As you may have noticed, I didn't post last week. That's because we'd headed off to Belgium on the train for our holidays. I'll probably be posting more about the places we went but here's a quick overview of our ten day trip.
Monday 13th July - Our dogsitter kindly dropped us off at the train station in La Panne, the train station just over the other side of the French border from Dunkirk. We had a few head-scratching moments as the train station didn't open until 11.30 and it was only 9am. As we didn't have a Belgian travel card, we couldn't use the original tickets we had planned, but we bought three ten-trip tickets in the machine (one adult and two children's, as the three kids could share). You just have to fill in the town of departure and arrival each time you travel for each person. This leaves us with enough trips for another Belgian adventure at some point in the future (it's valid for two years) and it wasn't that much more expensive that what we had originally planned. Our first destination : the capital city, Brussels ! After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we went to check out the Mannekenpis (who is smaller than I imagined !) and the main square, then popped into the Hard Rock Cafe for souvenirs.
Tuesday - Our first full day in Brussels. We headed to the Mannekenpis Museum, which displays all the different national costumes that this statue possesses, gifted by the different countries. As today was 14th July, the French national holiday (or Bastille Day, as British people call it), he was dressed up in the French costume, which made us laugh ! We had a good look at the Grotemark main square, did a museum, then some thrift stores and finally ate waffles. A pigeon pooped on my head, which had the kids in total hysterics ! lol
Wednesday - Our final day in Brussels and we got the tram to the Atomium, a huge atom-shaped construction that you can visit, going right up to the top (luckily in a lift). There are exhibitions, displays and viewing stations in each of the balls. This is the only time we've been so I can't compare, but there was absolutely no queue, despite a huge zig-zag queue marker like you get in theme parks. We had a joint ticket to visit Mini Europe, a model village featuring many top European landmarks, with lots of things for the kids to do, like pushing buttons to make music and sound effects start up or playing racing games, trying to be the quickest in a cycle race, for example. We finished off at the Design Museum (also included in the joint ticket). Heading back into Brussels, we went to Five Guys for dinner. Then slept. A lot !
Thursday - After packing our bags, we were back on the train to Antwerp (or Anvers in French, or Antwerpen in Dutch). Although Brussels is the capital, this is known as the biggest shopping town - it sounded like it was going to cost me a fortune, but I got away with a box of Dunkin Donuts to share back in our hotel room ! We were staying in a lovely hotel, just opposite the train station, in the Jewish district (posh jewellery shops and gold shops everywhere !). We had a wander around town then back to the hotel to chill.
Friday - Today was Pierre's birthday - eleven years old, where does the time go ?! - so we went for a trip to the zoo, which was literally 2 minutes from the hotel. As elsewhere, we felt totally safe in terms of Coronavirus as everyone was wearing a mask and was pretty much spaced out. There was a one way system in place and, if there started to be too many people in one area, we just went for a drink or an ice cream, then came back when it had calmed down. There were no crowds as you had to sign up for a time slot which vastly reduced the number of visitors. After having lunch at Pizza Hut, we headed off to see a mural that Sophie wanted to see, for a programme she's been watching called Scam.
Saturday - Our final day in Antwerp, so we used up our tram tickets, heading down to the bottom section of the town, below the main square, to check out the riverside promenade and the castle. We did some more shopping, bought some more Dunkin Donuts (sigh !) and ate in a local restaurant just opposite the cathedral. Lovely !
Sunday 19th July - We left Antwerp and Brussels, the two big towns that we had been visiting, to head to the quieter towns of Ghent and Brugges, where we had two-night instead of three-night stays planned. On arrival in Ghent, we had a long walk to our accommodation (the youth hostel, but the only people there were families and older people as far as I could see !) so we headed straight for lunch and some welcome drinks in a restaurant just opposite the castle. We looked around town and wandered up and down the canals, soaking up the atmosphere.
Monday - Our final full day in Ghent and, as breakfast was included at the youth hostel and we had to be downstairs to eat within our specified time slot (another Covid restriction, reducing the numbers of people in the big room at each time), we were at the castle just as it opened so managed to avoid having to reserve a time slot online. After a wander around town, we went on a boat trip on the canals.
Tuesday - Our final destination - off to Brugges, a town that we had visited before, but only really for the Christmas market. Our last visit here was with Madhouse Daddy, so it seemed a little bit strange at times, but the atmosphere was very different, as it's the summer season rather than all festive. We wandered around, letting ourselves get lost in the alleyways and canals, checking out the shops.
Wednesday - A lazy day, checking out the shops, spending some time in a nearby park and soaking up the atmosphere in the main town square. I wasn't really sure what we'd make of our trip, as it's a definite change to what was originally planned, but it worked well and the travel/hotel options were much easier than I had initially thought. The only things to think about with the coronavirus measures are making sure you have enough masks to wear (we had about twenty-odd for us four and regularly washed them but you could buy a box of disposable masks to take with you instead) and make sure you have internet/phone access to book timeslots for all the museums and attractions, otherwise you won't get in.
Thursday / Friday / Saturday - No photos for the end of the week, which involved shopping, washing and settling back into our normal routine !
