Belgium: Brussels and Bruges

Travelling to Belgium is, in many ways, a little like coming home for us. We lived in Bruges and Brussels for over 3 years; it’s where we started our married life together. We wanted to show the kids our old neighbourhoods and relive some of the experiences we’d had when we lived here.

Brussels

Pulling into the Gare du Midi was like any large train station in a big European city: crowded, noisy and a little confusing. Despite the major renovation work happening in the station, we found our way to the taxi stand, but not before walking past a large military vehicle and soldiers. This seemed, to us, like a larger military presence than in Paris (although there were many soldiers at the main tourists site there as well).

After driving along the 95 bus route to Watermael-Boitsfort, we arrived at our Airbnb in Trois Tilleuls. This was definitely a highlight of our stay. The home was one of hundreds of workers cottages built in the 1920s. We had often passed by these cottages and wondered about their history and interiors.

This cottage was very well renovated and even better, the neighbourhood was teeming with children! Our kids weren’t in the backyard for more than 10 minutes when a group of curious kids came by to introduce themselves. For the remainder of our time in Brussels, the kids were outside as much as possible playing with their new friends. It was the first time during our trip that our kids had friends their own age to play with. And there was an added bonus of the kids being able to speak (in French) with their new friends.

The rest of our time in Brussels was spent enjoying our old neighbourhood (including the amazing weekend market), visiting some of the main tourist sites, school work and catching up with a few friends (and we wished we had time to catch up with more!).

We enjoyed eating “moules et frites” (mussels with fries) for the first time at Chez Leon (only EUR 30 for the four of us, thanks to an online coupon!) and taking the kids through our old neighbourhood. One of the reasons we loved living in Boitsfort is that it doesn’t really feel like you are living in a big European capital.

Then it was off to Bruges.

Bruges

The “Venice of the North” was an opportunity to have a stretch of more concentrated academic time for the kids in a calm environment. We enjoyed our time walking around the city, walking beside and over canals.