Back in Brussels

This was not the first time I had been to Brussels, I had spent a couple of days back in around 2004, not long before my brother married his now wife Marieke.

They are still happily married and living in Sydney, I remember this time well as I was happily hanging in Zurich and returned for their wedding - just dont ask me the date or the year. Owing to circumstances, I never returned to Zurich at that time and haven't been back since, it was, I guess, a pivotal point in my life.

As I recall, Brussels wasn't the cleanest city in Europe, in fact, I found it pretty run down. Yes, Brussels has plenty to off the weekender in terms of sightseeing, there was plenty to do.

Now, close to eighteen years later, I’m seeing more of the same. Yes, Manekin Piss is still a drawcard, Grand-Place de Bruxelles is magnificent as is wandering the streets looking at bars, restaurants, waffle sellers and chocolate shops.

I have to ask myself, do you revisit a city you have been to before or an entirely new city. For me, revisiting Brussels was great because we used this city as a central location for visiting other cities in Belgium.

We had our arrival day, that was a bus from Luxembourg City that took over three hours with a midday departure. After finding accommodation, that left the late afternoon and evening to look around the city. We then spent the next day walking around checking the sights of Brussels.

Then a day in Ghent, the next in Antwerp, the following day in Bruges and the final day in Liege. Belgium has a great train network with the major cities easily accessible from a base in Brussels.