Monday, July 24, 2017

Western Europe - Day 5 and 6: Brussels

Summary of Day 5:
Breakfast at Mokafe
Hop-on Hop-off CitySightseeing tour Blue line
Atomium
Mini Europe
Lunch at La Mer Du Nord
Waffles at Le Funambule
Mannekin Pis
Brussels City Museum
Dinner at Gaufres de Bruxelles

We woke up early to have breakfast at one of the famous cafes around the Galleries.

There weren't many people around this place in the morning and thus it was a good time to OOTD!

Belgian waffles, cakes, and tea for breakfast. I like.




Mokafe
Galerie du Roi 9, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
Price: Approx EUR 9 per pax

After the good breakfast, we took the Hop-on Hop-off CiySightseeing bus (blue line) to the Atomium attraction.

Trivia: while waiting for the bus, we saw many pretty cherry blossoms!



Took some photos of the famous Atomium structure (soo many people queuing to go in), and we went off for our planned itinerary of the day - Mini Europe (EUR 13.30 per pax).

I've seen many reviews online saying how this place is a waste of time, or how it is not worth the time and money. However, we spent almost 2-3h here and took tons of photos with the mini iconic European structures. Probably it was because we didn't know about Europe's countries and buildings very well, thus it was quite entertaining for us.














Can you recognise some of these landmarks?

Then we took the hop-on hop-off bus back to the central area to have lunch at La Mer du Nord again.



Rue Sainte-Catherine 45, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
Price: Approx EUR 10 per pax

And it was the hop-on hop-off bus to the most famous attraction of Brussels - Mannekin Pis (pissing boy).

I knew that there was the famous Le Funambule waffles beside the pissing boy, and we got to try them!



I seriously love Belgian waffles. It's the best thing ever!

But I prefer the plain ones. Traditionally, Belgian waffles are eaten plain anyway!


My mum was disappointed at how small the statue was. I've seen it on TV so I totally am prepared for it. But seriously, it is way too small for such a huge crowd of tourists snapping photos of it every day.

What's more. our trip coincided with St. Patrick's Day, thus Mannekin Pis was dressed in green clothes that day, which made it difficult for us to see his face.

After looking at the underwhelming tourist attraction, we took the bus back to the Grand Place and decided to try going into the Brussels City Museum with our Brussels card to see if it is included FOC in the package. And indeed it was!

We looked at the exhibits and paintings,



and found the original Mannekin Pis here! Yay! The one at the fountain is a replica...

They also talked about the history of Mannekin Pis etc.




Some last photos of the Grand Place in the day.



We also took zoomed in shots of all the statues on top of the buildings in Grand Place.











Magnificent work! Sooooo intricate I can't. And I am really amazed at the zoom function of my Canon G16 even tho it is an ancient model.

There wasn't much to do after that, and we couldn't find any good restaurants around the area, so we headed back to Gaufres de Bruxelles for dinner.




Mussels in Brussels. All day everyday.

Rue du Marché aux Herbes 113, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
Price: Approx EUR 16 per pax

Summary of Day 6:
Breakfast at Peck 47
Jeu De Balle Flea Market
Lunch at Bad restaurant (avoid at all costs)
Bus to Amsterdam
Dinner at Burgermeester

Day 6 was just a very chill day as we had breakfast at a famous cafe called Peck 47.


Wide selection of my favourite eggs benedict here.

Rue du Marché aux Poulets 47, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Price: Approx EUR 15.50 per pax

Then we took Uber to Jeu De Balle Flea Market. This is apparently quite a famous tourist spot, something like our Thieves Market in SG.

I personally am not a fan of 2nd hand and vintage goods, so I found the place really boring.

Also beware of pickpockets in this crowded area. I think I was too aware of my bag that nothing happened hahaha.

After that, we went for lunch at one of the restaurants which had aggressive touters, because the food pictures outside seemed inviting. And because we Asians haven't had rice for so many days, we thought paella would be a good choice.

But we regretted our decision; the food was horrible. They also wanted to cheat us by charging $10 more than what was supposed to be in the bill. And when they said that we would have free beer at first, it was all a ruse to get us to go in.

It was the worst paella I've ever had in my life seriously. The sight of it is sad enough.

Price: Approx EUR 10 per pax

Avoid all these restaurants at all costs.

After the bad lunch, I got myself a Belgian waffle to cheer myself up. And indeed it did hahaha.

I've had like 4 Belgian Waffles during my 2 days in Brussels, and I still feel like it's not enough!

After that, we rushed to get onto the bus to Amsterdam.

After almost 3h, we reach Amsterdam, our last stop of our Europe trip.


For the next 3 days, our Lam family stayed in our own Airbnb while our cousin's stayed in another one across the street. This is due to the lack of Airbnbs that catered to 7 pax, and we split into 2 houses.

By the time we checked in and settled down, it was late and we decided to go to a nearby eatery recommended by Google.



Burgermeester was just a walk down the street for us and omg it was one of the best burgers I've ever had. My mum loved it so much that she still craves for it every now and then in Singapore.

Various branches
Price: Approx EUR 11 per pax

Click below for

Day 1 and 2
Day 3 and 4
Day 7
Day 8 and 9

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