The first week of October is our adventure time. This is Lyn’s birthday and our wedding anniversary so we always aim to go away and Facebooks ‘Memories’ are rammed. Quick side note if your birthday is also the first week of October then you know what your parents were doing around New Years Eve!

This year Lyns birthday happened to coincide with the once in a millennium event of The Bayeux Tapestry being back in the UK at The British Museum in London. Once we secured tickets then we had to pick a hotel. Lyn also wanted to go to Hampton Court Palace so we picked The White Hart Hotel in Kingston Upon Thames for 2 nights Monday/Tuesday. We then thought as we were in London close to Heathrow lets have a Euro city break. We picked Brussels, Belgium! We also thought we’d try an apartment and booked the Aparthotel Brussels Grand Place. I accept that Belgium is not an obvious choice but it had quite a few advantages. Firstly neither Lyn nor I have been to Belgium so it ticked that box. Brussels was half the price of Paris and is excellent value for money. Lastly it has good connections to other places. With that in mind, despite only being there for 5 nights, we also booked 3 trips. Bruges & Ghent, Amsterdam (Netherlands) and lastly Luxembourg. Three countries, one trip! So that was the plan. It was a good plan so lets see how it went wrong.

The first issue when I looked properly at the timetable was Hampton Court. It wasn’t open on the Monday to Wednesday when we could have gone so we had to bin the idea. I also couldn’t change the hotel because I hadn’t bothered to pay extra to enable cancelations and I wasn’t about to pay an another £200 for one extra night on the Sunday. Next, we’d booked the trip to Luxembourg the day after we landed, I picked a late flight so we could do other things before we flew and we felt it might be a bit rushed so we cancelled that trip. Then British Airways cancelled our flight and put us in an earlier one. This was awkward because again I hadn’t paid extra for flexible parking so could only get credit and then couldn’t book the right time and had to make phone calls to sort that out and because I’d booked this all through Expedia I couldn’t confirm the flight change! Have you ever tried to phone or even find a phone number for Expedia?! I Finally manged to get it all sorted with a slightly reduced itinerary and we were off! (When we left North Devon CEX in Barnstaple was set on fire)

To make up for Hampton Court and Luxemburg we did book an extra night in a ‘hotel’… Well a Travelodge in Reading for £34 and it was surprisingly comfortable and quiet. Instead of going to Hampton Court and paying out another £60 we decided to visit a few National Trust Properties for free instead. So we’ve now ticked off The Vyne, Basildon Park and Ham House and Garden. I’d say the pick of these was Ham House who apparently have had an uptick in visitors thanks to Ted Lasso!

The next day we got to the British Museum an hour early and asked a security person where to wait and a queue started to form. I got chatting to an elderly gent. He apparently regularly visits Bideford and stays with a friend in Bull Hill around the corner from where we live. He himself lives in Farnham, Surrey which is a couple towns over from where Lyn and I grew up. If you ever want proof that we are in a simulation there it is. Meanwhile Lyn was paying attention and noticed that a different security guard told another couple with tickets to go and queue in another place. Lyn then ‘kicked off’ and they were so intimidated that they let us into the British Museum before it was open to the public and we went and sat outside the entrance to the exhibit first in line.

Lyn very much enjoyed the Bayeux Tapestry and despite the ban took lots of photos. I very much enjoyed the other offerings on show but not the crowds. The highlights from the small amount I did see was the Parthenon Marbles, not called the Elgin Marbles anymore because that’ll fool the Greeks, and the Rosetta Stone which Egypt wants back… If you want your shit back come and take it if you can. Those have been the rules throughout human history and quite frankly it’s all probably a lot safer from iconoclasm in The British Museum. Not wanting to waste the rest of the day, we went on the London Eye. Didn’t pre-book, didn’t really queue and in fact there were only 9 people in our pod. Under those circumstances I highly recommend it. When we checked out of the hotel and was telling the young lady behind the desk what our plans were. She said to tell our children that we are very cool! (That night the market in Kingston upon Thames burned down)

Our flight from Heathrow was delayed (because of course it was) however our pilot was allowed to take a ‘short cut’ which meant that in the end we were only about 10 minutes late. Getting from Brussels Airport to the city centre is very easy if you know what you are doing which I didn’t. I only researched that the train was below the airport. By sheer luck we got on the right train and then it was only a 10 minute walk to our hotel. This did involve pulling wheeled suitcases over cobbles. Outside our hotel was very busy with people the building was also undergoing renovation and I initially thought ‘What have I booked!’ however once inside our ‘apartment’ we were pleasantly surprised. You could genuinely live here. Lyn in particular liked the sliding doors separating the bedroom from the living room because she could slide them open, shout “Tad Da!” and demand coffee as she then skipped off for her morning ablutions.

The next day was now a free day so we used a TootBus to get around Brussels and see the sights. Lyn loves a hop on hop off and we had two routes to choose from. Our first stop was the Atomium, which even if you hadn’t heard of it there’s a good chance you recognise it. Like the Eiffel Tower, it’s a remnant of a Worlds Fair that they couldn’t be bothered to pull down. It does look impressive and even has a restaurant at the top. Its expensive, €18 for a bit of French toast is not reasonable but the views are great and to be honest we’ve spent more for less. Back on the TootBus I discovered a new music artist who was playing through the crappy bus headphones, Selha Sue is Belgian and her debut Album (from 2011) is banging! That evening I was taking a picture of a tower when I noticed a young woman in the frame. I then took a picture of her. Does this count as ‘street photography’ or is it a bit odd? I can’t decide, but I like both photos.

The next day it was our trip to Bruges and Ghent. Like most things I expect both of these places would have looked better in the sunshine. Bruges is very pretty and packed with tourists and very expensive shops. We had a nice meal and I tried out the beer selection thing with a Flemish stew. I’m not sure what made it Flemish but it was nice although I’ve made better at home. It did go well with the beer selection, Lyn in particular liked the Kriek or cherry beer. For dessert I thought I’d try a Belgian waffle from one of the pleather of shops. I have now discovered that I can no longer walk and eat at the same time. It’s exhausting! I can’t remember the last time I tried doing this but at some point, I’m guessing past 50, this became the equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time… while running.

It was then back on the coach and we headed for Ghent. If you can only visit one I would recommend Ghent. It’s still very pretty but has a more monumental feel about it and certainly feels more vibrant and lived in than Disneyesque Bruges. We did discover that around 4pm is beer o’clock in Belgium and you can’t get a coffee for love nor money. (While we were away the public transport in Brussles was on strike)

The next day was our trip to Amsterdam. I went a quarter of a century ago but Lyn has never been. This trip would entail being on a coach for a 6 hour round trip and more than half the group was Spanish. At one point in a queue for the toilets a lady spoke Spanish AT me quite fiercely after I tried to tell her it looked like you could only use contactless to get in. I just looked at someone I assumed was her husband and shrugged and he shrugged back. The unspoken bond of masculinity. Oh yes! If you’ve ever been on a multilingual trip and felt that the English section doesn’t get the same amount of info you’d be correct. I was using the translate feature on the phone with a pair of earbuds and whilst the overall info was similar you definitely got more info in Spanish… So you’re not being paranoid.

Once in Amsterdam we had a canal tour, which was nice. The highlight though was our guide and the driver arguing over the use of cannabis. Guide “Remember you can’t smoke cannabis on the street” Driver “Yes you can, nobody stops you” Guide sighing “Well you definitely can’t take it back to Belgium.” Once we got off the boat we found the driver was correct, the whole place stank.

This was a huge change from when I visited and not for the best. It may have been worse because it was a Saturday but it really spoilt the experience. We wandered around the more picturesque and less smelly parts of the city although we did accidentally walk in to the red light district because we saw a sign which we thought meant ‘safe for children’ but turns out just meant pedestrian area. In the end Lyn was starting to feel ill from the smell and the cobbles were giving her blisters. I’d also liked to point out that the mass protests were nothing to do with us. We then had a 3 hour drive back to Brussels while I had to battle with myself not to pull the ponytail of the woman in the seat in front who had slung it over the back of her seat. (While we were away there had been riots and setting fire to electric scooters for some reason)

The next day was a free day and what turned out to be the best one in my opinion. We started off with breakfast in La Brouette in Grand Place and then took a gentle stroll towards where it said there was a flea market, accidentally passing Mannequin Pis with almost no tourists. I liked the market. It looked like they’d emptied the contents of my parents house from the 1970’s and I almost bought a top hat but it was sadly too small.

We wend our way past a big Ferris wheel and the Palace of Justice, which is a very impressive building towards the Museum of Fine Art. There were 2 parts to this the Old Masters and Magritte. We only paid for the Old Masters. The sun was out as we then made our way for a spot of lunch at the Museum of Comic Art. This is the trick with Brussels. It is full of the most amazing museums. Do the Grand Place and the Royal Gallleries but plan your trip around the museums just a few of which can be found here.

In the afternoon we made our way back to the shopping district to pick up a few essentials, which was mostly very expensive chocolates. Instead of a hat I did pick up a European flag T-Shirt which I got in preparation for when we re-join the EU. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

In the evening for our last meal we thought we’d eat out. One of the tour guides recommended the Grimbergen Brasserie which was near our apartment and he said had big portions. I had a giant chicken Vol-Au-Vent and Lyn had the Flemish Stew that I had in Bruges served with the obligatory chips. We also thought we’d better have a beer as well. Lyn said to the waiter “Do you have any of that fruity beer?” He managed to sigh with his entire body without making a sound and then said “We have cherry beer” so that’s what she had.

I had decided to book us an Uber for the ride to the Airport to save Lyn’s feet which turned out to be a genius move as there was another strike and we probably wouldn’t have managed to get too the airport. Tse-Hsine our driver told us that the strike was because Belgium had recently elected a right wing government who was slashing everything as it’s debt was 120% of GDP because the pensions bill was so huge. Sounds familiar. Once at the airport we then had to negotiate the non-EU passport control with Americans shouting could they go first because their flight was going to take off soon. Everyone ignored them. Lyn had a scary moment because the border guy had no record of her entering the country! It finally appeared AFTER he put that she was leaving and then she panicked she wouldn’t be allowed back in to the UK. Me saying I’d visit her once a month at Heathrow was apparently no comfort.

And that was our October Adventure and there’s more photos here. Whilst there’s no way we’d go back to Amsterdam I’d definitely go back to Brussels. I can see why people have a bit of a downer with it especially when compared to Bruges. However like the 70s cliche, Brussels is the dowdy secretary who wears glasses but once she removes them everyone sees how beautiful she is and how she has a lot more to offer then her superficial colleague (Bruges) in the typing pool.