In Brussels

But first, some early morning views of Köln and the cathedral that we briefly walked around after breakfast at the station, before catching our train. (I know that the photos shown here are very similar to the ones posted in previous posts in this blog, in 2014 for example; I think this must be the sixth time in my life that I have been in Köln.) Once again, we found the St. Christopher statue ...im Dom zu Köln am Rhein, that Heinrich Heine mentioned in his poem Die alten, bösen Lieder. Schumann set this poem to music for the last of his Dichterliebe songs.

Twin spires of the Kölner Dom

Kölner Dom from the back

The Rhine seen from behind Cologne's cathedral

The Eau de Cologne advert at Köln Hbf., seen from Gleis 5

Then we made our way to Platform 5 for the 09:43 train to Brussels (No. 18 on this trip). The announcements broadcast during this ride through Aachen and Liège were in German, Flemish, French and English. A fast (250 kph at one point) and comfortable journey, although I was disappointed that the window seat I had booked only gave me half a window. No matter, I had time to publish my previous blogpost using the on-board wifi.

Another frustration was that I had not paid attention to the map when booking our tickets to Brussels. We ought to have got off at the penultimate stop, the Gare du Nord (Bruxelles-Nord) which would have been just a short distance from the hotel where we're staying tonight. As it happened I made Chris wait till the final stop at Bruxelles-Midi, from which we had to catch a Tram (T3) from an underground platform there, to Rogier, only a seven minute ride, but unnecessary and entailing ticket purchase, ticket barriers, and the use of steps, escalators and lifts. Then we failed to find the hotel because of setting off in the wrong direction, but we did find a healthy cafeteria sort of place for our lunch.

The hotel is on the rue des Croissades ( = crusades) and has been here since 1901. It was called the Hotel des Colonies to commemorate the annexation of the Belgian Congo, which Chris thinks is one of the most horrific stories in history. The hotel's owners have reason to believe that during the 2nd World War (in 1944) Field-Marshall Montgomery typed his Christmas message to the British troops on these premises.

Hotel des Colonies entrance hall

A corner of the Grote Markt

We spent the afternoon exploring the centre of Brussels: the Grote Markt and its surrounding streets, getting lost between the rue du Chene and the Place Rouppe, then somehow finding our way to the Vieux Marché aux Grains where we sat at a table to share a gaufre de Bruxelles, a speciality waffle with a surfeit of cream, at a place called Le Petit Choux de Bruxelles. Then past the Place Ste-Catherine to the Vlaamse Poort (= Gate of Flanders). I'm mixing up the languages just as the locals do. The port continues for a length of the canal, with large boats docked on both sides.

Rue du Chene

Vieux Marché aux Grains from inside the Brussels Sprout café

The Canal de Charleroi

View of the "port" on the canal in Brussels

From the canal we found our way back to Place Rogier along a wide boulevard, busy with rush hour traffic. We walked past an unexpected, fenced field on which real sheep were grazing ... part of an educational urban farm.

We ate supper at a nearby steakhouse, have consumed far too much beef on this trip. The fact that we chose the wrong destination station this morning was reinforced when a short walk brought us to the Gare du Nord; we could see where the hotel was from in front of it. Oh well, we'd know another time, and Chris says he's glad that the friendly lady in the hijab, who helped us to get on the right tram at the Gare du Midi in order to make our way (back) here, probably felt good about her kind deed. The area around Rogier station with the illuminated hotels looks rather good after dark.

The entrance to the new Rogier underground station

View of our hotel from the Place Rogier