled my first trip to Brussels and spoke about the Atomium, mini-Europe and walking tour organised by Sandemans (who offer informative walking tours throughout Europe). We suggested a day trip to Brugge as we knew Dad was a fan of the 2008 movie ‘In Bruges’ starring Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, and everyone was sold on the destination. Our flight was getting in late on Friday evening, so we planned on a very early start on Saturday prior to travelling to Brugge to make the most of our time.
Due to organisational errors, we ended up flying to Brussels-Charleroi airport, significantly outside of the city, rather than Brussels airport, so a minibus taxi was booked to transfer us from the airport to Leuvensesteenweg where our AirBnB was booked. Our flight got in early and finding Gaël, our taxi driver, was relatively easy. It was smooth sailing to Brussels, passing Waterloo along the way.
When we finally got to Brussels, we’d noticed a bar at the end of our street (which was a minute walk from the front door of our AirBnB). I had previously told my Dad about super strong Belgian beer, in our local I had the pleasure of introducing my Dad to Tripel Karmeleit (8.4% alcohol).
After a quick drink or 2, we returned for an early night, to enjoy our early trip to Brugge. Train tickets to and from Brugge were the most economic mode of travel, with return tickets working out at around €15 each.
We got off Brugge train station and followed the mass of tourists the disembarked with us towards the city centre, before veering off a little to the right towards the Church of Our Lady, containing a sculpting of Mary with Jesus by Michelangelo (not the Ninja Turtle).
Entry to the church museum where the sculpting and other pieces of art were held cost €4.
After the first church, we ventured towards the second famous church in Brugge, where it is said some of Jesus’ blood remains. However, the church was hosting a wedding and was inaccessible to the public.
After the churches were visited, or at least seen, we walked to ‘Windmill Walk’ on the edge of the old city. There are 4 picturesque 18th Century windmills build on a hill where the old city wall stood. Of the 4 windmills we saw the first 2; Bonne-Chíeremolen and Sint-Janshuismolen.
We stopped for a quick drink in a nearby bar to the windmills before embarking on the 25 minute walk back into the city centre.
Our walk back to the centre took us along a different direction, we passed by many of the Brugge’s numerous canals.
We were soon able to see the spire of the Belfry and manoeuvre our way back to the main square.
We went into a restaurant on the square for a meal, where we ate traditional Belgian food – what we got varied; my meal was like a soup with chicken and potatoes in it, my mum got a vol-au-vont… I can’t really remember what the rest of our entourage ate. I can however remember getting excited to see they served Kwak (a beer that comes with a stand). I had never had it before, but it has been top of my to try list since I became aware of its’ existence. My Dad didn’t know what it was like, and declared he’d have the same – but large rather than medium, and was treated to what I can only describe as a mammoth conical flask.
After the food, we ventured to the Belfry to discover there was an hour queue to go up the tower. With the cold weather, we opted to try find a bar for refuge to discuss what to do next, where we all came to the conclusion we had done everything we wanted to in Brugge, and should travel back to Brussels.
My brother Liam was turning 16 on Sunday, the next day, and as 16 was the legal drinking age in Belgium, I thought we could treat him to an early birthday present and take him out for a few drinks, everyone was in agreement. Our plan was to head to the famous Delirium Café (I’ll call it D.C. from here forward to save me typing it out multiple times) – it would be my second time there. After disembarking the train in Brussels-Centraal we were getting ready to head to D.C., but opted for a quick toilet break first. When everyone had returned from the toilet, we noticed my 13 year old sister had vanished (she was hiding behind a pillar on her phone and hadn’t told anyone). We frantically looked for her, and upon finding her an argument broke out (temperamental teens, eh?)
After all had cooled down, we arrived at Delirium Café and headed downstairs for drinks. Here another argument broke out and my Mum said she’d head back with my sister. Dad finished his drink and joined them, leaving the birthday boy in the custody of myself, Turlough, my 20 year old brother, and our girlfriends.
After a few drinks in D.C. we ventured to a mediocre Irish bar, and 2 gay bars – in the middle of one we asked Liam “would you ever go to a gay bar”, he said “no, I’m not gay” and we told him “well you’re in one now”. He had a good night.
The next day, the crew minus myself and Amy nipped into Brussels to see the Atomium and do a walking tour, which we had done on our first trip to Brussels. Me and Amy ventured to Antwerp instead, and I got to tick seeing the diamond district off my bucket list.
The train to Antwerpen was confusing as bilingual Brussels train station had bilingual signs, and I was unsure we were at the right platform because our train was advertised as Anvers. Luckily I googled Anvers to discover it was French for Antwerp.
We arrived in Antwerp to the most unique, extravagant train station I’ve ever been to. There were multi-story tracks on both sides of the station; and ornate decorations.
The station was just as ornate from the outside, and the spire at the top could be seen from streets away.
Directly outside the train station is Antwerpen’s famous diamond district. A lot of the jewellery on display was extremely extravagant. When I visited Geneva, my knowledge of designer watches came from hip-hop. My knowledge of diamond studded jewellery is exactly the same – very limited, and over the top.
After gawking at jewellery well above our price range, we ventured through Chinatown and then passed some time in Kelly’s Irish bar, a charming little spot not too far from the train station, which was very lively inside considering we were in Antwerp quite early in the day.
Following the drinks in Kelly’s we thought we’d embrace ourselves in the local culture a bit more, so we bought a cone of chips drowned in European mayonnaise and walked to the town hall, where the statue to Silvius Brabo stands. Legend has it that Silvius was a Roman warrior who slayed a giant in the area around Antwerp. The giant had charged people to enter the area and cut of their hand and threw it into the sea if they refused/could not afford it. Silvius fearlessly chopped the giants hand off, and threw it into the sea, killing it. The statue depicts this.
We noticed a solitary hand in the city centre too, paying homage to the areas folklore.
The city centre had many beautiful buildings, and was remarkably quiet due to the incoming storm, allowing for undisturbed photography. Sadly the cathedral AND city hall both had scaffolding up, which did disturb my photography. Big Ben was scaffolded when I was in London, and the astronomical clock was being restored when I was in Prague, just my luck – eh?
When we took a few photos we ducked into another Irish bar (because there are Irish bars everywhere), this one named Irish News, in a beautiful old style building.
As the storm started to pick up momentum, we thought it would be best to return to Brussels, when we still could, but not before catching a snap of Nello & Patrasche, an interesting statue depicting the best 2 things in life, dogs and sleep.
When we got back to Brussels, we went to D.C. for another beer, before venturing on a little pub crawl for our last night, including a little spot called The Green Man. As an It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan, I felt obliged to visit.
Sadly our time in Belgium was coming to an end, as most of our last day was spent travelling to Charleroi for our return flight, but in true Belgian style, I had a waffle (the chocolate sauce of which in got stuck in my beard) it was delicious nonetheless.
Thank you Belgium, for the beer, the frites, the waffles and the architecture. I am eagerly awaiting my third visit to your country.
