An eventful journey last night had made me nervous that this was some sort of sign, and that I was going to have to get used to chaos, disappointment and frustration on this trip. My train from Lincoln to London had, along with countless others that day, been cancelled because of a fatal incident on the track near Stevenage. The rail replacement service to Newark was suggested but that clearly wasn’t going to get me there in time to pick up a train to Kings Cross earlier than 20:00. Chatting to two other fellow travellers, I proposed that we share an Uber to Newark in time for the only other train that was running, and we made it there with plenty of time to spare. All the same, I was glad that I’d decided to travel down today rather than in the morning.
Once in Our Nation’s Capital, I dumped my bags at the Travelodge and made my way up to The Union Tavern, my usual London haunt, for my scheduled Event. It was great to see a few friends, including Margaret and Paula, as well as a couple of new faces. An early night was called for as I had an early start.
In the morning, a twenty minute walk to St Pancras gave me a taste of what it would be like lugging my backpack around city centres! I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Check-in and security went very smoothly, something else I was concerned about because of recent reports of huge queues owing to EES, but I was through in short measure. After that it was a very smooth ride to Brussels on the Eurostar, and first class provided me with a very welcome breakfast. Still I felt sure that this wouldn’t be my usual rail travel experience this month!
En route, I had the foresight to book a bag drop through Radical Storage for the couple of hours before I could check in to my first room. Once that was done, I grabbed some lunch and plenty of cold water; it was a very hot day and I’d just walked another 30 minutes uphill with my pack. Later, I located my flat, checked myself in, grabbed a shower and had a nap.
When I woke up it was still only around 16:00 so I decided to explore the local area and do a little caching. All was going well until, while signing a log book, there was a sudden commotion and a man tumbled backwards out of a first storey window landing flat on his front with a thud about 20 metres from me! A woman was shouting and screaming at him from the window and another man appeared from the building, also shouting at him, and gave him two swift firm boots to his ribs. I was frozen to the spot! The man was not moving. Then a crowd of teenaged school kids came round the corner, agitated and excited by what was happening, and started taking photos and videoing. One of them, I noticed, had moved away and started to make an emergency phone call, but sirens could already be heard and the police soon arrived, attended to the man who was now moving, arrested the kicking man, dispersed the youngsters and entered the house. It was like being on the live set of a police drama! I took the opportunity to move slowly away, glad that no one had approached me for a statement!
The rest of the evening was far less dramatic and very enjoyable. I completed a bizarre but straightforward Wherigo, got my first Belgian Virtual and took a ride on the huge observation wheel by the courts of justice, known as ‘The View’ which afforded fabulous views of the city at sunset. That was enough for the first day of my trip, though, so I took the short walk home and went straight to sleep.
Having got my bearings by now, the next morning I was keen to get up and about as soon as possible. However, there were dramatic and heavy thunderstorms, which were due to clear in time for my booked walking tour at 11am. Glad to have brought a cheap pac-a-mac with me, I made my way to the Grand Place where we’d later be meeting, found a cafe and had a relaxed and delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs. The walking tour (my first) was extremely interesting and did exactly what I’d hoped for, showing me around the main historical sights, including the famous Mannequin Pis and the town hall and highlighting a number of places that I earmarked for further exploration later in the day.
After the tour, I treated myself to a bit more geocaching, including a lovely walk through the well laid out Parc de Brussels. When competing a smurf-related Virtual cache, I came upon a comic museum and, although I wasn’t familiar with much of the content, it was very interesting to learn about Belgium’s rich history as a centre for comics, including the aforementioned smurfs and Tintin! I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the Musical Instrument Museum which had been recommended to me by a woman on the Eurostar. The audio headset guide was a great feature and I enjoyed an hour looking at a wide range of bizarre and obscure instruments, including an incredible range of keyboards.
Sadly, I was the only attendee at my own event that evening, so enjoyed a quiet meal, grabbed some essential shopping and once more headed home for bed.
My last full day in Brussels was to include what was probably the highlight of this leg for me: a trip to the fascinating Atomium. Away from the centre of the city, it gave me the chance to travel there on my seventh underground railway system (after London, Newcastle, Paris, Beijing, Hong Kong and Helsinki!) I’d caught a glimpse of this iconic structure from the top of the observation wheel the other night but nothing really prepares you for the scale of the thing. Built for the World Fair in 1958, this has all the style and design of post war science fiction, and looked as if the Jetsons might live in it! Online reviews were mixed, but I absolutely loved it — the laser-lit lift, the restaurant in the top sphere, the light and sound exhibits — but perhaps most interesting to me was the permanent exhibition about how the thing was built, with first-hand accounts and artefacts.
Then I decided to visit Mini Europe next door. This was a sprawling, intricate model village but with sections from each of the major capital cities of Europe. It was great to spot some of the places that I’d visited relatively recently, such as Helsinki and Tallinn, as well as learn about many other places. It was noticeable how the themes of co-orporation, unity and togetherness ran through all the exhibits, and it made me feel very sad indeed about the path that our country has chosen to take. I’m sure I’ll have that feeling again at other points on this trip!
My final visit was the nearby planetarium. I’ve always enjoyed planetariums so I couldn’t resist this opportunity, although the show that was available to me didn’t perhaps demonstrate the technology at its best. By now I was hot, thirsty, tired and hungry so I took the Metro back into the centre, had a delightful Lebanese tapas-style meal and went to bed. This was the end of my time in Brussels, and tomorrow morning I’d be on my way to Luxembourg!
A Wright
June 26
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