Chasing TinTin and eating Fries

Belgium is a funny place. I dont think either of us expected to enjoy it that much. Almost everyone we had spoken to previously had told us that the country was, well, boring. Initially we had only planned on stopping off in Brussels for the day on our way from Amsterdam to Paris. But plans change and we ended up staying for a week. We stayed with Jean-Mi and Sali, whom had stayed at our place (back in melbourne) a few years ago. It was fantastic to see them. and we are enjoying these little breaks from hostels, staying with people we know.

Whilst in brussles, we spent a lot of time just wandering around the city. Really, it is quite a nice city to walk around. Angie had her first waffle and stared mouth wateringly through the windows of chocolate shops. I ate fries.

Angie had her first waffle and stared mouth wateringly through the windows of chocolate shops. I ate fries.

Brussels is of course the birthplace of tintin. Whoo! We went to the comic book museum, which was good, except that none of the exhibits were in English, and there are a million Belgian comics that i dont know and only one or two that i do. Still the TinTin exhibit was good and we got to watch an old episode on the smurfs (in Flemish). After this we wandered the streets in search of more cartoons. Brussels has these massive murals on the sides of random buildings, and we wandered around for ages trying to find a TinTin one, which turned out to be right where we started (we would have seen it if we had just turned around). Turned out to be a nice walk through the city though, so all was well.

On the thursday we decided to go to Bruges for the night. I have to admit i'd never heard of the place before seeing the movie (In Bruges), but that didnt make it any less beautiful. Bruges is a lovely little town, full of cobbled streets and medieval buildings..... and tourists, but at least it was the off season so it wasn't too busy. we climbed the belfort (the massive tower in the center of town), which gave us some nice epic views of the city. Apparently, on a clear day (this one wasnt) you can see the north sea from the top. Truly there is not a whole lot to do here appart from wander the streets and look at churches, so wander and look we did. Angie got to run around a windmill.

Back in Brussels we spent some lovely sitting around time and hung with our generous hosts. We all went out on Saturday to go to the Atomium, a massive metal representation of an iron crystal. It was constructed for the 1958 'Universal Exhibition' and really, just seems completely pointless. Pretty impressive though. We went up inside (its 100m high), which was good, but a bit dissapointing. It looked cooler from the bottom. On sunday morning, we jumped on our train to Paris. What fun.

Angie managed to make Belgium the fist country (since Thailand) where she didnt lose a hat. But she still bought a new one, just in case.

For more photos. Goto:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=224658&id=763865453&l=86c5c  (Belgium)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=224797&id=763865453&l=f9545  (Paris)