day trip to brussels

on our third day in paris, we decided to have a day trip at brussels. we then boarded thalys train and left paris nord at around nine in the morning and arrived at brussels midi station an hour and a half later.

brussels is  the capital and largest city in belgium. it is also the capital of the 27 nation european union. french is the most widely spoken language alongside with dutch and german. the place is divided into two areas;  the newer upper town and the lower town which is known to be the historic medieval core of the city

great view of the upper and lower town of  the city of brussels, belgium

we met up with our private tour guide, michael eyns at the station. i saw his profile at tripadvisor. medyo pricey yung rate but again, we have a toddler with us and yun yung major consideration ko. comfort and safety and out of all the private tour guides that i found in google for this trip, i decided to get michael  given all the good reviews and medyo magaan yung loob ko talaga. later on, my gut feel proved me right because his wife happened to be a kababayan. that i didnt know ha, that day na lang, when he asked us if from where kami, he blurted na lang that he is married to a filipina. awww. small, small world.

belgium royal palace

the city hall

some historic old own building near the city hall

across the town hall

busy area leading to various restos

the thing that i noticed, andaming structures na at first akala mo church. even their city hall you would think na church sya the first time. michael mentioned that compared before, less and less people are attending the mass na. in fact, the whole of belgium, most of the churches, closed na. some even used it for business, like, they converted it into a hotel. some talagang, tourist attraction na lang. ang sad no? i mean, nasasayangan ako kasi ang gaganda nung church eh.

saint michel and gudula cathedral  

beautiful ceiling detail inside

nice no?

we toured around the whole city for four hours and it was nice naman. na wish ko tuloy na sana in our country, kasi diba, manila yung first stop talaga so sana aside from intramuros, we were able to restore pa sana some old structures from before. kasi sila, even those super old buildings na, the officials  had an agreement with tenants and owners to keep the facades of the buildings.  kahit super modern inside.

of course, belgium is known for super strong beers so michael took the husband to this place. at first i thought it was a secret place cos we had to pass by a really small eskinita. but apparently, the place itself, popular pala sya not just with tourists but with the locals. the place had this creepy feel at first kasi madilim with all the hanging stuff, pero it wasn't that bad naman. 

hubby tasting kwak beer

with michael eyns, our private tour guide

inside the pub

this is what am talkin about... few minutes later, is jampacked! teehee.

while waiting for daddy to finish his kwaaak

side kwento. the stroller that we used that day was actually provided by michael. i  asked him the night before if he could arrange for us to rent one kasi nga we left the stroller in stockholm. since we still had one more day left in  paris, i asked him if he could sell it to me na lang. he called his wife and her wife just gave it to us. yay! 

anyways, here are some more of the photos we had during the trip.

cheeeeese

the flag is up which means the king is not around

tposing with he city mayor statue with his dog

at the galleria

lovely flowers at the town hall area

while looking for a place to eat

the linos at brussels, beliguim, october 2012

laters! xx