33 Hours in Brussels

[Note - this blog post takes its inspiration from The New York Times standard '36 hours in [destination]' travel writing style].

SATURDAY (January 5th, 2013)

-7AM-
Check-in on the Eurostar for a quick 2 hour train ride from London to Brussels and make hit list of things to do!

-10:15AM-
Arrival at Brussels Midi Station - a quick 2 stops away from the old town centre.

-11AM-
Grab a bag of 10 freshly made chouquettes (pastry puffs dotted with sugar) at Bakkerij Charli, a cute bakery run by a former Michelin sous chef.  Their breads looked amazing and their home made jam is supposedly top notch.

-11:30AM-

Check-in to the Welcome Hotel - a little funky, somewhat tacky but well located hotel in the old town. 

-1PM-

Grab a couple glasses of white wine, mingle with the locals and sample some of the fresh seafood snacks at Bar A Tapas - an outdoor seafood bar attached to a fishmonger. Had the grilled calamari, shrimp croquettes and steamed razor clams... YUMMY!! The bouillabaisse also looked delicious!



 
-2:30PM-
Grab some dessert and espressos at Maison Dandoy, a local biscuit shop known for their fresh, made to order (not reheated) waffles in the old town.  They offer 2 types - Liège, a chewy brioche dough waffle with melted sugar pearls or Belgian, a light and airy waffle dusted lightly with icing sugar.  We opted for the Liège, knowing full well this was not our only waffle stop on this trip. Kanu figures his lifelong love of waffles must have come from the three years spent living in Brussels as a toddler (Mum confirmed this)!



(We did come back to Dandoy the next evening before catching our train back to London - did full justice as the pictures below testify)



-3:30PM-
Take in the full beauty of Grand Place - the central old town square, which author Victor Hugo described as 'the most beautiful square in the world'. The square is anchored on one side by the massive Town Hall with a stunning tower and a row of 'guild' houses and famous estates on either side. Guild houses were sort of industry association hubs for various professions who controlled trade of their goods in the city - butchers, brewers, cabinetmakers, bakers etc.  Each adorned their buildings with statues and art that represented their trade or principles in some way.

 

-4:30PM-
Visit the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert - a glass covered bourgeois shopping arcade filled with bespoke jewellery,  furniture and chocolate shops.  Needless to say, it's more of a look-don't-buy type of place but still very pretty!

-5:30PM-
Although we'd loved to have tredged right on, getting up at 5:00am hit our bodies hard so a short rest and relaxation session at the hotel was required - hello thirties :)

- 7PM-
Head over for dinner to La Fin de Siecle - a non descript, un-signed restaurant known for good food and great ambience! The verdict - Beef cheek stew was so so (unfortunately beef cheek was just too stringy for us), Rabbit in Kriek (a Belgian cherry beer) delicious and the beer - smooth and strong!

-9PM-
Stroll Brussels by night - walked by the tiny and strangely old faced Manneken Pis (peeing boy - the Belgian sure do have a funny sense of humour) without any crowds, saw the Grand Place illuminated by lights and checked out the goodies at the Christmas market where mulled wine (and harder stuff) keeps the party going late into the night.

-11PM-
.... lets just say it was our anniversary ;)

SUNDAY (January 6th, 2013)

-10:00AM-
Get ready in the morning and find my hubby of 7 years has bought champagne and orange juice to start our day with home-made mimosas!

-12:00PM-
Visit Marolles District - a traditionally working-class neighbourhood walking distance from the old town that is gentrifying with loads of vintage furniture shops, galleries and bars. The main street leads to a massive square that is home to an open-air flea market on Sunday mornings. Browsed all sorts of old random household knick knacks laid out on the ground - cups, glasses, books, clothes, trinkets and even a vintage miniature iron waffle maker used on open flame. Thought we may stumble upon some classic gem of an item to buy, but it wasn't so.

-1:00PM-

Break for lunch at Restobieres restaurant near the flea market. Tuck into a local dish called 'waterzooi' - chicken in a stew of leeks, potatoes, bouillon, cream and egg yolks. It was quite tasty - hot, light and nicely flavoured. Washed it down with a local beer and ended with a chocolate mousse and we were good to go.

-2:30PM-

Walked by an enormous classical looking building - the Palais du Justice (court house) - that spans what seems like an entire city block. This was one of the largest building in Europe in 1883 when it was completed, but understandably not very popular at the time given it required moving people and demolishing a part of the existing neighbourhood. Very imposing and characterful building though, with great views of the city from the top of the hill on which it sits.

-3:00PM-
Visit the Victor Horta Museum - the house of a famous Brussels architect who was an early pioneer of the Art Noveau movement. The house is located in an upscale neighbourhood that has a few other Art Noveau houses dotted along some of the side streets. Horta's house is a medley of curvy lines - windows, iron staircase railings, ceilings, skylights - and soft warm colours of brown and peach. The rooms are decorated with pieces of furniture (lamps, beds, tables) designed by Horta himself in the same style - all looked quite modern for over a 100 years ago!

-4:00PM-

An obligatory chocolate break at the flagship boutique of chocolatier Pierre Marcolini - a glitzy shop in Sablon - definitely a posh part of Brussels. Apparently he is the only Belgian chocolatier who controls and oversees the entire process for his chocolates from 'bean-to-box'. Scoured the glass encased goodies and picked up a bag of 6 chocolates for 'now' and a box to take home.

-7:00PM-

Back at Brussels Midi station to catch the Eurostar back to London!

Vijiti showing off her Christmas market goodies (cake moulds)

Tales from Istanbul

Taking advantage of the Easter long weekend, we booked ourselves a five-day trip to Istanbul where we were joined by V’s parents for our first 'family holiday' in quite a while.

We enjoyed many of Istanbul’s popular attractions from mosques and palaces to the bazaars and also had a chance to take in some of the lesser known parts of the city!

Our first brush with Turkey emptied our wallets more than expected given the visas for Canadians cost double or in some cases triple EVERY OTHER COUNTRY. For the first time, Pa, with his Indian passport, got the better deal!

 

Istanbul clearly has a lot going for it with its rich history as a former capital of two great empires (Byzantine/Eastern Roman and Ottoman) and centuries of cosmopolitan influence given its location at the cross roads of Asia and Europe. The local people look like a mix of everything from Greek, Italian, Central Asian (like Mongol/Uzbek?), Arab to even Indian but they all have one thing very much in common - their extremely friendly nature!

We found the restaurant staff and shopkeepers exceedingly warm and polite everywhere we went. One guy stopped us outside his restaurant urging us to come for dinner saying “You like spicy? I have green chillies, see that Indian guy eating (pointing to someone in the restaurant) – his eyes are full of water – come see!” We laughed and said we’ll come back - as it turns out we did come back and had a nice meal which included a stew cooked in a flaming clay pot. As we were leaving, the guy shook my hand and said “Thank you for keep your promise”.

At another restaurant, where we had a late lunch of tasty kebabs and a fried honey drenched cheesy concoction called Kunefe, the three staff members were all smiling and trying to talk to us, help us decipher the menu and ask us questions though only one spoke any English and that too barely. At one point, he asked “what is your name” pointing to a picture on the menu, which we understood as asking for a translation. For a gulab jamun looking item called kemalpasha, V said "like honey doughnut" to which he repeated "like hon-ee do-net" and diligently wrote it down on the back of his order book for his future customers.

     
We also found it interesting how Istanbul's location and history meant that we recognised quite a few words in the language like "dukani" for shop, "hasab" for bill or "cay" (pronounced 'chai') for tea.  It was fun trying to identify more words as we went on.

On the tourist trail

We spent the first day exploring the ‘must do’ sites for a first-time visitor:

Blue Mosque – the iconic mosque that dominates the old town neighbourhood of Sultanahmet whose inside walls are plastered with 20,000 blue Iznik tiles made with pure lapiz stone (or so we were told) which lend the mosque its common name. Its worth a quick look but somehow didn’t dazzle us - maybe because we rushed through or because of the crowds.

Haghia Sophia – we were more amazed by this 6th century church (the largest in the world for almost a 1000 years) that was converted to a mosque during Ottoman rule. We were struck by the age, size and aura of the building. We found it interesting that the dome is actually higher than the Blue Mosque despite the latter being built some 800 years later – although the Ottomans tried, they just couldn’t figure out how to match the technical skill of the ancient architects!

Topkapi Palace – we roamed through a few sections of the sprawling palace complex of the sultans including the infamous harem, where at one point 4000 women lived. Standing in one of the massive corner balconies with sweeping views of the open sea, it wasn’t hard to imagine a sultan out for some fresh air and a quiet moment to mull over the challenges of empire… or maybe more importantly, which of his 4000 concubines to pick? ;)

We took a welcome break for Turkish coffee (hard to drink with its ‘grainy’ texture - it's like someone forgot to filter the coffee) and a plate of assorted baklava which are very similar to Indian desserts - full of nuts and sugary syrup but according to us, not as good :)

They also have something called Sütlaç (basically ‘chawal ki kheer’) which you can find at almost every restaurant in Istanbul.  One night we ordered a bowl to share of which there was a bit left and we were debating who should have the last bit, when suddenly Pa announced "I tell you one thing – I’ll finish this and you get another one" and pounced on the bowl before anyone could get a word out. We couldn’t stop laughing!

On our second day, we took a pleasant boat cruise up the Bosphorous making the most of a spectacularly sunny blue-sky day sitting on the top deck and enjoying the views of the city. We were surprised at the density of chock-a-block buildings along the hilly coast and well beyond inland – it made sense when we found out Istanbul is a city of 15 million people!

Since we had an early start that morning and an evening music show to go to, V and I had planned for everyone to take it easy back at the hotel but that's not how it played out. As we passed a beautiful building on the water's edge, Pa asked what it was. I had our trusty tourbook in tow and told him this was the sultan's palace built to replace the older Topkapi in the 1800s, to which Pa said "why don't we go!". So we traded an afternoon nap for an hour long line (well just under an hour since we all had bets placed on how long the line was and Vij and Pa both claim victory at 50 odds minutes) to get in to the Dolmabache palace which was well worth the wait :)

On our third day, we decided to pay homage to the Grand Bazaar - the mother of all shopping centres. The Grand Bazaar is a massive covered maze-like complex – which I’m convinced must be the early inspiration for modern day malls. One of the main ‘streets’ inside the Bazaar was so long, wide and packed with people that I had flashbacks of Oxford Street in London at Christmas time! We roamed the stalls passing by friendly vendors trying to get us to come inside their shops with common lines of “where are you from?” or in some cases “Salman Khan - Shah Rukh Khan!” or offering pieces of pomegranate and pistachio sweets. I liked one guy’s question – “How can I help you spend your money in my shop?”. It sure wasn't easy keeping track of Mom in the crowded alleys - she would eye something of interest (she was on the hunt for painted bowls) and suddenly dart away in an instant leaving the three of us looking at each other and asking "where's mom?"

In an afternoon spent at the more manageable sized Spice Bazaar, V picked up a gram of Iranian saffron, a bagful of dried fruits, an evil-eye bracelet and a nice multi-stoned ring – not too shabby.

We also got to see a very crafty Turkish shopkeeper in action – parents bought a nice set of hanging lamps from a shop close to the Grand Bazaar. The owner, Hassan, a large man with a handlebar moustache harking back to his Ottoman roots, was extremely courteous and friendly, showing us all the combinations of lamps that we asked for, offering endless cups of tea and chatting about his life, his other customers, potential business collaboration in Indonesia and all sorts of other things. By the end, when he saw Pa examining a large painted plate, he declared "I want to see this in your house, I’m not going to 'sell' it to you – I want you to have it! Take it with you - if you don’t like it, send it back, if you like it, you can send me the money!” Smooth operator this Hassan was, but seemingly a very genuine and proud businessman.

Off the tourist trail

After hitting the main sites, we ventured off to the less-touristed Asian side by ferry to a suburb called Kadikoy. We strolled through a narrow-laned food market stopping to try some tasty yogurt with honey (thick like Greek yogurt, but more chunky – a bit like home-made ‘dahi’), a local cheese and some sweets which reminded us of ‘halwa’. The market had a very local, but up-market feel. We continued walking and made our way to a charming seafront neighbourhood called Moda. We had lunch and then grabbed some ice-cream and parked ourselves on the grass slope along the seaside walkway.  It was a perfect Sunday afternoon by the water – sun shining, dogs running free, friends and families enjoying a day out. After some lazing (I almost had to wake V up), we walked on the seafront rocks peeking a glance at several groups of young men with beer cans, small music players and cigarette in hand – modern Muslim country this is!

On our walk back toward the ferry, we stumbled upon an unusual but very entertaining sight. Inside a large tent-covered tea shop packed with customers, a young-ish man in a trendy jacket and jeans was mesmerising the crowd singing Islamic songs, but set to peppy pop music! We were intrigued, so sat down on the low stools outside the tented area and had some tea to take it all in. This was definitely one of the ‘moments’ of the trip – an unexpected authentic taste of modern Istanbul.

For our last day, we had booked a walking tour with a company called Context Travels – known for smaller group tours led by Ph.D level experts for the ‘intellectually curious’ (as you can see, we have a high opinion of ourselves ;). Our walk was in an older more run-down part of the city where the Greeks, Armenians and Jews once used to live. Although the day was cold, windy and rainy which made the walking conditions pretty unpleasant, we enjoyed the more personalized interaction with our guide – an American university lecturer married to a Turk – and saw some interesting and unexpected sites such as the Greek Patriarchate (headquarters of the Greek Orthodox church which surprisingly still remains in Istanbul not in Greece), one of the most holy mosques in Turkey (in honour of one of the prophet's 'flag bearers') and a hilltop cemetery with a great view of the Golden Horn and an assortment of tombstones from Ottoman days to present (interesting as tombstones with a certain type of turban engraving indicated the status of the buried).

 







Overall a wonderful country and definitely worth a second trip!