Bruges & Brussels, Belgium

Sandwich au saumon

That morning, before we boarded the Thalys train to Brussels, I got up extra early to make breakfast - Salmon Sandwich ( seen in the picture above ), a pot of cream of mushroom, along with some toast, topped with fried eggs!

We were to take the 6 AM train from Gare Du Nord in Paris, therefore needed to be at the station by 5.30 AM. With some time to kill, it was nice to enjoy some hot caffeine at Cote' Cafe, while waiting for departure.

The journey from Paris to Brussels took only an hour and 25 minutes... yet, long enough for me to enjoy the refreshing scenery en route!

Smooth sailing: Brussels' Midi terminal finally in sight!

As expected, we were welcomed by Tintin promotional posters as we reached Brussels Midi - a sign of what's in store for us in this beautiful city. BUT... we had not explored Brussels first... As planned, we switched to another train, this time headed for Venice of the North - Bruges! We spent a full day in Bruges, and only returned to Brussels later in the evening, where we spent the next two nights.

Scenic Bruges...

OMG! Bruges was so awesome! Only slightly over an hour from Brussels but this canal-rich city is so vastly different and really, really scenic! Only now do I understand why they call it "Venice of the North".




We had walked from the train station into the city center, exploring the city outskirts. Before we reached the lovely spots like what you see in the picture above, we cut through the city park, and bumped into a friendly municipal worker...

Struggling to express himself in basic English, he pointed out that the tree next to us has a very interesting and historical past. I felt honored, that he took the trouble to explain that Hitler had used this very tree as his lookout tower during the war!

Municipal worker explaining the history of this tree to my brother...




The 'Hitler Tree'

Thereon, we explored the city the entire day. I took zillions of pictures! I'm sharing some of them here... Enjoy!























Tintin!! *to be continued

Tintin Trip, Brussels!

Me at The Tintin ( pronounced as 'Turnturn' in French) Shop in Covent Garden, London.

Finally my most-awaited movie of the year, The Adventures of Tintin is now showing at cinemas nationwide, yippie ! I'm sure many of you are as excited, too? More so, you senior citizen readers out there? ;P

Although I did not actually grow up during the Tintin era (*ahem!), I'm still a huge fan of his! I have to blame my brother who introduced me to reading Tintin comics and watching his DVDs many years ago.

I have already seen the film, and was it awesome! I would rate it 5 stars! How about you guys, have you seen it?

By the way, Tintin fever was so prominent in Paris: from children's apparels to brioche wrapers, to just about anything, all you will ever see is 'Turnturn!'. Not just that, the nicely-adorned bread loaves come with surprise Tintin stickers - there's no guarantee which character you will chance upon!

And a week before the movie was out, they released a special reproduction of the famous Tintin-in-his-reporter-trenchcoat figurine that comes with a detailed biodata and passport! In the weeks to follow, other characters like Thomson and Thompson, Captain Haddock, Madame Castafiore and the rest, will meet ardent collectors!

When we were in London, my brother and I accidentally bumped into The Tintin Shop in Convent Garden. I love the shop so much! But there's yet another shop, in Paris' Montmarte area which I grew to hate the most! Why? It has a huge number of Tintin collectibles - the largest I've ever seen so far! What really rubbed the envy in was, most of their collectibles are really rare and vintage! And costly, of course! LOL...

Some of the figurines my brother brought from the shop in Covent Garden.


The Tintin shop in Montmarte... They have a special section on Tintin at the back...


GAP Kids cashing in on the hype...


PITCH's special edition brioche that comes with various Tintin character stickers. *kembung hari2 makan roti ni :D


Even regular news weekly magazines like Le Point, carried Tintin on their front page.


Dave de Bruges' special edition chocolates...


Tintin promotional poster at a Paris bus stop...


The Tintin special reproduction set, complete with a figurine of the hero!


Have to go 'Tintin hunting' for more copies, since most shops have only one copy each. I bought two copies for myslef while my brother got two for himself too.


Another movie poster, this time at the entrance of an electrical shop in Paris...

A shop in the suburb Montmarte also offers a huge collection of old Tintin comics, but only in French...

So, as diehard Tintin fans, we made a special visit to Tintin's hometown... Where else but Brussels!

A huge Tintin billboard proudly standing in downtown Brussels...

*to be continued