A mere 3 years or so ago I visited Belgium for the first time - now it's James's turn and we are most definitely 'sprout to be in Brussels (get it? Proud to be in Brussels? - What can I say - we saw it and thought it was cute). Even in the pointy end of the plane it was still a 36 odd hour journey in total. First part we both slept relatively well and it was a pleasure to have a shower, freshen up and roam about the lounge in Dubai - 2 hours just wasn't enough though... a few more and we would have availed ourselves of the snooze lounges and had a sleep! It seemed no time at all before we were departing at 8.30 am for the final 6-7 hour leg to Brussels. It was a non-starter as movie watching went - I kept nodding off and stretching out to sleep. Woke up in time for cocktails and lunch - we chose a dish new to both of us - Prawn Machbous - an Arabian pilaf more or less - phenomenally flavoursome. We started with a traditional mezze platter and finished with Belgian chocolates (which seemed only fitting as we are now in the chocolate capital of the world). By the time we landed in Brussels we had just enough energy to full-steam-ahead to immigration as fast as possible, then collect bags and jump in the car to the hotel. We brought some good Queensland winter weather with us and it was 28 degrees on Monday afternoon - so roasting (as it's apparently rained all summer in Brussels up 'til now). The hotel has proved a delight - the Marivaux - and we have one of their new rooms on the top floor with no other rooms either side - just a storage room and the emergency stairs... so peaceful for us and everyone else - as we were up and bright as buttons at 2 am on Tuesday. Mind you... we had gone to bed at 4 pm on Monday after a long hot bubble bath... jet lag is great fun generally speaking. Being awake so early on Tuesday was a grand chance to unpack, 'phone home' and generally potter for a couple of hours... before crawling back into bed and snoozing until breakfast. By 7.30 am it was roughly 18 hours since we last ate on the plane - so a joy to actually feel peckish after eating and drinking our way across the globe. Thoroughly refuelled we trundled out into Brussels' first, hottest (and quite possibly only) day of summer. It ended up hitting 32 degrees and in retrospect was probably not the best of days to do a 3 hour free walking tour - but still, all good fun (though the nicest part of the day was wandering around the covered Royal passages between 8.30 am and the start of the tour at 10 am... almost deserted at that hour.) We were definitely dragging the chain after the walking tour and ended up back in the hotel with the air-conditioning dialled all the way down for a 3 hour 'nap'. Then it was over the road for our 2nd-favourite 'go to' travel food - a particularly awesome kebab joint. We shared a massive platter of salad, veges and meat and, you guessed it, hit the sack again. Hmmmm - a pattern is developing. On a positive note we slept through til 4 am Wednesday and only stayed awake for an hour or so - Our body clocks are definitely catching up to themselves. Summer was not quite so big on Wednesday - in fact cool and raining first thing so we headed out early and strolled around the St Catherine area - such a treat to see so many flowers in bloom and a good way to start the day. From there we headed across town and up too many stairs to the Upper Town. After a tip off from the walking tour guide we visited the Musical Instrument Museum... but not really. It's free to enter to visit the gift shop and we also nipped to the 10th floor in the elevator to take a look at the cafe - which is just stunning and provides beautiful views over Brussels through the Art Nouveau facade. Well worth a quick stop. We are fortunate to be here right now as the Royal Palace of Brussels is currently a) open and b) free to the public and c) Wow!!! So that's where all the chandeliers in the world ended up. Aside from chandeliers and enough gilding to be seen from space, the highlight of the palace visit was the Mirror room where the ceiling was created with jewel beetles - seriously beautiful/very weird. This is where the day morphed from a stroll to the Royal Palace into a 10 km marathon of sightseeing when we played the 'while we're in the Upper Town' card. Seemed silly to walk back down then come back up again the next day, so we continued on our merry way to the Palace of Justice. This stunning building was under scaffolding 3 years ago when I visited and the local joke is that's it's been under renovation for so long that the scaffolding has rusted together and itself, needs to be renovated. Other than that - positively eerie walking around this massive monument to justice and seeing lawyers meeting with clients in little booths in the great hall. Also more greco-roman than anything Italy has every come up with! From the Palace of Justice it was a 5 minute walk down Avenue Louise so I could show James the trendy neighbourhood I stayed in 3 years ago. The next thing to catch our eye as we looked over Brussels from a scenic spot - an elevator! Wow! and Free! and perfectly positioned to drop us down to the Marolles neighbourhood in just moments in order to visit the Brussels Flea Market. We were in two minds whether or not to visit given some of the reviews circulating - but since we were there, off we went. And. It. Was. Brilliant! Lots of lovely treasures laid out on rugs/tables/old cardboard boxes. Thankfully we are at 100 (110%) on bag capacity at the moment - so no excuses for buy anything. Not even polished rose quartz wine bottle stoppers. Or little silver boxes. Or anything. Really. By this point we were about as far from the hotel as possible to be without actually leaving the city so it was a very slow amble indeed back to base. Had our lunch near one of Brussels old churches on Olive Street, bought some Belgian beer at the supermarket and eventually collapsed for a very moderate 2-3 hour catch up nap. Before we knew it it was time to cross the road and torment the manager of the Kebap Centre with my minimal French (then again with the sleeping). Thursday saw us ease off the marathon walking with just a gentle stroll to explore the Saint Katherine neighbourhood properly then lunch in the botanic gardens. This has been such a great spot to stop and decompress... We finished packing this morning and just went for a local wander about and tripped over a very unusual vestige of the 13th century - one of the first fortification towers of Brussels - with a modern building literally enveloping it - The Black Tower/Tour Noire/Zvarte Toren - the whole 3 language thing is fascinating indeed. As of lunchtime though, we're off to Paris - impossible to believe it's only 260 odd kms away. Definitely only the one language to worry about there!