Day 6 Saturday 17/08 Brussels > Bruges - 20deg Sunny

John here...today we caught the metro to Central station, and took the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus tour. Our impression of Brussels as a city is that it reminded us of Prague and Buenos Aries, in terms of its architecture, planning and style. We did the full circuit and then went into the main town centre to find the sculpture of Manneken Pis...or Little Boy Peeing. What a letdown, this kid's about a foot tall and the "PC" people of Brussels have designed 12 costumes for him, so heaps of people taking photos and I am wondering what for as the chocolate shops had life size models of him with more detail. We then decided on a Belgian "rip off" Waffle, let me explain, they suck you in with a €1 price tag and charge heaps for the topping, we got a €1.50 warm chocolate and vanilla topping, just likes Cottee's topping!...total price €2.50, they then give you a fork not much larger than a toothpick to eat it with, so easier to pick it up and the topping runs down your arm, needless to say there was none left. Travelled by train to Bruges, settled ourselves in, thought the seats were so comfortable until the conductor turfed us out of first class; we weren't alone...dumb tourists! Bruges is an hour from Brussels. We caught a taxi to the hotel as no way would we have found this one and we would have had to drag bags along cobblestone streets. Bruges is maze of cobblestone streets heaving with people being the weekend, so the best €9 spent so far on this trip. The hotel was fantastic; it was located on the Burg square, right in the centre of the old town, we were upgraded to a suite and given a complimentary box of Belgian chocolates, which didn't last long. We dropped our bags and went exploring. They had a light festival in the square at night, right outside our bedroom window, with a lot of pomp and ceremony, music, speeches, clapping and noise which lasted to midnight!!