04-04-2024 Entry

Got up a little late, good sleep but I had trouble getting to sleep in the first place. We packed up our stuff, had breakfast, and did a final clean-up of the flat. It was a nice layout with a great location, but it was sparse for dishes and had no food supplies to speak of, other than coffee. We walked over to the same tram stop and took it to the train station, bought tickets with no problems (thank God for English language screens), and go to the train platform with time to spare. The train was busy but we still found seats easily. It took longer than expected, but we got out of the train station around 11:30 and started walking. We headed over to the neighborhood by the Airbnb and got there in 10-15 minutes. Ann looked for a place to have lunch, and we ended up eating at the Jaffa restaurant, which served Palestinian food. It opened at noon, and the food was decent, nothing super special. After that, we walked through the nearby church (that, interestingly enough, had some kind of Polish connection) and sat there until a little before 1:30, when we were supposed to meet our host. It was a short walk, and the host's friend let us into the flat, where we dropped off our stuff and prepared to walk around in the afternoon. Then we headed over to the main square in Brussels, and it was pretty magnificent. Beautiful buildings surrounding the square. The weather was alternatively sunny and cloudy, always breezy. We walked around the square, taking pictures, then found the side street where the commercial shops were. Of course, they were all around this tourist spot. We sat down and mapped out the next spot. Walked over to the Mannekin Pis, a small fountain featuring a cherubic boy pissing into the pool. This landmark sculpture is regarly dressed in different outfits, this time it was NATO-themed, next up was supposed to be Dracula. From here, we headed over to the Royal Palace about 10 minutes away. On the way over, we got caught in a short, fairly heavy rain shower, but we found shelter and it was over quickly. Over to the palace, not much to report other than that it was grand in size. We walked through garden park nearby, pretty flowers were in bloom, then Ann found a church, Église Notre-Dame des Victoires au Sablon, that we walked over to see. I was getting tired by this point, so when we got to the church, I sat down in a seat next to where an organist was playing and a vocal quartet was practicing. It would have been nice to hear them sing/play consistently, but it was practice after all. I walked around the church a little bit and took a couple of pictures, then sat to listen some more. After this stop, we walked over to a famous sculpture garden, but we didn't stay long. Ann saw that I was flagging, so after seeing the Peter Pan sculpture we headed out and back to the flat. We were surprisingly, and thankfully, close, including a short walk down a graffiti-filled alley. We stopped at a Lidl store, much like Aldi in concept with a mishmash of items for sale. I got some chocolate milk, and we got dinner prep food. We added some stuff to the ramen we brought from Ghent and ate that for dinner. It was filling. The chocolate milk was creamy and quite good, especially after I chilled it in the freezer. Ann and I shared a bottle of wine. Another quiet evening in the flat, it seems to be our go-to strategy for this trip to allow for down time.