So when booking our flights it turned out to be cheaper to fly back on New Years Eve and have a stop over in Brussels although this stop over was a 7 hour gap…
The choice is stay in the airport or make the most of the time we have and go sight seeing around Brussels.
Of course we chose the obvious one for us, as neither of us have ever ventured into Brussels we needed to experience those Belgian fries somehow.
Even though Sassi though was in the beginning stages of a cold she was still motivated to go and see the city. So we landed at around 2pm and made our way to the Bus station.
We originally planned to take the train but a return fare would of cost us a staggering €17 euro each which is a lot of money for a few hours to spend in the city, so we went for the slower yet cheaper option of a single ride Bus ticket only €4 each. As we had not planned anything the bus took us to the end of the line which was the European Union Parliament. We got to explore this large interesting building, although carrying our luggage didn’t feel to great on the cobble streets especially as they had wheels.
From here we walked over to the main centre of Brussels, this walk took us through empty streets, and empty parks, there was hardly anyone around which had an eerie feel to the place but once we arrived at central station area we came across lots of people. Around Brussels Place was pretty amazing the architecture and detail in the buildings really stood out. There were people crowded all over the place and christmas markets scattered around the cobble streets. This seemed to be where all the life was in Brussels right now gearing up to New Years Eve. We only spent a little while here and had a look around at some of the chocolates that Brussels has to offer. We spent all our euros in Austria so we were currently relying on our cards for money which meant transaction fees abroad so we weren’t as keen to spend much. So this little trip was more of a window shopping experience and grabbing a hint of the Brussels experience.
We did see quite a lot of homeless people around the train station and centre, we felt that we should of done something like buy a hot drink for someone or give away some food but at the time we seemed to be concerned about the lack of cash we had with us. Looking back on it we realised that it shouldn’t of been a concern about not having cash as we could of made an effort.
We then headed back to the airport with the direct train single ticket was €8.90 and got us back to the airport in 15 minutes. There were soldier all around the station and at the entrance to the airport which is always a bit daunting to see. A lot more security at this airport for obvious reasons, but once we were throw security the airport was near enough empty, we managed to get some of the last food being served a nice healthy dinner of Fries and pasta, not much choice at this time.
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