I was lucky enough to visit Brussels for the penultimate Wales Nations League game of the campaign. This was a very short trip, and I don’t think I would have considered a post, if not for the fact that I would forget I had even went in a year or so!
We only had one night and less than 24 in Belgium’s capital city, but remarkably this was longer than my previous visit… a 23-hour day trip back in 2018! However, we did all of the touristy stuff on that trip, so please check that out here: Sprouting up in Brussels, August 2018.
We had an early start catching the National Express to London before getting to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar. Thank goodness it was an early start, as I forgot my bloody ‘important’ bag (I have NEVER done this before!!) which meant my poor mother, giving me a lift at 3am, had to rush back home 5 miles, then back in to town! One this rare occasion, the coach was a little late and I even had a time for a ciggy to relax before boarding.
Thankfully for Peter’s ticker at least, the rest of the journey was at a relaxed pace. We checked in to our hotel, actually inside the EuroStar train station and had a walk into town, a good 30-minute walk.
Once we collected our match tickets and arrived at the main square “Grand Place” we had an expensive beer, enjoyed the sunshine and let the busy tourists hurrying by get on with it.
Hydrated, I moved on to the designated Welsh Fans area a few minutes away. It was a glorious few hours before kick off with sunshine, banger after banger bellowing out from the speakers and plenty of beers purchased from the supermarket down the road, to avoid being taken advantage of by the Irish bar charging £7 a time. I remember there was an article in the Belgian press bigging us up as we all cleaned up litter after ourselves before the game, but it is worth mentioning the sizeable police presence should be commended for their hands off approach, letting us be a little silly, but not out of hand, leading to absolutely ZERO trouble… again.
The game itself was OK. Belgium went 2-0 up before half time before big Kieffer Moore bundled in a goal to give us hope. We had the Belgians so scared they resorted to timewasting and although we did end up losing 2-1, it was another promising performance, against the best team in the world at the time, before we headed to the World Cup (we won’t mention that.)
After the football, the trip was exiting as going back to the hotel via a kebab shop, ready to catch the 6am train home the next morning. Don’t forget to check the link above for some actual content!
How Not 2 Life 