Janet and Randy - Brussels 2016

Happy New Year and Welcome to Day 6 of Janet and Randy's Brussels Adventure 2016

Friday, January 1st, 2016

After boozing it up on New Year's Eve, we both slept until 9:30am (actually after listening to the crowds on the street having a New Years Party all night). We got ready and headed downstairs for breakfast. Looks like other people slept in, as the restaurant was really busy.

Randy at skating rink As it was New Year's Day, we knew there wasn't going to be much open. So, we just hung out in the room until the Christmas Market opened at 1:00pm. There was one section of the market that we hadn't been to yet (where the ice skating rink was), so we headed over there. There were a few food vendors over there, but not much else.

Then we meandered around the streets to see what (if anything) was going on. Pretty much everything was closed. The exceptions to this were souvenir shops, chocolate shops, and for some strange reason - shoe stores and hair salons (and one place that was women's underwear).

As we were wandering around, we came across some street art. We took a few pictures and then headed back to the room and had a nice nap. After the nap we went out to check out the light show across the street at the Bourse. Apparently the show is in different languages, and the next English show wasn't for another 45 minutes. So, we decided to head over to the Christmas Market by Sainte Catherine church to try a fire-roasted salmon vendor we've had on eye on for a few days. We both got a salmon sandwich, which was very good. Then we got a hot chocolate and wandered around the market for a while.

We were still a little hungry, so we went back to the market in front of our hotel. We got some frites and a sausage hot dog and went back to our room to eat it. We had some frites with some of our other meal, but they weren't anything overly exciting. However, these frites were nice and crunchy - just like good french fries are. With full tummies, we watched some movies on TV and drank some beer. After being on our feet for the past few days, it felt great to just relax for a bit. Also it was a bit cooler today, and even though we were layered up in clothing we still felt a bit cold. Hence we weren't really keen to be wandering around.