Ridin' Solo - Belgian Style
Hello everyone! So sorry about posting late, I’ve been keeping busy by settling into my routine as part of my new Dutch family. Next post should be about that, and how the au pair life is going.
Oh dang, Brussels is pretty
Like I said in my last post, I got to the Netherlands at a strange time for my host family. I was there for a week before I went with the family on their two-week vacation in France. It was a good way to get to know the family and their dynamic. Also France was gorgeous so hooray (even if it was so hot I felt like I was melting)! We did a lot while in France, but I can talk about that later. The main topic of this post is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Solo travel.
Traveling by yourself has become more popular within the past decade. With the rise of social media , travel websites and various travel apps, traveling throughout foreign countries has never been easier. Like most people, I have never traveled by myself. The closest thing that comes to it is when I flew from Rome back to Missouri at the end of study abroad, but that wasn’t a trip that I had planned just for me.
For my first solo trip I decided to remain pretty close to my home-base in Holland. Brussels, a city that I had always wanted visit, was only a couple hours away by train. I found a cheap hostel for 24 USD a night, a free walking tour through Sandemans, and I decided that was all I needed before heading to Belgium on one of my off weekends.
Brussels has multiple touristic sites. The most popular sites are located around the Grand Place, or or Grote Markt. This was the first place I went after arriving in the city. It is the central square of Brussels, surrounded by the merchant guildhalls that used to rule the city. Manneken Pis or “Little man pissing” is one of the most photographed statues in all of Europe and it is just a few minutes from the Grand Place. There is also a female equivalent in central Brussels called Jeaneke Pis.
The Manneken Pis statue is sometimes dressed up for special occasions. Usually though, he stands naked in front of his fans clustered in the street.
Sandemans also offered a variety of other tours in Brussels. I decided to do two more, The Brussels Chocolate tour and the Day Trip to Bruges. The chocolate one should be obvious, I was in Belgium and was planning on eating a lot of chocolate. Bruges is a well known medieval town not far from Brussels, and I’ve always been a sucker for day trips to beautiful medieval cities.
The chocolate tour took us to five different local shops in the city, and a waffle stand. I had a lot of delicious chocolate that day, but the store that stood out the most for me was Mary’s. Mary’s was started by Brussels’ first female chocolate maker Mary, in 1919. They are celebrating their 100 year anniversary this year. We got samples of chocolate at every store we went to, but Mary’s was the store where I bought a box of chocolates to bring back to Holland with me. My host parents were very grateful.
The day trip to Bruges was the highlight of my trip. Bruges is known for being one of the most well-preserved medieval European cities. It was that, but it also had a very charming essence that I had missed while traveling in bigger cities. If you have a chance to go to Belgium, I recommend staying in Bruges. They have the famous Belgian chocolate and waffles, but also a famous Belgian brewery De Halve Man, stunning architecture, an outdoor market and museums.
Bruges is one of the most picturesque cities I have seen.
Besides the tours, I spent the majority of my time walking throughout the city, eating a large amount of waffles, french fries and chocolate. I got asked before the trip if I would feel weird spending all this time alone. At times I wished I had someone with me, but overall I enjoyed the freedom that came from being my own travel companion. I saw what I wanted, ate what I wanted, stopped in the bookstores I wanted to stop in all without asking someone else. If I wanted to walk aimlessly for thirty minutes throughout the historic city center while eating ice cream, there was no one to stop me except for me.
Brussels was a great city and I am glad that I went, however if I could do the trip to Belguim again, I would want to spend more time in Bruges. Bruges was so charming and I felt like there was much more to see than what I got in only a few hours. Maybe I will end up back here one day. Who knows?
Please comment or send any questions you have my way! If you have any other destinations for solo travelers or even some tips to share, I would love to hear from you. Until next time!
