After a couple of days staying in the suburbs, I was still not sure I had seen the best the Brussels had to offer, so decided to do some research.
The big problem was feet. I have two – both of which seem to play up at different times and on this occasion, it was the right foot with the dreaded blisters. So, I was looking for a trip in the city that would not involve a lot of walking. I also didn’t want to do yet another bus / train / tram trip – but to do something different – now what could that be? I know a boat.
I soon researched enough to find out that Brussels is not on the coast. It does have a connection to the sea though, via the River Senne – however most of this waterway is underground in Brussels, fancy hiding a river! So, I began to look for a canal.
A bit more research and I found out about boat trips along the Senne or Zenne Canal (like most things in Belgium, there are two names for the same thing.)
Now, there are canal trips on a grand scale and I was quite tempted by the idea of a boat out to Antwerp and then getting the train back. But given the poor weather and the blisters, I thought a shorter trip of an hour or two up and down the canal would be good enough. So I went for a short trip provided by Rivertours.be
So, the challenge – how to get to the boat? Now people keep telling me, that if you don’t know your way around a strange city, to use Google Maps – so I thought now is the time to give it a go. I plugged in where I wanted to go to and asked it to take me there. Of course, it told me the quickest way by car – 15 minutes, but my car was still in the UK – hence the blisters. So, I pressed on the public transport icon and was told to take a bus, then a train, then a bus and a short walk in total 30 minutes. That sounded doable, so off I set. The first couple of journeys proved uneventful until I came to catch the 2nd bus. Now I arrived at the bus-stop just as it arrived and jumped on board. With my, “all around Brussels ticket” this was easy, but then I realised that I didn’t know when to get off. I had the name of the stop – but the bus was going too fast for me to read the names on the bus-shelters. Eventually, I realised that rather than being closer to the city centre (where I knew the canal was) we were heading out into the leafy suburbs … the bus was going the wrong way! Well, of course the bus was going the right way – I was going the wrong way. So big tip, if getting a bus anywhere you don’t know – CHECK THE DIRECTION OF TRAVEL! Right – so I get off the bus and cross the road to the bus-stop opposite. Which of course was about 100 yards up-hill. I reached it slightly before the black clouds above decided to loosen their load and I got drenched – I looked across at the bus-stop I had come off at with its attached shelter – none on this side and waited. 20 minutes. In the pouring rain.
A rather wet Steev dripped onto the bus back down the hill and towards Brussels again and (more by luck than judgement) I managed to get off at the correct stop. Now to find the boarding point for the boat trip. By my reckoning, I had about 5 minutes to get from where I was to the dock which would have been fine if I was 10 years younger and without blisters. As it was, I was able to watch, through the rain as the boat sailed past me. I nearly waved but could see no-one on-board to wave to.
How to kill time. By my reckoning I had 2 hours to wait for the boat to come back and then the trip would be another 2 hours – so for 4 hours, some food and drink perhaps? I looked for a café. You would think that on a waterfront in a big city there would be one but no. There was however a small food shop, so I shuffled in and bought an (to me) expensive sandwich and a bottle of water. I came out to find the rain had gone so I hobbled along to the boat stop and waited.
Except there was nowhere to wait.
Well there was if you didn’t mind standing. There was a railing to stop you from dropping into the canal – that was only a 2 inch wide metal rod – but having nothing else to sit on and listening to my blisters protesting – I decided to sit. It was not comfortable. It was also a bit precarious, there was definitely a wobble, made all the more wobbly by trying to then extricate the sandwich and water bottle from my pocket The thought of falling off into the canal made me re-evaluate, I considered sitting side saddle so that the railing would fit snuggly between my bumcheeks. More secure, but a real risk of getting stuck and having to be prised out.
So, I stood to eat my sandwich, waved to a couple of people waiting on the opposite bank (they didn’t wave back) and drank some water. Almost as if it was wanting to say “hi” to the water I was drinking, the rain started again – and how. There was nothing else for it, I had to seek shelter. I hobbled further up to a main road and looked up and down for a café. There was something to the near left of me, which turned out to be an “drama school” and as I now felt I was part of a drama, I went in and found their café space. Very upmarket – a soup and a sandwich would set you back nearly Euro 15. I settled for a coffee – a large coffee – I still had most of an hour and a half to wait. How long could I make one coffee drag out for. 40 minutes it seems – that included two visits to the toilets, once to use up some time and once out of necessity – oh and a trip to pay the bill of Euro 3.50.
Then back to the canal side. At least it had stopped raining and within the hour the boat chugged back and dropped anchor – on the opposite side of the canal! So, it was a panicky, painful run – along the bank again, over the road bridge and down the other side to see the couple I had waved to earlier being shown on board. Thankfully I reached the boat before it sailed off again – the woman who took my payment, (6 euro for the round trip) told me that they would have sailed across to the other bank to pick me up. My blisters did not take this news well.
So, two hours late, I settled down to a nice peaceful canal journey in Brussels to see the sights and the sounds from a different perspective.
To start with, the journey was as I anticipated – a view of the route I had come down, the busy roads, the canal-side apartments, the cycle lanes. Then we soon came to a mooring area for small (and not so small) passenger craft. Then on to a less savoury side of town, the smell announcing that we were approaching one of Brussels’ recycling sites.
As some of you know, I am something of a wild-life enthusiast – so was looking forward to seeing more than the occasional duck. Well by the recycling centre (aka the tip) there was a plethora of wildlife – mainly seagulls and crows and plenty of time to watch their antics as we chug by at 15 km per hour. On the other side of the canal there was a Dutch barge being loaded up with scrap metal and then the next door cement factory moved into view … and I slowly come to a realisation that this journey may not be one of beauty and serenity but an altogether different affair.
I did spot a park – behind a high wall, the tops of the trees suggesting something more pastoral that was in place away from the canal, but on the opposite bank it was more container parks, car parks and trailer-parks and I knew that this journey was going to be a whole new ball park for me.
By now I had started to feel thirsty, but signs all over the boat made it clear that bringing your own drink was not allowed and that there were hidden cameras aimed at enforcing this. I felt the bottle of water in my jacket pocket and worked out a way of covering my head with my coat whilst I took a couple of swigs. It probably looked on camera as if I was trying to blot out the “scenic” world I was being shown as we tootled along.
A little further along we came to one of the highlights of the trip – going underneath a “lift bridge” – I first knew something was afoot when I saw the queue of traffic on the bank – in fact both canal banks and then on all the surrounding streets. Cyclists and a few pedestrians were also stopped at the barriers as part of the road lifted up to let the boat and its THREE passengers tootle underneath. I was tempted to wave at a few of them, but the look on their faces told me it might not be appreciated.
Eventually after passing a few greenish areas (if you can call a child’s skateboard park greenish) we arrived at our destination; a Brussel’s housing complex. We settled there to pick up passengers for the journey back. There weren’t any. Although on the way back we did pick up a chap who flagged us down – finding a quicker way into the centre of the city than by road with all those queues mostly caused by a boat causing a bridge to lift on a major traffic route.
Eventually I was taken back to where I got on the boat. It was raining again, but only slightly. I stepped back painfully onto wet land and hobbled up to the main street in search of a bus going in the right direction. Whilst I was searching, I came across a humorous sculpture and almost took a photograph – but then I thought “no – there will be loads of photos of this and no-one will find it interesting.” A few months later and a friend, Anna Green, posted a picture of the sculpture on her Facebook feed. Maybe my concept of what is interesting is skewed…
To sum up – take the canal boat trip if seeing the rougher edge of Brussels is your thing.
Make sure you get your timings right.
Try and avoid a rainy day and wait for the boat to come to you.
There is some wildlife to be seen, but the cranes on view are not the long-legged feathered type!
