Unexpected Afternoon in Brussels...

Wednesday, August 30 -- We had a 7:42 am train, but we didn't have much to pack up in the morning and it is an easy walk to the Backwerk for breakfast sandwiches (falafel for me) and coffee>  We have no problem finding our train and our private area.  We have a nice space to work in once again and I finished my blog before the train ride was over.  Unfortunately, there was vandalism of the tracks around Aachen and we had to take a slight detour.  We did not make it in time to catch our next train.  So instead we got to spend 4 hours walking around Brussels.  We step out of the train station into the rain and  we head toward the city center, we are greeted by wide pedestrian boulevards with natural vegetation growing around the trees. 

We decided to eat lunch at the Beirut (Authentic Lebanese) Restaurant as it was still raining a bit and it sounded good.  The restaurant had just opened for the day and was really empty.  We enjoyed a tabbouleh salad and mudardara.  Thom, also, had kafka.   It was all good and served really fast.  

Then we just walked around to see what we could see.  We took lots of interesting pics as Brussels is a really beautiful city.  We did not know what the names of the buildings were, except for a few that we look up with Google lens.  At one point we wander into a square with really old buildings and later we find the palace.  We see paintings in blue throughout the city.  I find out that it is part of the Magritte Museum is an art museum in central Brussels, Belgium, dedicated to the work of the Belgian surrealist artist, René Magritte. It is one of the constituent museums of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

We walked for a couple hours and then meandered back to the train station.  We stopped at Carrefour in the train station for salads and drinks to eat during the train.  We hope to arrive in Lyon, France around 8:10 pm this evening.  Brussels was an unexpected stop, but it turned out to be a good one.

Wide pedestrian boulevard with plenty of trees

Side streets (also pedestrian)

Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer (Community College) and fenced in garden 

The Brussels Stock Exchange

Brussels Marriott Grand Palace with McDonalds first floor

Beirut Restaurant

Tabbouleh and Pita

Mudardara

Brussel Town Hall (left) and the Tradesmen's Guild

The Kings Home (The gray building)

Now the Brewers Museum 

The most narrow house in Brussels and a beautifully decorated street

Painting on a building (Magritte) and Mary Magdalene Chapel

Albertinaplein Brussels

Queen Elisabeth Standbeeld Van Koningin and King Albert I Standbeeld Koning 

Wolf / dog sculpture Rue des Musees

Carillon Mont-des-Arts Bruxelles (Animated Clock)

La Pharmacie Anglaise

A view down of the city below and Musical Instrument Museum

Royal square and former place now artist area

Gates to the palace

Monument to Leopold II and L'Homme de l"Atlantide (Man from Atlantis) Statues

The View or the Brussels Eye

A playground in a park

The park leading to the La Porte De Hal (Now a Museum)

The train ride to Lyon goes well with only four stops.  One of which is a stop at Charles De Gaulle airport.  We are not close to Paris, but can see the city in the distance.   We made it to Lyon at 8 pm and to our hotel shortly after.  The countryside from Charles De Gaulle to Lyon was very beautiful with very green fields, white cows, and mountains in the distance.  The train rides are always very nice and go by quickly. 

It appears to be warmer in Lyon and the forecast is 79 degrees.  That will be our warmest weather since Poland.  I am looking forward to sandals.