We’ve moved

We’ve got our own domain! Go to www.lifewelltravelled.co.uk

48 hours in Brussels

It was our four year anniversary, so we decided to get away for a few days. But where to go? After many hours of researching UK hotels, I came across a deal on Travelzoo for a trip to Brussels with Eurostar included . This actually worked out less than a couple of nights here in blighty. Famous for it’s beer and chocolate – 48 hours in Brussels seemed like the perfect way for us to celebrate.

Carla met me in London and we made our way to St Pancras, dodging rogue Olympians and hordes of commuters along the way. Many people were coming from mainland Europe to the UK to see the games, so it felt like we were escaping the mayhem by going the other way.

This was my first time crossing the Channel by train and it was a very pleasant experience from start to finish. You don’t need to turn up stupid early like you do when you are catching a flight. The security staff are chirpy and friendly and don’t look at everyone like they are a terrorist and the passport control was quick and painless – also I could bring a drink with me!

After a relaxing two hour ride we arrived in Brussels Midi Station at around 8pm local time. We hopped into a taxi and made our way through the traffic to the Hilton hotel near Rogier Metro Station at the northern end of the city centre. After a friendly check-in and room upgrade (nice – always say it’s a special occasion when you book) we grabbed a delicious steak across the road. After dinner we went back to the hotel and ate the cake the staff had left on our bed to say happy anniversary!

We began our first day in the city with a stroll to the Grand Place, which is the city’s central square and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walking past the many shops to our intended destination we played the game that you always seem to play in cities around the world – what shops are in the UK and what would be the equivalent shop at home. It’s a little depressing when you turn up somewhere and it could be any high street from home, but they soon lifts when you start to get towards the city centre. Soulless shop fronts start to disappear and beautiful, ornate buildings become the norm. We stopped to take pictures of cobbled streets and busy plazas before reaching Grand Place.

Grand Place is stunning. As I looked at the incredibly sculptured buildings, Carla regaled me with the history behind the square (if you are interested read the Grand Place Wikipedia page). After wandering around we ventured down a side street to try and find some of Belgium’s famous chocolatiers on Grand Sablon. On our way we stopped and had a look around the Royal Palace, with it’s abundance of chandeliers and floor to ceiling paintings, and watched local children playing football in the Parc de Bruxelles.

We finally reached Grand Sablon and wandered around some of the boutique and grand chocolate shops. It’s serious business here – with cabinets full of delicious treats that had prices that made my wallet weep in my back pocket. Luckily for my bank account we had just stuffed our faces with a big lunch and we were able to put off any chocolate purchases for another day.

We spent some time looking around a stunning photography gallery that had some amazing photos printed on glass, but were a bit hefty to carry home and really at the top end of our budget. We decided to head on over the the Musical Instrument Museum which has over 8000 instruments that you can listen too using a set of headphones you plug into MP3 players as you go around. The museum was under renovation, and it really did need it. I found that half the time the MP3 players didn’t work or I could only get mono out of them :(. However, I spent a long time listening to sitars and instruments from our recent travels to Asia and South America that brought back great memories of our time away.

The next day was our last full day in Brussels as we had to get the early train back in the morning. We decided we had seen quite a bit of the centre so we wanted to venture a bit farther away. We caught the Metro to the Atomium that sits on a hill just outside the centre and is a strange monument built for the Expo 1958 science fair. It is a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times which contains an elevator, stairs and escalators that let you wander around its nine steel spheres. I’m still a bit confused as to what it is or what it was built for, but you get amazing views of the city and it was a fun way to spend the morning.

Instead of getting the Metro straight back to the centre, we took a walk around some of the parks and streets around the Atomium. It’s always cool to spend time looking at the different styles of houses and areas where real people live and not the manufactured experience that tourists are usually fed. After a while we found a tube station and headed back for a lunch of Belgium waffles and chocolate tasting in one of the many plaza cafes in Grand Place. We enjoyed the sunshine as we watched people giving free hugs in the square and as the police chased off a crazy dude who started raving in he middle of the plaza.

Our final destination was the Belgian Comic Strip Centre, which is situated in a stunning Art Nouveau warehouse , hidden away on Rue des Sables. I love comic art, so I was excited to see what they had on offer. Unfortunately most of the comics on display were written in Flemish and French (obviously), but it was still nice to walk around this beautiful building and learn about the famous Belgium comic artists like Hergé and Peyo.

And after another steak and an evening watching Team GB secure three golds in the athletics (Go Mo!), we woke up the next day and made our way home after a brilliant, whirlwind tour of the lovely city of Brussels and back to the Olympic fever of London.

Laters,

J

 

More tea vicar?

We arrived after 15 hours on the train and met with our driver as we had missed the last bus to tea plantations and stunning hills of Munnar. After five hours of windy roads and sharp bends that made you feel travel sick i was quite glad of the comfort of a taxi over a crowded chicken bus with no windows (it’s monsoon season in Kerala)!

We stopped off for chai and chili cakes?! and for a walk over a bridge?! Our driver thought this was the must do tourist attraction in Kerala – we had no idea why it was so great as we dodged crazy rickshaws and giant trucks trying to make our way across in one piece.

We arrived after nearly 20 hours of travel to a dinner of chapatis, curry and rice – in fact the exact same dinner and lunch that we would pretty much have over the next three days. The Dew Drops homestay is about 20km outside of Munnar town, set in acres of forest and high in the hills. We spent a day relaxing in the serenity of our surroundings and then ventured down to the town. The rickshaw ride down was one of the most painful journeys as the roads will only last around 6 month before washing away leaving metre deep potholes all over the place.

When the daze of smacking my head on the roof of the rickshaw cleared the views of the mountains and sweeping tea plantations were amazing. We watched as women with huge sacks of tea balanced on their heads waded through the sea of green collecting the day’s crop. Each worker will collect around 150kg of tea a day to help feed this country’s insatiable habit.

We were greeted by a barrage of tour operators as we alighted from our rickshaw and made our way through the throng in search of something to eat. Munnar actually felt more mental than Bombay as a constant stream of people, taxis, trucks and rickshaws made their way through the windy and narrow streets. After a long walk around we headed back up the hill on another uncomfortable and hair-raising ride back to our secret hideaway in the hills.

After Munnar we made our way to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary and Claus Gardens homestay on the edge of Kumily town. This beautiful building with spacious rooms and friendly hosts was to be our base for the next four days.

We are staying right near the Tiger reserve, which we visited on our second day. We booked a trek through the forests and witnessed some of the most stunning scenery on our way to the waterways of Periyar . It looked like a scene from Jurassic Park and you could jut imagine dinosaurs coming to the water’s edge for a drink a we sat on slightly sunken bamboo rafts and rowed our way in search of elephants. We stopped our boats on a random shoreline and started following the elephant tracks we found just outside the forest. Unfortunately we never did find any that day, but it was fun being out in the wild and we did manage to catch a glimpse of bison, monkey and a shit-ton of leeches (urrggh!).

We arranged a rickshaw to take us around and show us the sights the next day. First stop was the elephant camp about 15km outside of Kumily. We paid for a ride and to give them a feed and a wash. Our elephant was called Raya and was a beautiful example of a Kerala elephant – long trunk and patches of pink with spots scattered all over her head and ears. She was 28 years old – the same age as Carla and just as pretty! She took us up through the forest where we had some wicked views of the surrounding hills. Once we came back down we took some time to shove chunks of pumpkin into her weird-looking mouth and then it was on to bathtime!. We actually bathed a different, but very similar elephant called Mina. It’s quite a sight to see a huge elephant lie itself down in a poll ready for a good scrubbing!

We were allowed to sit on her head and scrub her ears whilst she blissfully played with the water with her trunk. She then sat up and we took it in turns to sit on her neck while she gave us an elephant shower, drenching us with numerous trunkfuls of water thrown over her head! We said our goodbyes and spent the rest of the day visiting a spice garden and a huge tea plantation where we got to see the process of making my favourite drink.

This place is pretty amazing and there is still so much more to come. Some people say that you either love or hate India, but i can only see how you can love it.

Laters,

J

Google+