Bonjour Belgium: Day 10- Brussels & Bruges
Rain. Rain. Haven’t you got any mercy for us? We left Brussels in a wet condition, and I rushed ZE to walk faster eveywhere. Perhaps I should let her go at her own pace, but it was raining.
We checked-out from our Airbnb rental around 10am. I was hoping to be able to change notes to coins with our host, for our tram ride. But we didn’t see her, not her family around. We asked few people, but no one helped us. Not exactly a friendly city, in our opinion. I then decided to use my credit card, which was accepted as a payment mode.
At tram station, we encountered a drunk man, trying to push his way through ticket gate without a ticket. ZE was caught by surprise, and stood there staring. I had to urge her to scan her ticket, and further our distance from the man. Also, there were two guys jumping over a ticket gate in another station. What a day!
We took a tram to Exki, the ‘carrot place‘ that we went to the day before. Two reasons: wifi (we didn’t have wifi at our Airbnb rental) and good food. And of course, friendly staff.
We both choose their continental breakfast set, €2.00.
We sat there minding our own business separately.
As the rain slowed down, we walked to Fritland for lunch. Supposedly a popular fritte joint for local. Costs us €3.50, too big a portion, even for two of us. Nice fries with spicy dipping, but not spicy enough for our tastebuds. It left us feeling enough fried stuffs for the time being.
We then took tram no 4, from Boeurs tram station to Gare du Midi, for our train to Bruges.
Ticket gate at Brussels tram stations gave us many problems. Not sure whether it was because the magnetic stripe on the card is super-sensitive. But we were stuck few times.
Brussels’ tram stations were also stinky-minky with urine smell. And we also encountered few homeless people sleeping inside the station. And their belongings with rubbish were scattered on the station. Not a pleasant experience, compared to Holland.
Bye-bye Brussels, you will not be missed.
Train to Bruges took us around 1 hour. At ticket counter, we were told that children travel for free (and ZE immediately brightened up into a big smile). So, only I paid €14.10 for our ride to Bruges.
Bruge. Brugeeeeee! The only city so far that got me dovey-eyes. So quaint. It’s charimastic. I love Bruge. Love its cobblestone street. Love its cloudy skies. Love everything about it.
We were planning to eat at Medard, but it was closed. So we walked around, and ended up eating at ‘t Vagevuurd. I ordered carbonnade (Belgian beef stew in beer), but from a kids’ menu. Silly me, it came sans beer, as informed by staff. Then, why bother? *knockforehead
