"Attention all passengers, there are meercats in this station"

This weekend, as many of you know, was my last weekend in Brussels before I go back to England for Christmas (2 more sleeps!).  I could've spent it making the last minute finishing touches to my coursework or doing some proper work on my essay for Lancaster but instead I got to be a tourist again for the weekend showing Henry everything that Brussels has to offer.  On Thursday I wasn't even sure he was going to make it with the snow in the UK and the meltdown it seemed to be causing at Manchester airport, as per usual!  Luckily, seeing as I had to make the epic journey out to Charleroi airport armed with magazine, kindle, tea and cereal bars- the flight only came in a little later than it was due to.

This weekend the snow arrived in Brussels too, it wasn't that impressive but I wanted to have proof of it.  Apologies for the awful photo but there is only so long you can keep the window open for- it was freezing!

On Saturday we went to the Atomium, tip: don't bother going to Mini Europe when you can just see the whole thing from the Atomium! 

I'm not sure if I wrote about the Atomium the last time I went so for those of you that don't know it was built in 1958 for the world Expo, so that basically makes it Belgiums answer to the Eiffel tower.

I don't know the area around there very well but we decided to have a wander, we were just looking for somewhere to stop for a coffee but actually what we found were the following:

 I don't even know what this is I'm afraid...

The Chinese pavillion, and opposite this.....

The Japanese tower.  Not the sort of thing you'd usually expect to stumble across in Belgium.

Saturday also brought with it a bit of a navigational fail.  We headed to Place Saint Catherine for the Christmas Market and were very disappointed when we got there and just found a few stalls, a creepy looking carousel and a little band playing.  We were sure we were in the right place though, after all there was a sign that said Place Saint Catherine...  Jenny then told us later that if we'd have just carried on walking we'd have made it to the real market which I must say was significantly more impressive than what we'd seen!

We were going have a look around but there was a service going on at the time, I can't believe I've not actually been in there yet!

Usually when you stumble across some road blocks and a significant police presence including helicopters, a water canon and riot shields your first reaction probably wouldn't be to investigate would it? Well we did, on the basis that curiosity only killed the cat so we should be pretty safe.(For any worried parents/family members reading this, don't worry!  We wouldn't have been stupid enough to get into the thick of it, we just wanted to know what was happening...)  From what we could tell there wasn't much going on, just a small group of protesters so the police reaction seemed to be a little OTT.  I asked a man if he knew what was going on, annoyingly he did tell me in English after having asked in French... but he told me something that roughly adds up to this.  Clearly there was a lot more going on than we had seen.  As I write this I have seen a lot more police around again today and more road blocks and things so it must still be going on.  On our wander we stopped for a chat with the king...

We went and watched the light show on the Grand Place, we were going to hang around and see a woman dressed as a butterfly do something but it was wet and cold, I'm not sure we missed out on much anyway.

On Sunday we went to the Christmas Market (the right one...) in the afternoon.  I totally forgot to take any photos, I think I was somewhat distracted by the huge hot dog I was eating.  We got to see some people showing off on the ice rink and look at all the stalls.  Before we headed there we went to a museum, I've already been but if we hadn't gone Luke probably wouldn't have spoken to Henry for about a week so we had to really.  I will happily admit that I didn't enjoy it when I went on my own, but I now realise that was just because I had no clue what I was looking it, when someone else is telling you what it is you're looking at it makes it a lot more interesting.  Can't promise I've retained much of it though, other than something about why the edge of some guys hat was folded up...

Yesterday we went to see the Palais de Justice, considerably more impressive than the equivalent in the UK.    

This photo was just taken outside, the inside is worth looking at too.  It's a shame that I'm not going to get to see it without scaffolding though. 

Seriously, how hard is it to find somewhere to eat in Brussels that isn't a tourist trap?  Very, I'm telling you.  Vietnamese food however = good (although I could've had the exact same thing in a Chinese...)

That basically brings us to the end of my last long weekend in Brussels for 2011.  It's been a bit of an epic blog today but I thought including the photos rather than just telling you to look on flickr was kind of me.  I really am on countdown now though, I have my suitcase here ready to pack, I've been cleaning the flat and doing the washing- I just want to go home!  Wish me luck I have a presentation tomorrow, or at least should do... fun times! 

[Oh yeah, and about the meercats (and lets face it the only reason a number of you are bothering to read this), it was just a simple case of misunderstanding on Henrys part when there was an announcement at Midi station warning about pickpockets.  Have to say the meercats would be a lot more fun though!]