Brussels

Incongruous, surprising and actually kind of exciting. These are some of the words I was not expecting to describe Brussels as my first impressions were a bit mixed. But as the old saying goes don't judge a book by its cover and with Brussels a little digging goes a long way.

After taking a rather restless journey overnight on the Megabus me and my friend pulled into the city at rather an early hour. We were greeted to the sight of the city's beautiful lit Grand Place, the city's central square. With its gothic architecture, wonderfully intricate stonework and great selection of shops and bars, it really is the beating heart of the city.

After taking some time to wander around and have some breakfast, we set off to our hotel to rest and recover. Unfortunately we promptly found out our check in wasn't until 3pm, so we dropped our bags off and went to the first attraction on our list; Brussel's famous atomium, a metal museum built to celebrate the city's world fair day.

We were ever so slightly underwhelmed when we arrived, as while the structure was no doubt impressive its price, slight gaudiness and location left me feeling vaguely unimpressed. Much better (although thanks to bad sign posting slightly harder to find) was the entirely inaccurately recreated Chinese temple and Japanese pagoda in the nearby park grounds.

After taking this all in we decided to try our luck with the Arc de Triomphe, a beautiful and large arch build in the 1880's as a pavillon of exhibition. The building and statues surrounding it were impressive enough but what made it even better was the art and history museum it contained. Large and exquisitely presented, it was filled with a truely impressive collection of art, statues, and historical artifacts from all over the world. It literally was so big we were still finding new sections a good three hours into exploring it. Leaving it we were surprised and delighted to find that the park behind it had been colonized by brightly coloured parrots.

After we left we chilled at our hotel before going out for a lovely meal at a local (and cheap) pizzera. Afterwards we ended rolling into a succession of gay bars located around the Grand Place where we met a fellow Brit and enjoyed a good night out.

The next day I was hungover so while my friend visited a comic book museum I chilled out in bed. We met in the afternoon and decided to explore the Michaelis et Gudula cathedral. Inside was incredible, with beautiful statues, architecture to die for, and golden religious artifacts lovingly presented. What was even more surprising was that parts of the floor had been laid with glass so that you could actually see (and visit) the foundations of the cathedral excavated below.

We finished our two days in Brussels throughly impressed and ready to move on to Amsterdam.