Day 2 (Molly): Bruges — Brussels — Arlon — Metz
After waking up bright and early in the morning we decided to set off and head towards Brussels – the capital of Belgium. It took James a while to wake up -being James- but he slowly got there. Today was the first day that he drove Dizzy (my amazing Skoda). He was nervous at first, bless him, but of course was a total natural… like most things he does which is annoying. Once we arrived at Brussels after an hours drive, we were welcomed with beautiful scenery and architecture.
We managed to dump my beautiful amazing Dizzy underground and were amazed at how such a simple idea can make our Brits lives better (red and green lights to indicate spaces available). They even have music playing in the background to make it less dreary.
We came across a lovely café that was situated on the corner over-looking the centre of the city. We had a latte and brunch, then decided to head to the shops!
Galeries St Hubert is definitely worth a visit. It was one of the first shopping arcade ever built in Europe and still is a nice and lively place. You can find sublime chocolate shops, restaurants, and some really nice cafés. Brussels was still as Christmassy as Bruges.
We didn’t feel the need to explore the entire city but James remembered that he had directed me to a particular area for a specific reason, so we decided to head back to remember why and then saw the peak of Brussels Town Hall. That’s when he realised that this was the reason why we were here. My reaction of the place says it all:
We spent a bit of time in Grand-Place in awe of the architecture. It wasn’t long before James was up to something… he decided to make the other tourists his subjects.
It wasn’t long before I was one of them.
We left Brussels and carried on our way through Belgium. We were amused by just how flat the country is and how it took 116 miles to see our first hill near Nil-Saint-Vincent-Saint-Martin. We decided to nip into Arlon for a coffee, this is easily the least touristy of our stops thus far. I had a lady speak to me in French after she heard us joke around with the only three phrases of French that we know. It gave us confidence of our accents. We nipped into a local shop for snacks and chuckled at how some stereotypes are true… Belgium's really do love waffles.
We headed into Metz after an hour on the road and found our accommodation for the night to dump our things.
On our way into the city, we found a version of Currys PC World… it never leaves us!
Around 6pm we tried to find somewhere to eat in the heart of Metz but soon realised nowhere was open. It turns out the French like to eat late… a perfect opportunity for a nice glass of wine and a cheeky beerski.
The beverages went down a treat and we needed to fill our bellies with good food. We came across a hidden gem, a truly authentic French restaurant (so we decided to have Italian dishes instead!). James impressed the locals with his French. Even got a thumbs up (I think this was more pity than anything hahahhaa… he disagrees though!)
Now we’re ready to go to bed and have even less of an idea of what may happen tomorrow! Au revoir!
