Belgium is a country you want to return to
the idea to visit Belgium came to light spontaneously and justified an observation not only noted by me long ago: spontaneous decisions bring the best of the best into our lives.And it all didn’t start out very rosy: on a rainy September day, I couldn’t know what to do with myself in order to get rid of the state of complete weakness – I happened to be nervous in the run-up to it.
But I knew the exact way to help myself – I went to my favorite cafe, ordered cocoa with marenga and wrote an SMS to a friend that he lived in Italy. My friend is a treasure, a couple of minutes of communication with him brings a smile back to my face. We have known each other for 20 years now and we always find consciousness, we are united in our passion for wandering.
Word for word, I complained to a friend about the autumn blues and decided to ask him to visit him in Italy – the breeze from Lake Garda had already dispersed my melancholy, a proven remedy. A friend asked how many days I have the opportunity to devote to an excursion. I had a week. He answered – super, this is quite enough for a trip to Belgium, are you flying? I agreed without hesitation!
we got to Belgium on low-cost Ryanair; a ticket from Milan cost us only 40 euros. Low-cost flights in Belgium are used by Charleroi airport, which is located in the Walloon part of Belgium, 50 kilometers from Brussels. Closer – 11 kilometers away in Zaventem is the main Brussels airport, which receives flights from large aviation companies. Brussels is easily accessible by train from Paris, otherwise Amsterdam – an hour’s journey and you’re there.
From the airport you can easily get to the capital of Belgium by bus shuttles, which run every thirty minutes and, according to an unconfirmed online booking, can cost 10 euros per person. At the shuttle stop, tourists are greeted by a characteristic Belgian aroma – buses park their car right in front of a kiosk selling French fries – they are considered the national Belgian dish and will also be encountered more than once on your Belgian travel. In Bruges there is even a round museum dedicated to it! It’s clear that these smells make your mouth water and your hands reach out to your wallet for a five-euro note – that’s how much a huge portion of potatoes, generously seasoned with mayonnaise, costs. There is no need to rush – in the very center of Brussels, at any step you can buy a similar portion for 1. 5 euros, take a bottle of the legendary Belgian beer from a nearby shop (more than 900 varieties of it are produced in the state) and, sitting down right on the pavement of the main square of the Grand Place, have a city picnic.
the shuttle brings travelers to one of Brussels’ three train stations – South (Gare du Midi, otherwise Brussel-Zuid). It is extremely convenient as a starting point for traveling around Belgium, because passenger trains depart from it to Flanders – Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and to the southern French-speaking part of the country – Wallonia. And if your plans are to see Brussels itself first, then in the station building you can easily find the metro station of the same name and get to every part of Brussels in thirty minutes. We went on foot – the apartment we rented temporarily while in Belgium was a 15-minute walk from the station, and it took us the same amount of time to get to the center of the village. Imagine our amazement when we saw the name of the street leading to our temporary home: Stalingrad Boulevard! What added piquancy was the fact that Stalingrad is the main street of the Moroccan quarter.
On our first evening in Brussels, we saw almost everything: the Manneken Pis statue, the central Grand Place, with its City Hall and magnificent medieval palaces. Through the adjacent Royal Galleries—an arcade of the most valuable boutiques and a meeting place for Brussels’ aristocracy in bygone days—we emerged into the fresh air of the Butchers’ Quarters, where we found ourselves immersed in a festive atmosphere: cozy restaurants serving national cuisine, chaotic cabarets, and the Theatre de Toone, a puppet theater that tops Tripadvisor’s list of Brussels entertainment. We couldn’t pass up this festive day of life and sat down at a table in one of the restaurants, where we indulged in one of the traditional Belgian dishes: Moules frites, mussels simmered in a wine or beer sauce with herbs, served with French fries. They brought rare devices, which, to our shame, we were only able to figure out how to use by connecting to Wi-Fi.
In the historic center, tourists can purchase and try everything that is considered the hallmark of Belgium: chocolate of the most exquisite varieties and intricate shapes, lace and tapestries, and, of course, Belgian waffles, the aroma of which is unforgettable. They are served soaked in jam and syrup, with ice cream, fruit, drizzled with chocolate – delicious to the point of intoxication!
Thanks to Brussels’s relatively small size for a capital city, the main attractions are compactly located and can be seen in a day. But is there any reason to rush? It’s better to leisurely enjoy strolls through the cozy Ilot-Sacre and Marolles neighborhoods, or sit on the benches in the Parc du Cinquantenaire with a view of the Arc de Triomphe. Or spend time browsing vintage items at the flea market in the Sablon quarter, visiting the Atomium – the current symbol of Brussels – or the modern European Quarter, home to the European Commission and the European Parliament, as Brussels is also the capital of the European Union.
In Brussels, it’s easy to feel like a local – the city’s population is multinational thanks to the concentration of international government offices, and since Belgium was once a colonial power, Belgian Congolese are part of the local population. It’s difficult to distinguish tourists from Brussels residents, which makes it seem like there are few travelers in the city, making it easier to breathe. The same can’t be said for Bruges, arguably the most touristy city in Belgium.
one can understand the wanderers – once in Bruges, you find yourself in the atmosphere of a medieval fairy tale, where gingerbread houses, any with a native architectural twist, are located along the canals. Where in the Cathedral of Notre Dame there is only one statue of Michelagelo’s service, taken from Italy during his lifetime, and in the Basilica of the Holy Blood the blood of Jesus is kept in a crystal vial.
A mandatory program in Bruges is to ride along the canals on an excursion boat, at the same time listening to a half-hour excursion about the village in one of the European languages, to see the living landmark of the village – a very large dog that sleeps all day, exposing its face to the sun in the window of one of the houses on the canal. And, of course, drink beer or hot chocolate in one of the cafes on the Grote Markt market square, looking at the city hall with the Beffroy Tower.
Getting to Bruges (by the way, the Belgians call it softly – Bruche) is easy: every hour there is a train from Brussels, making stops in Ghent, Bruges and eventually in Ostend. We got there unplanned – having walked around all the sights of Bruges, we realized that we still had time to get to Ostend and then return today to see Bruges illuminated. Ostend is a resort city and the largest Belgian port on the North Sea. The closer we got to the pier, the more difficult it was to stay on our feet – the sea wind literally blew us off our feet and lowered us to the bones, but at the same time it brought the smell of the sea and the delight of the feeling of the vast expanses of the sea. Chilled on the coast, we ran to warm up at a bar on the embankment, and a portion of cognac came in handy.
We devoted one of the days to an excursion to Antwerp – also a port, but a river one, on the navigable Scheldt. This is a global center for jewelers and the diamond trade, right at the railway station – which, by the way, is recognized as the most beautiful in Europe, with sparkling windows of openwork showrooms. Antwerp is the birthplace of Rubens, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Blessed Virgin Mary houses two of his masterpieces. Other works of the artist, as well as more than 7 thousand paintings, engravings and sculptures from all eras are collected in the Royal Museum of Aesthetic Arts.
After taking a souvenir photo near Sten Castle, looking at the exhibits of the boat museum right on the street on the embankment, wandering through the narrow streets and not forgetting to look into Chinatown, where in addition to Asian restaurants there is a Chinese and Buddhist temple, and a wushu school, we headed back to the station. Along the road we quite often met Orthodox Jews – it is their community that owns antique and openwork shopping centers in the Diamond Quarter, and hereditary diamond cutters also live there. The rain that started made us hasten to hide in the cozy carriage of a high-speed passenger train.
We allowed ourselves to leave Wallonia on the list for once – we will definitely return to Belgium!
