Day 16 - Brussels, Belgium

We landed in Brussels at 2:30 in the morning! They weren't lying when they called this plane an 'Airbus', we made so many stops that at one stage we were flying further away from Belgium. We arrived to an empty airport and Ash was feeling so ill - probably from being overtired. The only place open at 3am was Starbucks, which was my first experience. We found a corner table, got cosy and ordered a few coffees.

By 6:30am, we had planned our whole trip for Brussels & Bruges, we dozed a bit and listened to music. While we were exhausted, we freshened up and were so excited to explore and see a new country! We caught the train to Noord Station, and from there walked about 1km to our hotel - freezing cold! We obviously couldn't check in so early, so we stored our luggage at the hotel and tucked into the buffet breakfast. It was so good to see Bacon & Eggs again!

As we have been investigating the wide variety that Belgium has to offer, we have made it our goal to see all three of the most famous - chocolate, comics and beer. So, like Tin Tin and Snowy, we set off on a great adventure to the Herge Museum. The Herge Museum is located in Louvain-la-Neuve, a small University town about half and hour away. As we were tired from our flight the night before and having not slept, we were showing more of the forward charging of Captain Haddock than the investigative ability of Tin Tin. After a train change we rolled into the University Town of Louvain-la-Neuve which is essentially a town the size of Rondebosch in Cape Town, dedicated seemingly entirely to the University and its students. We jumped off the train and raced toward the mighty Herge Museum.

Only 500m from the train station we came across the building with very interesting Architecture - and the illustrator Herge's most popular character, Tin Tin, on the wall. Our adventure really only began at the Museum, which is relatively new and has numerous interactive steps that pull you through the history of George's Remi (know as Herge) and the over 240 characters he created in his Tin Tin novels. This Museum is a playground for people of all ages. You are not allowed to take photos inside the Museum but we managed to steal a few shots for everyone to get a look inside.

At the end of the tour we decided to look at some of the Tin Tin memorabilia. The life size statue seemed to be the best souvenir available, but he was probably big enough to carry one of our huge backpacks. A few British tourists told the shop assistant to brace herself as they were going to "go to town and empty their accounts". As South Africans, its a little more complex practicing your twelve times table when trying to decide what to buy - especially when a Tin Tin ornament is €1900!

On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at a SPAR grocery store, got a few snacks - and then headed back to our hotel. A good nights sleep is in order to catch up on a few hours missed, and we finally have DUVETS! Tomorrow we set to see what Brussels has to over in the central city, and then next stop: Bruges.