Brussels: excellent hotel in a mediocre city
Samantha and I have had a great time in Brussels. It was nice to be out of the house and out of the country again. However, as we made this trip especially for the hotel (we had gotten a hotel voucher for a free stay and chose our destination based upon the hotel, not the city), we got to spend two days in Brussels, which isn't actually a terrifying foresight, but Brussels just... doesn't seem to have the magic touch to it.
Upon arrival in Brussels, we stashed our suitcases in a locker and decided to head for one of the main attractions of Brussels we had left out on an earlier visit: the Atomium. Question was however, how to get there. After studying our tourist guide, we came to find we had to get to the metro stop 'Heysel/Heizel' (yay for the bilinguality in this city). We bought a day ticket and descended into the metro station, feeling quite confident we'd find a transport map in there. However, that would've been too obvious. On our platform was no such thing. On the opposite platform at the same track however, there was one. As I wanted to walk through a train onto the other platform, a tram entered the station, bound for 'Heysel'. Now that couldn't be wrong, so we boarded. As it later turned out, this tram would indeed terminate at Heysel, but would make a huge detour, effectively probably tripling the journey-distance, probably even worse for the journey time as somewhere along the route rail traffic was shutdown and we had to use replacement busses. We decided to look on the bright side of life, and call it a city tour. In sheer contrast to most trams we know, this one was equipped with quite luxurious leather seats, making the journey quite comfortable.
And then, in the end, we finally reached the Atomium, walked towards it, under it, had a discussion about entering it, but decided against that after seeing the enormous queue we had to stand in and went for a lunch in a nearby entertainment park. After this lunch with an Atomium-view we headed for the genuine metro this time, and were back in the city centre in no-time. After getting a map of the city we noticed we could check into the hotel and did so.
Once there, we admired the sheer beauty of the room, enjoyed the huge bath and just sat back for an hour or two. After that, it was time to go out for dinner and we headed into the city centre again, walked through a couple of streets and sat down at Au Chat Noir, looking out to the stock exchange. We had a fulfilling meal there, even though the food wasn't really that special. After dinner, we walked back home and fell into a deep, deep sleep.
The next day we had awaken slowly, took a bath or a shower and went down for the complimentary breakfast, which, to be honest, left us disillusioned. It consisted of a standard-hotel buffet, with croissants, bread rolls and tiny breads that appeared to be baked a day before. I would've actually expected the breads to be freshly baked inside the premises, which needn't be too much of a fuss in a hotel.
After breakfast we had a stroll through the entire hotel to see spots and corners we hadn't seen during the stay and we were stunned. After that we checked out, were wished a pleasant day and stashed our bags away at Brussels South station again before we went into the city centre to do some shopping in the streets around the city's central square. In the end we didn't buy too much, but managed to entertain ourselves through the whole day, until we decided to head back for the station, as I wasn't feeling well the whole day already, and it was getting worse and worse.
Before boarding we had a cup of coffee at Sam's (the Häagen-Dazs bar was already shut by 7 pm), but didn't find the appropriate friendliness for such a name. Samantha ordered an Italian cappuccino, after which I doubted for a few seconds between Italian (milk) and Belgian (cream). Just before he started the machine for Sam's coffee, I told him I wanted the same, but apparently he didn't understand any Dutch, so when he found out he should now make another one, while he could've also made two at the same time, he cynically thanked me. I responded it had been a pleasure. After drinking the coffee, which even tasted awful, we headed for the platform, only to find a Häagen-Dazs kiosk still open on the other side of the station and decided to take a coffee for during the trip. It wasn't usual Häagen-Dazs quality though, as there was no foamed milk on the coffee whatsoever, just a little milk dripped into it, and it even tasted watery. Surprisingly though, the distinct taste of the Illy bean was still there, though you first needed to go through a mouthful of water before finding it.
The hotel's facade. Our room is at the open door/curtain on the first floor, the left of three balcony's.
Coming out of the elevator, this was the index for finding your hotel room. All images are numbered, and the corresponding image appears on the room's door, too. (Obviously, the rooms are also marked by numbers. ;-))
The beautiful leather-covered headboard, with reading lights.
The nice, but rather short (we're Dutch, the bed's French) bed, with a leather bench at it's foot. We immediately came up with a use for that, but unfortunately didn't use it as I felt increasingly ill.
The bathroom, paved with rough-edged stones, but without sharp edges. The bath's actually rather large, and the tiltable shower-head is about 20 centimeter across.
Nice picture for our room. Coffee! Only now we started to understand the guests the receptionist made a remark about: they had supposedly stolen one or more pictures.
Sitting on the toilet you were facing this picture, of a woman's breast. Brilliant! ;-)
The huge flat-screen tv on the room, which, to Sam's excitement, featured some manga television series.
The roof terrace bar, which should be superb on warm summer nights.
Even the staircase was covered in these pretty natural stones.
An artwork of apples, which we have rearranged multiple times. We had trouble holding our laughs when another couple remarked "Hey, someone rearranged the apples", giggling.
Upon arrival in Brussels, we stashed our suitcases in a locker and decided to head for one of the main attractions of Brussels we had left out on an earlier visit: the Atomium. Question was however, how to get there. After studying our tourist guide, we came to find we had to get to the metro stop 'Heysel/Heizel' (yay for the bilinguality in this city). We bought a day ticket and descended into the metro station, feeling quite confident we'd find a transport map in there. However, that would've been too obvious. On our platform was no such thing. On the opposite platform at the same track however, there was one. As I wanted to walk through a train onto the other platform, a tram entered the station, bound for 'Heysel'. Now that couldn't be wrong, so we boarded. As it later turned out, this tram would indeed terminate at Heysel, but would make a huge detour, effectively probably tripling the journey-distance, probably even worse for the journey time as somewhere along the route rail traffic was shutdown and we had to use replacement busses. We decided to look on the bright side of life, and call it a city tour. In sheer contrast to most trams we know, this one was equipped with quite luxurious leather seats, making the journey quite comfortable.
And then, in the end, we finally reached the Atomium, walked towards it, under it, had a discussion about entering it, but decided against that after seeing the enormous queue we had to stand in and went for a lunch in a nearby entertainment park. After this lunch with an Atomium-view we headed for the genuine metro this time, and were back in the city centre in no-time. After getting a map of the city we noticed we could check into the hotel and did so.
Once there, we admired the sheer beauty of the room, enjoyed the huge bath and just sat back for an hour or two. After that, it was time to go out for dinner and we headed into the city centre again, walked through a couple of streets and sat down at Au Chat Noir, looking out to the stock exchange. We had a fulfilling meal there, even though the food wasn't really that special. After dinner, we walked back home and fell into a deep, deep sleep.
The next day we had awaken slowly, took a bath or a shower and went down for the complimentary breakfast, which, to be honest, left us disillusioned. It consisted of a standard-hotel buffet, with croissants, bread rolls and tiny breads that appeared to be baked a day before. I would've actually expected the breads to be freshly baked inside the premises, which needn't be too much of a fuss in a hotel.
After breakfast we had a stroll through the entire hotel to see spots and corners we hadn't seen during the stay and we were stunned. After that we checked out, were wished a pleasant day and stashed our bags away at Brussels South station again before we went into the city centre to do some shopping in the streets around the city's central square. In the end we didn't buy too much, but managed to entertain ourselves through the whole day, until we decided to head back for the station, as I wasn't feeling well the whole day already, and it was getting worse and worse.
Before boarding we had a cup of coffee at Sam's (the Häagen-Dazs bar was already shut by 7 pm), but didn't find the appropriate friendliness for such a name. Samantha ordered an Italian cappuccino, after which I doubted for a few seconds between Italian (milk) and Belgian (cream). Just before he started the machine for Sam's coffee, I told him I wanted the same, but apparently he didn't understand any Dutch, so when he found out he should now make another one, while he could've also made two at the same time, he cynically thanked me. I responded it had been a pleasure. After drinking the coffee, which even tasted awful, we headed for the platform, only to find a Häagen-Dazs kiosk still open on the other side of the station and decided to take a coffee for during the trip. It wasn't usual Häagen-Dazs quality though, as there was no foamed milk on the coffee whatsoever, just a little milk dripped into it, and it even tasted watery. Surprisingly though, the distinct taste of the Illy bean was still there, though you first needed to go through a mouthful of water before finding it.
The hotel's facade. Our room is at the open door/curtain on the first floor, the left of three balcony's.
Coming out of the elevator, this was the index for finding your hotel room. All images are numbered, and the corresponding image appears on the room's door, too. (Obviously, the rooms are also marked by numbers. ;-))
The beautiful leather-covered headboard, with reading lights.
The nice, but rather short (we're Dutch, the bed's French) bed, with a leather bench at it's foot. We immediately came up with a use for that, but unfortunately didn't use it as I felt increasingly ill.
The bathroom, paved with rough-edged stones, but without sharp edges. The bath's actually rather large, and the tiltable shower-head is about 20 centimeter across.
Nice picture for our room. Coffee! Only now we started to understand the guests the receptionist made a remark about: they had supposedly stolen one or more pictures.
Sitting on the toilet you were facing this picture, of a woman's breast. Brilliant! ;-)
The huge flat-screen tv on the room, which, to Sam's excitement, featured some manga television series.
The roof terrace bar, which should be superb on warm summer nights.
Even the staircase was covered in these pretty natural stones.
An artwork of apples, which we have rearranged multiple times. We had trouble holding our laughs when another couple remarked "Hey, someone rearranged the apples", giggling.