Brussels; Saturday, 19 May, 2018

I had a nice long lie-in and a leisurely breakfast before heading out into town and over to the Cathedral.

I’d done the open-top bus the first time I’d visited Brussels, but the weather than hadn’t been brilliant so it had ended up being a closed top tour and mostly seen through steamed up windows, so this time – with better weather – I decided to try again.

The company runs two different tours – one taking in the European district and another taking in the Atomium and north of the city – and I’d brought a ticket that let me do both tours.

What I hadn’t taken into account, partly because the trip had been booked in a blind panic to get out of the country within minutes of the date of the Royal Wedding being announced, was that there was just a small event – Belgium Pride – taking place across the whole of the city centre on the Saturday, accompanied by lots of road closures. It meant the service was running erratically, and in places going totally random routes, but it did mean in lots of places it was possible to get an elevated view over the festivities.

I did a loop of both routes before heading off into town for a late lunch. I then had a look round the cathedral and a bit of a wander through the parts of the city centre that weren’t a solid mass of festival goers before ending up back at the sightseeing tour bus stop shortly before the last tour of the night attempted to set off.

I did a final circuit of the northern Atomium route before heading back into the city centre and then over to my hotel to freshen up.

Refreshed I headed out into town and over to the Place du Congrès. The square forms a viewing platform behind the column that houses the tomb of the unknown soldier and looks out towards the west and the stunning views of the sun setting behind the Brussels skyline.

After taking quite a few photos I headed down into the centre of town for a bite to eat and then back to the hotel to turn in for the night.