I had gone to Netherlands for official work. Netherlands being a 'Schengen' state, the visa is valid for 15 EU countries. I happened to visist Brussels (in Belgium) during this trip. A short story about my trip..
We started at 12'00 noon. From Maastricht we took a train to Leige. It was just 15 minutes journey and we were in a different country!
From there we took another train to Brussels Nord. This was one hour journey. Belgium is a country where 3 languages are spoken i.e French, Dutch and German. Mostly people speak Dutch or French. In the train we met a French person, who could speak quite a good english and he told us many things about Belgium. There are many Indians in Belgium because there is steel plant in belgium by Mr. Laxmi Mittal and many indians work there.
There we got down and took a day travel pass. This can be used throughtout the day for going anywhere in brussels using metro, bus or train. We were supposed to take a bus tour which takes us around brussels and we can see 13 famous points. One of these points is mini europe which has miniature monuments of all famous places in each european country. But we met one indian at Brussels Nord, who told us to visit the central place in brussels which has many old beautiful buildings. So from Brussels Nord station we went to Brussels Central. From here there is a place called Grand Place which has very old beautiful buildings and a church. Since it was Xmas time, everything was very beautifully decorated :) i will send the pictures soon.. The symbol of Belgium is a funny one.. its a statue of a small naked boy urinating in a fountain. Its called manneken pis. We were searching for this statue but we missed that ;) May be we will find him next time :)
We roamed around in the central market area taking pictures and going around..
From here we wanted to go to mini europe. We were looking which metro to choose when one lady told us that we should take a train to the place called Heisal. She was going in the same direction with her family. But when we boarded the train we realised that we were travelling in the wrong direction. So we got down at the next station and took a train going in opposite direction, we went till a place called Bekkant. From here we changed the line (trian route) to go in the right direction. Metros are just like tube trains in UK. The frequency of these trains is good and we can use one train pass to roam around as much as we want!
When we reached Heisal, it was already 5 30 and dark. Mini europe tour was unfortunately closed. We will go there some other time.. But there was another attraction in the same place called Atomium. This is a huge structure of molecule containing atoms. Each atom is a circular room. There are stairs leading to each atom and we see a different view of Brussels from each atom. It was looking amazing due to the lighting.
Near the atomium there was a famous theatre called kineeapolis. It was also nicely decorated.
After seeing atomium we came back from Heisal to Brussels Central. We went to Brussels city center again and while roaming aroudn, we lost the way (thanks. to me!! :P). Then we asked a guy about the directions of the station. The guy was very handsome ;) He was originally from Brazil.
Before going to the station we went to a chocolate shop. Belgian chocs are very famous. We tasted a choc there for free. I chose the one with alcohol ;). And I bought some chocs there. Megh u will get to eat the chocs. Manu is going to miss them :P (sorry manu,.. pan te rahanar nahit megh usa la pocheparenta nahitar tichya barobar mi pathavle aste tula L)
From here we could have gone to Brussels Nord and then back to Leige. But we saw that there was a direct train to Leige from here. We reached Leige. From here we had to take a train to Éupen which goes via Maastricht. While going back you have to be careful in choosing the train, because the train splits at a station. Half of the dabbas go to Maastricht and the other half goes in other direction. Thank God we knew about it. Another speciality of this train is that it stops at only two stations between Leige to Maastricht, so it’s a fast train.
From there we took another train to Brussels Nord. This was one hour journey. Belgium is a country where 3 languages are spoken i.e French, Dutch and German. Mostly people speak Dutch or French. In the train we met a French person, who could speak quite a good english and he told us many things about Belgium. There are many Indians in Belgium because there is steel plant in belgium by Mr. Laxmi Mittal and many indians work there.
There we got down and took a day travel pass. This can be used throughtout the day for going anywhere in brussels using metro, bus or train. We were supposed to take a bus tour which takes us around brussels and we can see 13 famous points. One of these points is mini europe which has miniature monuments of all famous places in each european country. But we met one indian at Brussels Nord, who told us to visit the central place in brussels which has many old beautiful buildings. So from Brussels Nord station we went to Brussels Central. From here there is a place called Grand Place which has very old beautiful buildings and a church. Since it was Xmas time, everything was very beautifully decorated :) i will send the pictures soon.. The symbol of Belgium is a funny one.. its a statue of a small naked boy urinating in a fountain. Its called manneken pis. We were searching for this statue but we missed that ;) May be we will find him next time :)
We roamed around in the central market area taking pictures and going around..
From here we wanted to go to mini europe. We were looking which metro to choose when one lady told us that we should take a train to the place called Heisal. She was going in the same direction with her family. But when we boarded the train we realised that we were travelling in the wrong direction. So we got down at the next station and took a train going in opposite direction, we went till a place called Bekkant. From here we changed the line (trian route) to go in the right direction. Metros are just like tube trains in UK. The frequency of these trains is good and we can use one train pass to roam around as much as we want!
When we reached Heisal, it was already 5 30 and dark. Mini europe tour was unfortunately closed. We will go there some other time.. But there was another attraction in the same place called Atomium. This is a huge structure of molecule containing atoms. Each atom is a circular room. There are stairs leading to each atom and we see a different view of Brussels from each atom. It was looking amazing due to the lighting.
Near the atomium there was a famous theatre called kineeapolis. It was also nicely decorated.
After seeing atomium we came back from Heisal to Brussels Central. We went to Brussels city center again and while roaming aroudn, we lost the way (thanks. to me!! :P). Then we asked a guy about the directions of the station. The guy was very handsome ;) He was originally from Brazil.
Before going to the station we went to a chocolate shop. Belgian chocs are very famous. We tasted a choc there for free. I chose the one with alcohol ;). And I bought some chocs there. Megh u will get to eat the chocs. Manu is going to miss them :P (sorry manu,.. pan te rahanar nahit megh usa la pocheparenta nahitar tichya barobar mi pathavle aste tula L)
From here we could have gone to Brussels Nord and then back to Leige. But we saw that there was a direct train to Leige from here. We reached Leige. From here we had to take a train to Éupen which goes via Maastricht. While going back you have to be careful in choosing the train, because the train splits at a station. Half of the dabbas go to Maastricht and the other half goes in other direction. Thank God we knew about it. Another speciality of this train is that it stops at only two stations between Leige to Maastricht, so it’s a fast train.
We reached Maastricht at 10:00 @ night
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