6 July 2005 :We started around 10.00am., while it rained. A fact that made our exit from the city more difficult, a city that didn’t have good marking on the road. Generally Brussels had a regional that called RING and a system with consecutively tunnels and exits, like an internal regional. So to use these two traffic systems , you should buy a good map of the city, or else the most likely thing for you is to get lost.
We managed after a while to find Ring and took the road to Gent and after Brugge. The quality of the roads was like Korinthos-Patra in Greece, but with endless straights. In particular until Brugge , we didn’t meet any turn, almost got asleep!!! Generally the national road of Belgium needed attention, either because the roadway wasn’t in a good condition( comparing with the other European countries), or the Belgium drivers are the worst!
About 12.00am. reached the beautiful Brugge. The rain that annoyed us for some periods had stopped. Even though the temperature didn’t get over 15 Celsius. Brugge is a well maintained middle age city and represents the destination for many tourists. Despite the fact that the day we visited the city, the weather was bad, it was crowded of people. Walked at the paved roads and visited the beautiful squares, also enjoyed our coffee in one of the many cafe that stand there. Reached the middle age centre of the city, the Markt that raised the bell tower and next, from a narrow road full of shops with traditional clothes, found to Burg. At last, went to Groenerei, a small but fabulous place to walk along a beautiful piece of the canal.
The time was 5.00pm. and decided to return to Brussels for sight seeing at the centre. When we got there it started raining, so we considered it a good opportunity for resting a little and tour later, besides it was getting dark so late, that 11.00pm. thought to be 9.00 pm!!! It was already 8.00pm. and still sprinkled. Despite of this fact, we started for the known Grand Place that was far only 10-15 minutes on foot from the hotel. Passed some paved roads and reached the central square. Really impressive!!! In the old days it was the headquarters of the craft guilds and at the sides of the square we saw the grand buildings, at the top of them were glorious statues that sparkle the day and lighten the night.
At the south of the square, above the Rue Charles Buls, we saw a statue that was dedicated to the city from its artists. It is found besides a flat statue of Everard ’t Serclaes, a hero – touch its torso for good luck! At last, a little bit further at the cross road of rue du Chene & rue de l’Etuve, reached to see the statue of the small boy that pee - Maneken Piss.
After took many photos, headed to the populous restaurants that stand around the roads and there you can find every kind of cookery, Italian, German, Chinese, Libanese, Greek,…We prefer the delicious and known oysters… we recommend them if you find yourself at Brussels.
The time was 11.00pm. and had been phoned by Vangelis and Nikos, that had returned from their visit to Vangelis uncle. Before got to bed, went to a pub for a beer from those that Belgium is famous.