As I mentioned earlier, the English school system is what Americans would call "year round" - they have a very short summer break, and then other long breaks sprinkled throughout the year. Each of the three terms has a week-long break halfway through, imaginatively called the "half term". Our first one, back in the fall, we'd spent in Amsterdam and had a lovely time. So, for the next one, we decided to go to Belgium for a long weekend. We expected it to be similarly lovely, and because it's so close to London, it would be an easy trip.
At this point, it was February of 2020. Not only does that make it a cold and dark time for travel, but of course the pandemic was on its way. We had no way to know this would be our last trip before everything locked down. We all had been sick earlier in the week, and weren't feeling great when it was time to travel. So- in short - this trip was not as nice as the weekend in Amsterdam. It had some good moments, but not our best.
Day 1: Travel
One of the coolest things about this trip was that we took the train to get there! It was so much nicer than fussing with the airports - we just tubed into the city, hopped on the train, and arrived in no time. I made Mission Impossible jokes the whole time as we traveled through the tunnel under the channel. When we arrived, we did a quick walk into the old part of the city to see a very nice lights display, and then decided to pick up easy dinner from the grocery store instead of braving the restaurants.
on the train- heading for the chunnel
lights display downtown
Day 2: Waffles and Wandering
So the next morning, we set out to see the town. Brussels is known for its waffles, so that was our first stop. We went to the Galleries St-Hubert- a very cool indoor shopping area that has excellent waffle spots- beautiful, crispy waffles smothered in chocolate. Then, as if that wasn't enough sugar for everyone, we stopped by Neuhaus for some amazing Belgian chocolate truffles.
beautiful waffles
chocolate-covered children
babies like sugar too!
Now that we were all hyped up, it was time to walk around the city. We headed back to the Grand Place, the old city square, which is beautiful. We swung by the Mannekin Pis, a small water fountain of a little boy peeing. It is a huge attraction for some reason. Then up to the Royal Quarter where the Palais Royale and Palais de Justice are located - both beautiful, ornate buildings to see. I believe we stopped in the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts to use the bathrooms, so that kind of counts.
Grand Place
not smiling in the Grand Place
cranky babies in the Grand Place
infamous pissing boy
I am shocked.
Palace Royal
Palace de Justice
At this point everyone was cold and tired and getting hungry for lunch. We skipped the palace grounds, which are supposed to be really nice, and instead headed to the MIM for lunch. The MIM, or Musee des Instruments de Music (Music Museum) is supposed to be pretty awesome. We had a great experience in Vienna's music museum, and thought it would also be a great option for kids and a way to warm up. Plus, we had read that the rooftop cafe had great food and amazing views of the city below. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a huge flop. The elevator wasn't working, so we had to carry everything up like 10 flights of stairs to the top. Then, we got there and it was so crowded, we waited in line for over an hour (while holding a napping baby) to get in. The food turned out to be nothing spectacular and we didn't get a table with a view. We ended up skipping the actual museum and just headed back to the room.
disappointed.
By the end, we were all just tired and cranky, so we went back to our room to rest up. It was raining and cold, so I just swung by the local shop to pick up some premade food before putting everyone in bed. It was a disappointment for sure- I had been really looking forward to the mussels and thought the fries would be an easy win for the boys - but it wasn't in the cards.
Day 3: One last waffle and time to go!
The next morning, we went out in search of the other kind of belgian waffle (because there are 2!), and were able to get a few right off of the Grand Place, to eat with a view one last time. Then it was time to pack up and head back to the train station and back home.
This definitely wasn’t our best trip because of a few unfortunate factors. First, the weather was just bad. It was cold and rainy, and we couldn’t escape it. There were a number of nice outdoor gardens that would’ve been great with kids, but for the weather. And if it had just been us, we could’ve escaped into the museums or restaurants, but really couldn’t with the kids. Second, everyone was sick, so it made everything more difficult, less fun. I feel like we didn’t give Brussels a fair chance, and if I had a chance to go back, I would.
One thing I find perplexing is why our trip to Amsterdam was so different. Both trips were with two small kids, in cold, rainy weather. Both were just city-trips, nothing super ambitious, with easy travel. Both are similar countries with similar food and culture. Yet somehow the Amsterdam trip was charming and Brussels just wasn’t.
A few lessons learned - definitely don’t travel with kids to cities in crummy winter weather. I think we had already learned the similar lesson for trying to travel around cities in the heat of the summer. We were successful at a few baby travel things - we made sure the Airbnb had a crib so we didn’t have to bring ours - and knew we didn’t need a car for any of it, so we didn’t need the car seats. All we had was the collapsible stroller. We put everything else in one huge roller suitcase - which turned out to be a disaster when we needed to get it up several flights of narrow stairs to our room - 2 medium bags would be better than 1 huge one.
Anyway - overall - still nice to get away from home. Especially in hindsight - knowing that we were about to enter months of lockdown. More on that shortly.
