We visited Brussels in Belgium for four days to drink their beer, eat their chocolate, sample some waffles and take in their history. But it started a bit rough.

Catching the Eurostar from St Pancras in London to Brussels was enjoyable however we obviously exited the Brussels Midi station through the wrong doorway as we found ourselves in a plaza area that held no architectural charm, cleanliness or hint of welcoming. Not pretty, and the walk from Midi station to our hotel along Ave de Stalingrad provided little evidence of improvement for more than half the distance. A lot of this area is under reconstruction, but it looked as though that work had been going on for a very long time. As they say, “first impressions count” and it didn’t deliver, but over the course of the four days we found reasons to believe that we just caught the area at a low point in its recent history.

Our hotel, The Bedford, is comfortable and well located plus accommodating enough as they agree to store our luggage for the several hours before we can check in, allowing us a chance to have an initial look around and find our bearings. We quickly realise that we are not far from Grand Place which has some stunning architecture but being a Saturday afternoon, it is teeming with people, so we opt to come back early Sunday morning to take some photos.

Sunday morning, we are up early and out the door before it gets too crowded in Grand Place and Galerie de la Reine. If it wasn’t for the stormy afternoon weather, evening photos would have been even more impressive.

Over the next few days, we walk most of the city centre viewing the parks including Square of Petit Sablon, Parc d’Egmont, Parc de Bruxelles and up to Parc du Cinquantenaire where the grand archway is being set up for the summer festivals. People are out and enjoying the warm days, which reminds us of Brisbane as a summer afternoon storm chases us into a local pub to wait out its downpour. At least that’s our excuse and we are sticking with it.

The architecture is mixed and interesting, the parks are beautiful, the Notre Dame styled church named St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral is breathtaking, the majestic Église Notre-Dame des Victoires au Sablon church is equally impressive but it’s the simple street scenes that build the interest.

The comic character Tintin is a creation of Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi and is loved locally. Images, statues and street art can be found throughout Brussels celebrating Tintin as well as different acknowledgements to Manneken Pis the statue of a little boy weeing into a basin although some depictions are rather different to the original sculpture which supplied drinking water for passersby. The statue is dressed up each day in a different outfit with more than 1000 options available. We were lucky enough to be there when it was being dressed by the attendant. It’s a bit of an operation but he’s well practiced and can achieve a quick wardrobe change in a matter of a few minutes.

Banksy also gets a mention here with a museum dedicated to his street art works.

A special mention to Stacey for the sunset photo of the Triumphal Arch taken from a moving bus window. Nice one!

Well Brussels, we may have started with concerns regarding your welcoming scenes, but you are far more alluring than our first impressions.