Today we woke up to a bright sunny day with blue sky. However it was still cool. The temperature was 8C and the feels like temperature was 4C. We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
The plan was to explore Brussels today. It would be our last full day in Europe.
We left the hotel at 10am and caught a tram from the nearby Stephanie Place. We followed the hotel's advice and used our credit cards to tap on to pay the fare. The hotel had suggested we get off at the Palace and walk down the hill from there.
On the way down, we had good views of the city.
The first destination was the famous statue of the little boy having a leak. There were several tour groups there taking photos too.
Usually the statue is naked but today it was dressed and had a trumpet.
Then we went into a nearby shop that sold Belgian chocolates. Other shops were selling Belgian waffles. As the morning progressed, we saw lots more chocolate shops. It seemed as though almost every second shop was a chocolate shop.
A couple of blocks further on, we reached the Grand Place which is aptly named because it is surrounded on all four sides by grand buildings including the city hall.
By that time, we needed to escape from the cold for a while and so we went back to a waffles shop where we could sit down, get warm, enjoy coffee and a chocolate waffle and plan the rest of our outing.
When we left the waffle cafe, we noticed a shop that sold cannabis products.
Further on past the main square, we found a shopping arcade that reminded me of the Strand Arcade or perhaps the QVB back home. Apart from chocolate shops, it had expensive jewellery and handbag shops.
Finally we walked up the hill to the cathedral. It was a tall imposing structure. Inside it was nicely decorated with statues, paintings and stained glass windows. It was good to just sit there and admire it all.
It would be the last of many cathedrals we'd seen on our trip and it was a good one to finish with. Apparently this cathedral dates back about 1000 years.
When we left the cathedral, it was raining and so we caught a Uber back to our hotel. More than half of the journey was in tunnels rather than on the cobblestone streets.
For lunch, we went to a coffee shop about a block up the street from our hotel. The baguette was nice but I don't know why it took them half an hour to prepare it.
This afternoon, we'd asked the hotel for recommendations as to where to go for dinner tonight. Their preferred choice was Le Rendez-Vous des Artistes which is only 5 minutes walk away (or 15 minutes if you take wrong turn and you limp most of the way there).
It was a great choice. It was a delicious meal with good wine (Syrah). I had filet mignon medium (it really was medium this time) with potato croquettes while Suzy had beef stew with Belgian chips. There was no room left for dessert.
The bloke on my right had the tallest burger I've ever seen and the bloke on my left had the biggest pot of oysters that anybody has ever seen.
They really pack you in - just like one of the bistros we'd been to in Paris. To get in or out you needed to slide tables sideways to make enough room. I guess it's a sign of a popular restaurant.
When I asked for the bill, they gave me the bill for the couple on my left (who were still only part way through their meal) which resulted in lots of laughter. I probably should have paid it because it was cheaper than our bill.
After taking a more direct route and dodging puddles, we were back in our hotel soon after 8:30pm so we could enjoy some of the chocolates that Suzy had bought this morning at one of the many chocolate shops in Brussels.
Just for comparison, I had a glass of the cheap wine we'd bought yesterday at the supermarket. Although it tasted better than yesterday, it was nowhere near as good as the wine we'd had at the restaurant.
This was a great evening to conclude our holiday in Europe.
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