Trip to Brussels

Arriving on Saturday we headed straight to the show-stopping Gran' Place for the best Lebanese kebab in town and to marvel on the architecture that reflects hundreds of years tension between would-be rulers - the Spanish, the Austrians, guilds and local ruling families. We chased this down with Belgian beer at the Halles St Gery before heading home to prepare for an action-packed Sunday!

A lovely lazy morning for three of the others, I lead the two girls I was staying with on a bit of a long cut, but we arrived laden with incredible vegetables from a market that we had passed for our dinner and fresh bread from an amazing Moroccan bakery we had passed in the Marolles district. The Marolles has traditionally been a poor area, just outside the city walls, but Belgians have now been replaced by immigrants, many from the Magreb. After our breakfast, we hit the Jeux des balles flea market, after which many of our loftier plans dissolved. Six girls in an acre of uncharted "vintage" goods - clothes, crockery, clocks - anything and everything was there just waiting to be discovered.

Eventually hunger caught up with us, and we followed up on a recommendation- the omelettes in this area are good, but walking through an imposing pub only to find an authentic tapas place, full of spanish families, was a revelation. We left sated. We had a tokenistic view of the Musee Magritte (next time) and then headed off towards another unmissable Brussels experience- Frederick Blondeel in the St Catherine District, with another friend, a Brussels resident, in tow. Blondeel makes amazing chocolates and the best hot chocolate in Brussels- chocolate melted with milk and spices, served with a slice of cake or a few truffles for less than a Starbucks. If you want something cold, they also have fresh icecream. This district, now three linked squares, was once three busy docks, just off the enormous canal that linked Brussels to the sea, and even now if you want moules frites or fresh lobster, this is where you should come.

We left Mass until 6pm, when I knew that there would be a celebration at Notre Dame du Sablon- a church near to where we were staying and praised as the finest example of Gothic architecture in the low countries.

I am sure that this is highly contested, but if you are inside this church you are drawn towards Heaven - the hundreds of stained glass and the colours they throw across the honey-coloured stone are spectacular. In the evening we cooked up a vegetarian feast from the bounty of the market - roast aubergine with fresh tomato sauce and roasted sweet potato followed by delicious fruit. A good counter to our vitamin-light tapas and chocolate!

Monday was the reason we had come - the 'excuse' for our trip - a conference on citizenship organised by the European University College Association, or EUCA, of which Ashwell is a member. Rushing there for a 9:30 start via Mass and a whistlestop tour of the Royal Palace, European Parliament and the European Commission, we arrived to find that many of the other Europeans has different attitudes towards timekeeping! European citizenship is always sure to raise good debate, and we prepared pertinant and provocative questions- why come if you are determined to remain voiceless?

We met some old friends and made some new ones, which was perhaps of equal importance to the conference content itself!

From the conference we rushed home and back to the Eurostar, dragging our purchases with us (thank heavens we weren't flying Ryanair!). A good weekend? Better than that - and something that I hope other Ashwellians can attend in the future.

Olivia Darby, past Ashwell resident.