Brussels (16-17th September)

I saw very little of Brussels. Locals and the IIM A people on exchange in Brussels said there is very little to see. I saw the Grand place, which really is a courtyard surrounded by majestic buildings on all sides. Of course, the architecture of all the buildings looked very similar to my uneducated eyes. A friend of mine tells me that they might be different styles, e.g. gothic and renaissance. I also saw a thirteenth century cathedral called the ‘Cathedraal’. Took a couple of really good photographs but they aren’t remotely ‘interesting’.

From Brussels, we went to Bruggs, the real tourist place of Belgium. Really nothing much to see except once again a lot of old houses. It’s all preserved history. There were horse cart rides which we didn’t even enquire about, fearing the costs.

The real deal is the beer. Belgians are quite proud of their beer, and for once rightly so. Every region in Europe says their beer is the best but so far I have liked Stella the most. I had Stella and another one whose name I forget. Both were excellent, particularly Stella, which has incredible smoothness. The company producing Stella, by the way, is the oldest company in the world, now existing for some eight hundred years, almost the same time as Oxford and Cambridge, the oldest universities of the modern kind and times. Beer and scholarship have close ties.

Another thing about cities in Europe are the road side cafes, very classy looking. All cities have them. So far, we haven’t tried the food but hence forth we plan to.