Belgium and Luxembourg

We've officially worn ourselves out in Luxembourg today. For such a small town, we still managed to get a bit lost and wander a lot!

We arrived in Brussels on Monday and got our first experience in a country where English wasn't the main language (shock, horror!). Most people have understood or spoken it just fine, but the writing has been difficult - at train stations, menus, exhibits, that kind of stuff. But we're managing just fine, and French is pretty easy to decipher with some attention to detail.

Our first impression of Brussels wasn't very good ... they have public urinals set up around the train station and thus the entire place just stank of piss. We managed to get pretty lost until we got internet access, then figured out how to get to our hotel - which turned out to be an epic quest that took us some time. The place was cheap and comfortable, but MY GOD was it out of the way!! Brussels turned out to be about 75% unimpressive and 25% gorgeous. The Great Place in the city centre has grand old buildings that take your breath away, and we found a few other nice spots as well. The rest looked shabby, smelled bad and wasn't very appealing.

We tripped up to Bruge after that, and that was quite a change! The hotel was pretty much next to the train station, and central Bruge was across the road from that. Every part of Bruge just oozes old-time charm, from the frequent horses and carts to the lack of advertising to the cobblestone streets. It's all lovely, and we could have spent days just wandering around and soaking in how nice it all was. Lots of churches, museums, and just generally charming places to see. Also so, so much chocolate and waffles ... pretty sure Belgium has made us a lot heavier than we were coming in! We also met a random Australian who is studying in Rotterdam, Rae, who gave us a few tips on things to see and not to see, which was great! Had a good chat over a complimentary beer from the only Bruge brewery left. They run very educational and fun tours through the actual operational brewery! Tom went up the bell tower (alone - 366 stairs, I opted for a pot of tea in a nearby cafe instead) and we generally agreed it's 'like a fookin' fairytale'.

After our two nights in Bruge we headed down to Luxembourg, though not without mishaps. The existence of a station in Brussels called "Brussel-Luxembourg" (WHY, WHY) caused a problem with us getting on the wrong train and me realising it half an hour later. Unfortunately to people who don't speak English as a first language, asking if 'this train goes to Luxembourg' can be misinterpreted in Brussels. But eventually we made it down, and wow - such a different impression from Brussels! Everything looked pristine but classic, just like a historic city with the money to stay contemporary would. The city is on a bed of sandstone, and it's had some brilliant effects - the river through the city has carved a huge gorge in it, so there's a drastic cliff between the High Town and Low Town, as they call it. It's quite amazing to see! Also a lot of the buildings are made from sandstone, and kept very clean, so everything looked very bright and happy throughout the entire town. It's a wealthy country, and it really shows in the people and buildings (and menu prices).

Tomorrow we're off to Maastricht in the Netherlands, so another new country for us! The Eurail passes have been very useful and worry-free so far, and we've mostly been able to figure out the various public transport systems without a worry. And without the car, it's much cheaper!

Anyway, to sleep - until next time! Photos being posted on Facebook now.