The Three Bs; Belgium, Brussels and Beer.

This weekend saw us finally make it to the continent. Our trip to Belgium had finally arrived, so Friday night we headed to Waterloo station after work for our 6 o'clock Eurostar to Brussels. After 2 and a half short hours, we arrived at Gare Midi, right in the centre of Brussels. We quickly managed to find a cab to whisk us through the streets to our hotel, the Warwick Barsey. Once checked in to the hotel, the working week caught up with us, so we familiarised ourselves with the room and went bed.

Saturday morning we arose and headed downstairs for the included breakfast, a wonderful buffet affair, allowing us to fill up for the busy day ahead. We started by wandering the three or so kilometres into town along Avenue Louise, past the Palais de Justice, the gallery district and an antiques market to 'Koningsplein'. The Royal Art Museum sits on Koningsplein, surrounded by the palaces, now filled with public facilites and hotels. The Royal Art Museum houses a wonderful collection, tranversing ancient art of Hieronymous Bosch from the 15th century all the way through to the modern art of Donald Judd and Pannamarenko.

Palace Turned Art Museum.

After spending a couple of hours wandering through the halls of the Royal Art Museum, we made our way to the Grand Place, the original market square of Brussels, for the National Belgium Beer Weekend. Some thirty stalls selling some 170 beers was brilliant. Unlike most festival type events elsewhere in the world, the prices were very reasonable! It was a great chance to try a wide variety of Belgian beers that I had never heard of! We took a quick break from the beers to visit the nearby beer museum, which consisted entirely of a video in french, and were disappointed, so we headed straight back to the tents for a final beer.

The Belgium Beer Weekend in Full Swing.

Happy Simon.

First Beers of the Day....Close Up.

Second Beers of the Day.

Sally with a Cherry Beer!

Third Beers for the Day.

Fourth and Final Beer for the Day.

Having finished our first day at the beer tents, we walked across town to the Belgium Comic Museum. Containing a broad range of information about how comics are made and the range of comics made in Belgium, it had an obvious focus on the greats Herge and Peyo. To end our Saturday we made our way to a bar called Archiduc, which apparently had an incredible interior and was a must to stop and have a drink. Unfortunately when we arrived, it wasn't open! So we settled for catching the tram back to our hotel for a brief rest before heading to a nearby cafe for dinner.

The Belgian Comic Museum.

Sunday morning we arose slightly later before hopping on a tram to head directly across town to visit the Atomium. The Atomium was built for the 1958 World Expo and is based on the structure of a unit cell of an iron crystal. It is a massive and striking building, but is basically just silly. I find it amazing that it was built, and that is has survived until now, but unless they store wigs in it, it just seems a little pointless.

The Atomium Peeking Through the Trees.

The Atomium Up Close.

The Atomium in All its Shiny Glory.

We broke our tram ride back into town by stopping at the Magritte Museum. The house that Rene Magritte and his wife Georgette lived in for 24 years before Magritte's work gained him fame and fortune has been restored and maintained and is now a museum. Holding a maximum of 20 people, this tiny museum is one of my favourite experiences due to the personal attention of the tour guide and the intimacy you feel seeing the home as it was when Magritte painted some of his great works. We wandered back to the tram to continue our journey to the city centre. We quickly headed back to the Grand Place to use up the last of our beer tokens, and to make some merchandise purchases. I managed to get a De Konnick t-shirt for a mere 4.50 euro!

Rene Magritte's House

My Final Beer Weekend Beer.

With the afternoon moving on and our evening train looming, we headed to the Horta Museum. Victor Horta is Belgium's most famous architect, and his house has also been turned into a museum. The amazing art nouveau styling that runs throughout the house covers every detail, from the balustrades through to the door handles. It was great to see an architect's house designed at the height of his career. Having finished our tour, we returned to the Warwick Barsey to collect our bag and then headed towards the train station, stopping for dinner along the way. We boarded the train and yet another short ride later, we arrived safe and sound at Waterloo.

Victor Horta's Front Door.

So that just about wraps up our weekend in Belgium, this week we face another 5 days of work before a thankfully quiet weekend.

Hope everyone's well, and here's the link to my map, with it's first continental place markers!
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&ll=53.553363,0.681152&spn=9.82604,29.223633&z=6&om=1