PAUL

Well we did end up going back down to the square in and it was a little more lively, though still nothing like we'd seen in Amsterdam. We sampled one of the Belgian beers and then returned home.

On our last day in Antwerp we went for a walk through an area rich in Art Nouveau architecture. I was going to try to explain what that is but I think it's best to leave you to the pictures. Then we were on the (right) train to Brussels.

We arrived in Brussels around 3pm decided to follow our new roomie, a Russian-American girl who has been studying in Paris since January, to the Belgian Cartoon Museum. The star of the museum was of course, Tintin, but he was up again some stiff competition for this title from other Belgian creations like Asterix and the Smurfs! With the sun still very high in the sky, despite it being 5:30pm, we decided to get out our map and do some wondering through Brussels. Walking into the Grote Markt (Grand Place) a massive square, our jaws dropped. On one side there's an amazing gothic cathedral looking building complete with a huge, intricate spire that dominates the skyline. Then opposite that is another slightly smaller though no less impressive building while at the far ends sits what was once a massive guild hall and near us are a collection of magnificently decorated Belgian style terrace buildings. The square is filled with people eating outside the various cafes and bars, people painting and selling scenes from the square, people making there way through the square to get to who knows where and people like us looking like the typical tourists with cameras clicking and looks of total amazement.

Brussels is a city filled with many massive, old, palace style buildings as well as cathedrals and we made our way around to many of these while the twilight persisted in leaving us totally confused about what time it was. We also passed the Manneken Pis (peeing boy), along with the many chocolate and souvenir shops making a mint of this small and absurd "national icon". Following the tips of a free map from the hostel, we took a lift to the top story of a car park giving us almost 360 degree views across Brussels. Then with more time to kill before our evening highlight, we found a nice little bar/café called De la Mort Subite (Sudden Death - don't worry we obviously survived to write this) to try some more Belgian beers with our new found friend. We tried the Mort Subite Lambic Blanche - brewed only for that bar, as well as trying some of our friend's peach beer and cherry beer. Then it was finally dark enough to see what we'd been waiting for (it was about 10:30pm by that stage). The third highest building in Brussels lights up with the 4200 windows changing colours and even gives the weather forecast for the next day!

Today we made our way to the south of town where we were expecting some impressive markets, but to our disappointment found something that makes the Ferny Grove flea markets look like high street shopping, ah well. Not discouraged we walked, and used a glass elevator, to reach the Palace of Justice, a massive building housing the city's law courts, which was of course covered in scaffolding. The views over the rather hazy city made it worthwhile and we stepped inside briefly to see how it is for the barristers (and accused) of Brussels, nice! Then, after trying some more waffles we caught the metro train out to what was the centrepiece for World Expo '58, the Atomium. The nine balls represent an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times and you can actually go inside and move from ball to ball using the escalators between each, although we didn't. Then we tried out being a local and using the same metro ticket, caught a tram back into town.

In the afternoon we went to the Cantillon Brewery where they told us they are the only Belgian brewery still to be fermenting there beer in the "traditional" way - by spontaneous fermentation resulting from the naturally occurring air-borne yeast. At the end of the self guided tour of the small brewery, we got to sample a two of the beers, Gueuze - a blend of the lambic beer produced which has been allowed to ferment for 1, 2 and 3 years, and Kriek - a cherry beer. Because of the natural fermentation process the beer has a sour taste, which takes a bit of getting used to but isn't too bad really. (Just as a side note: Mum, we are planning to rectify our beer and waffle dominated diet soon, so don't worry).

Well that brings us to tonight. We have a few more things to find in Brussels and until our train to Paris leaves tomorrow afternoon to do it. We hope the study is going well for those of you with exams at the moment and that everyone is well. We will keep posting updates on our travels when we have access to the internet.