Morning in Brussels

We've spent the last 3 days in Brussels and Bruges. It was really great, but freezing!

We caught the Eurostar to Brussels after work on Friday night, and arrived at about 11 p.m. at Brussels Midi station. First impressions were not great, everything was closed and there were homeless people and other scary looking people everywhere. The whole station just looked abandoned and creepy. We had to get Euro's out from a cash machine, since we were using a travel card, and you can only withdraw cash in the country you're in, so we had no Euro's when we first arrived.

Trying to find a cash machine was a mission, we eventually found an employee who directed us to the right place, but we were so stressed and freaked out by then. I thought we'd have to walk to our hotel in the dark and freezing cold. We got a taxi from outside the station, and he charged us way too much for a 10 minute cab ride. But apparently that happens all the time in Brussels, cab drivers are notorious for ripping people off. But it was late and I wanted to get away from the station so I really didn't care.

Once we got to the hotel it was fine, super comfy bed and lovely shower. So things started looking up after that.

The next morning we left our bags at the hotel and walked into the city. Our train wasn't until 3.00 p.m. so we had the morning to walk around Brussels. There wasn't too much to see, so we pretty much saw most of the city in about 4 hours. We went to the Christmas markets, and to the Grand Place, which is a big square with these amazing old buildings and a big Christmas tree. Was a shame we couldn't see it at night, because they do a laser show in the square. But it was still pretty during the day time. The markets themselves weren't that great, they were pretty small, so we didn't really buy anything, but we had waffles with strawberries and whipped cream which was delicious.