Again we flew Ryan Air. I chose Belgium because I had never been there before and the flights were less than £30 return for me and even less than that for Dylan.
We arrived at Charleroi airport but still had a bit of travelling to go. I had decided I wanted to
stay nearer the city centre than the airport this time so we got the Brussell
City Bus and headed straight there. As I said I only take hand luggage so we
skipped all the queues for the bus. The buses are clearly sign posted.. every 30
mins and the journey to town takes 1 hour. Children under 4 go free and I think
my ticket was around £14. I had
purchased my tickets online so I didn’t have to mess about but you can buy them
at the stands at the airport. I had it booked for the wrong month but the
driver didn’t notice so it didn’t matter
We were dropped off by the bus to Gare Du Midi station. Because
it was late from there we jumped a taxi to the apartment which was about 8
Euros, 15 minutes up the road. Our apartment was purchased on Air BnB and by
far the cutest wee studio room ever. We stayed at Rue du Doyenne 65, Bruxelles,
1180. It had a kitchen, living room, bathroom/showeroom. It was a very confined space but it was everything we needed and 37 Euros a night so a great deal. I think it isactually 40 a night now but still a great deal.
The area where we
were had lots of shops, pubs, restuarants…we picked up breakfast to make back
in the apartment so we could eat that while lounging about in the morning.
There was a tv which was a bonus but we mainly used the Wifi for the Ipad
anyway. The host was lovely, I text her a few times about where places were etc
and got a reply straight away. Check in was easy. She gave me a code to type in
a box at the door, this opened the box and the keys were there. Similar to
checking out, she offered a later check out which was great as it suited our
flights.
We enjoyed Brusells and what it
had to offer, the people were friendly and helpful. I wanted to start by visiting the Manneken
Pis, 1000 Bruxelles. My mum spoke about seeing it when she was younger so
thought it would be a good place to start. From our apartment you can head
there by Uber £15 for around 25 minute drive. Failing that you can get the 51
Van Haelen train to the city centre with a 10 minute walk after. Sat Nav again
will come in handy. The Manneken Pis was absolutely tiny. I thought it was
going to be really big! Still though it was cute and Dylan thought it was
funny.
I had promised Dylan a Belgium
waffle so we walked around a found a stall by the Central Station. We sat
eating in the station eating them and they were in-cred-ible! It was cold so we
were wearing our hats and scarfs and it was just a lovely moment. The train
station was beautiful too, all marble and classy.I had promised Dylan a Belgium waffle so we walked around a found a stall by the Central Station. We sat eating in the station eating them and they were in-cred-ible! It was cold so we were wearing our hats and scarfs and it was just a lovely moment. The train station was beautiful too, all marble and classy. It was absolutely massive. Way bigger than I had imagined. We didn't buy a ticket to go on the tour. We just walked around it on our own and played in the sun with Dylan's toy cars posing for pictures.
After this we walked up to the
Mini Europe which isn’t far at all. Dylan absolutely loved it. This was a good
opportunity to help him understand the different countries and the landmarks
within them.
You can press the button at each country and it will play the
national anthem and often the models will lights up or move. We spent hours
here just walking around then we had lunch in the café. We made our way back to
the bus and went back to the centre. We walked about the shops buying souvenirs
and postcards. We went for Dinner then headed back to the apartment because we
were leaving for Paris the next day. I thought that we could not go all the way
to Belgium and not visit France. Another country to tick of that is just a
train journey away…..
After the day we had in Paris (see my next blog) we came back to our apartment to go straight to sleep. In the morning we had a late check out so we spent the day walking about, getting lunch then relaxed in the apartment. We got the bus to the station where we got the coach back to the airport. I had the wrong month for our tickets purchase (again!), the driver noticed.. I had to fork out for a new one. gutted.
contact
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