Seeing Brussels from the Window Bus

After looking at the cool Automium and wonderful Church of Our Lady of Laeken in Brussels, we continued our journey of seeing Brussels from the window bus. A few minutes later, we have arrived at our lunch venue which turns out to be a Chinese restaurant. Meh. I never understand the idea of bringing us into Chinese restaurant whenever we are joining a tour group. But I guess it may not be easy to feed 20 people in a normal European restaurant because the restaurant may not want to receive a big group of tourists. Especially if they come from mainland China, I heard. Well, some people can be rowdy I guess. Okay, fine. Chinese food for lunch it is.



I did not even bother to take picture of what I ate because the Chinese food does not even taste good. Normal. Fulfilled its purpose to fill our tummy for the next few hours. After hopping on the bus, we were ready to continue our trip to the next city in Europe, Paris. Before that, oh hey, a pretty building. I really can't have enough of the clear blue sky.

When we see the industrial area from the window bus, we know that we are entering the highway to reach the border to France. Bye bye Brussels. Hope I have more time to explore the city the next time I travel. 

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The scenery has totally changed a few kilometres ahead. A lot of greens are spotted on the right and left side of the road. This is where the passengers are starting to doze off into a dream land. Hahaha. 

Saw a cemetery on the way too. The cemetery looks very well-maintained because there are flowers at every single tomb. That never happens in where I grow up. 

Okay, if you have more time to explore Brussels, there are actually more places that you can visit such as the Grand Palace, Town Hall, St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral, Musical Instrument Museum and Autoworld. For an idea of what to do and where to visit in Brussels, you can refer to the guide from Tripadvisor here.

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Sightseeing at Brussels, the capital of Belgium

After spending a lot of wonderful times in both Amsterdam and Volendam, it is time to venture out to another city in Europe. We are going to Paris but on the way, our tour group will make a quick sightseeing at Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Since we were taking coach from Amsterdam to Brussels, the whole journey took approximately three hours. If you opt to travel by train, you can cut the travelling hours by half, at only one and a half hours. After three hours of highway road (with nothing to see in between), we have finally seen a city. 

Our Eurotrip happened in June and hence, the nice bright and clear summer sky in Brussels city. In a glance, Brussels looks like an industrial city. Since we still have one hour before our appointed lunch time, our tour guide informed us that he will bring us to see one of the most famous symbol of Brussels. 

All the physic lover rejoice, we have arrived at the Atomium. The famous symbol of Brussels is one the most popular sightseeing object in Belgium. The Atomium can be visited by tourists but we only had time to do a quick photo-spot despite the one hour time gap. There is a restaurant at the top sphere of the Atomium called the Panoramic Restaurant. It must be a great experience to eat there. Oh well, maybe next time. U_U.

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On the way to our lunch venue, we also saw a lot of historical building. The Belgian government keep a proper maintenance of the old historical buildings in Brussels. That's why it is common to see old churches being restored. While the restoration is in progress, a sheet with the picture of how the building is supposed to look like will be put up on the area which needs restoration. Creative idea, I must say. 

Right at the next turn, there is another old church which looks very majestic under the white clouds. This is the Church of Our Lady of Laeken. Wikipedia says that it is a neo-Gothic Roman Catholic Church in Laeken, Brussels. The church was constructed in the memory of Queen Louise-Marie, wife of King Leopold I. It also served as a mausoleum for her.

Other than the old historical churches, Brussels also has a lot of vacant office buildings. I thought our tour leader was joking when he told us about this. But when we look around, there are really a lot of vacant office space for sale or rent. Economy downturn?

Pretty much an interesting sightseeing journey of Brussels so far. Can't wait to see what are we going to see once we have filled our tummy. 

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