Europe Day One - The Grand Place, Brussels

Brussels is relatively easy to walk around if you have a map in hand.

Eglise St-Nicolas, processed in HDR.

The Grand Place, the geographical, historical and commercial heart of the city.

Hotel de Ville, built in the 14th century as the town hall.

The main entrance and the belfry, I keep thinking why the entrance wasn't center aligned with the belfry...

Courtyard of the hotel with nice pavement design.

Entrace to the reception lobby.

The statue and landscape at the courtyard.

Le Renard and Le Cornet.

The Maison Du Roi, built in 1536, now home to the Musee de la Ville. Too many museums in Europe and I decided to skip this one. I went in almost every museum when I visited Paris and lesson learned - just visit the highlight and not to waste the precious time and money.

View of Maison Du Roi from entrance of Hotel De Ville.

With the Sigma 10-20mm wide angle, I can now take pictures of myself without others help or tripod! La Maison Des Ducs De Brabant at the middle of the background and Everard 't Serclaes on the right. Touching the bronze arm of Everard 't Serclaes is said to bring luck but too bad the place is closed for refurbishment during the period.

Godiva chocolatier outlet at the Grand Place, the premium chocolate manufacturer among the uncountable numbers of chocolate shops in Brussels.

Day One in Brussels

I'm still recovering from the 6 days trip in West Europe. Weather were terrible and my skin are badly dry out and cracking. Brought too many lens this trip and I didn't use the Tamron 90mm SP and Jupiter 9 at all. Taken nearly 1,000 pictures this trip and it's gonna take some time to edit all.

On the way in Eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussels Midi on Thursday morning. Managed to grab pair of return tickets from lastminute.com for GBP55, it's always a good source for last minute deal as I couldn't find tickets from Eurostar website.

The bi-lingual city is often confusing with its French Dutch names for places and roads. Initially I thought Brussel Zuid and Bruxelles Midi are two different stations and apparently it's the name of the station in two languages.

The adventure begins with a Belgian cappuccino and pain au chocolat. I had not done much study before the trip, no booking on any accommodation nor intercity train tickets.

The Flying Ceiling (1976) by Pol Bury in Bourse station. Public transport in Europe is relatively cheap when comparing with UK. A day travel card cost 4 euros to be used on all metro, tram and buses. Actually there are no barriers or check on the metro and tram so you can try a few free rides.

La Bourse, Brussels' stock exchange, the stairs is a meeting point for people and also serve as speaker's corner for protests.