There’s nowhere to camp anywhere near Belgium’s capital city. We also had to be careful where we took The Van as a large part of the city is covered by a low emissions zone that we weren’t authorised to use. However, we found out that we could park for free at the Stalle(P) Tram stop for the day and take the trams in. We got day passes and quickly worked out how the tram system worked.
We learnt from our escapades around Spain that just dropping into a city centres without a plan means you see the landmarks, but not much else. For Brussels we headed for Grand Place. It was impressive, but I’m sure it’d look much nicer if it weren’t so overcast!
After that, the aim was to get to the European Parliament. Ever since she saw them in Spain, Joolz had really wanted to try hiring electric scooters. As the parliament area was a couple of kilometres away, we signed up to Lime (although several other brands were available!). After the trip, we think that they’d be ideal for places like Spain that have plenty of bike lanes. However, Brussels is more car orientated, and LOTS of cobbles. Cobbles and tiny scooter wheels are not a comfortable mix. We also remembered why, although Joolz can technically drive The Van, that she doesn’t. At one point, I rolled to a stop, only to have Joolz ricochet off of me a few seconds later, still gunning it on full throttle and forgetting what the brake is for.
Having made it alive to the European Parliament buildings, we went in the Parlamentarium, which is an interactive exhibition explaining how the European Union came to be after the second world war, how it works, and where it’s heading. It was a well thought out and interesting place and we spent a few hours learning about the European Parliament and how it works.
We navigated our way back on the metro system and moved on to our stop for the night.