Belgium - Day 4

Having tricked the guy at breakfast yesterday, he got his own back today. I made a play for the croissants but he'd got there ahead of me and spiked them with yuck. I think this particular yuck was custard, blurgh!

I left in disgust after drinking all of the orange juice and went to the local shop and got some fresh warm pan au chocolat. Yum

Back to Brussels today and I took the motorway to save some time. Now people say the belgiums are boring and they certainly are that in their driving. Not 1kph over the speed limit by anyone ever. It's as though there is a satellite tracking them all and will blow them up if they speed. It's a good job Sandra Bullock isn't on a bus over here, she'd be fucked.

It didn't take long to get back to the capital, and instead of heading to the hotel I went straight for my first sight of the day, the Atomium.

It was made in 59 for the World Fair and is this giant structure that you can go in. So I did. It was pretty cool, full of retro exhibits and funky lighting.

Afterwards I went to find lunch and while I was in the exhibit, a bunch of stalls had been setup outside. It turns out that today was a festival for 50s cars, mopeds and music, however it was really just full of Harleys and stalls that sold sew on badges for their patches.

They did have awesome hot dogs though, so I grabbed one of those bad boys. For some reason, no one here speaks any English although they know all of the words to every Elvis song.

After noms I went next door to miniature Europe where they'd made a bunch of famous buildings to scale from around Europe. Sounds boring I know but it was quite impressive and some of them were interactive. By that I don't mean you could go all King Kong and kick shit out of the place...

My second place to visit was Auto World, yes, more cars. This was in a really ornate building that reminded me of the Brandenburg Gate, but inside was a giant warehouse full of the history of cars.

Most of them were old time cars from the 20s and 30s but they had some modern stuff too which made it worthwhile.

It was seriously hot again and the car museum was quite stuffy inside so I left in search of a cafe. I was tight next to a giant park full of people playing footy, boules, badminton, etc. However for some reason there was nowhere to buy a drink.

While I was looking around some foreigner stopped me to ask directions asking if I spoke English, I answered "a little" and then gave her directions in broken English using Google Maps. It's the little things that amuse me.

I eventually found a van selling drinks so inhaled that and went back to the car.

I was staying at the same hotel as before in Little Palestine. I'd tried to change it but it wasn't refundable so I headed over there. The parking situation was awful again instead of double parking it was triple parked actually blocking some roads (if you double park next to someone who has double parked is it triple parked or quad parked?).

In the end I found a car park, but it was kind of in the middle of a dual carriageway which involved some very dodgy maneuvers to get into. There was a space but after I parked some guy came over and introduced himself as 'local security' (he didn't look like security). I pointed to the hotel I was staying in and he seemed happy with the saying that paying wasn't obligatory. I fully expect my car to be completely stripped down to the nuts and bolts when I get back to it tomorrow.

I was assigned the same room as before in my dump of a hotel, but I had a view of the dodgy car park so that I could see the parts moving from the vehicle to eBay as they went to work.

After chilling out for an hour I walked into the centre and found a nice outdoor restaurant that did an awesome steak. Although some guy in the square is busking his way through UB40s hits which isn't ideal but at least it should be brief. 

Following another beer and necessary ice cream I headed back to Little Palestine to pack and retire for the evening. It's an early flight tomorrow, so I'll sign off now.

As always, thanks for reading.

Belgium - Day 3

Today was race day with the main event starting at 2:30 but with support races before that. I wasn't too fussed about the support races so I had plenty of time in the morning.

I opted to go shopping and went to not one but two supermarkets to buy some lunch to avoid having to have another cat sick burger. I'd got enough for a home made sub and a bunch of drinks so that the rob dog places at the circuit couldn’t have the shirt off my back.

Oh I didn't mention breakfast. It was included with the room and was a standard buffet continental jobbie. However, the guy running it would only put out just enough food for who was in there, so when I rocked up, he put out a single croissant, but I wanted more, so I waited until some others arrived and stole theirs forcing him to put more out.

Back to my story about the supermarkets, well, it's not just Little Palestine where they can't Park, it must be all of Belgium. Check out how this woman parked her truck in a car park that was full (note that her number plate is 1 COW):

Off to the circuit; after yesterday's trouble of finding the car park I dropped a pin on the map where it was before I left so was able to find it easily. However the guy running the car park wouldn't let me in and motioned for me to go to the next one that was miles away. So I drove around the block and tried again and he let me in this time. You have to be careful who you call a little Hitler here as we're not that far away from Germany!

Inside the circuit I finally found how to get to a hidden grandstand. I knew it would be in the shade and have a good view of the hairpin so it was a good find. It turns out that it overlooked the pits too and the podium so it worked out well.

Prior to the race there was a good build up with comedic trampoliners (who thought of that career!), sky divers and girls with t-shirt cannons.

It was soon race time and it was quite eventful for the first few hours but got boring half way through as the fast cars had dropped out and everyone was well spaced out. So I took the opportunity to walk around for a bit as I hadn't done much of that. Unfortunately, this set my Hayfever off and I list vision out of my right eye so hot tailed it out of there after stopping by the pit lane one last time.

Back at the hotel I chilled out for half an hour to cool down and get changed. The town I was in only had 2 restaurants and a kebop shop so I went one town over to see if that was any better.

Good choice, this place appears to be the restaurant centre of Belgium. I had a look around and was going to go for the firey steak and then saw the pizza equivalent of Hooters which was coincidental as I suddenly fancied a pizza...

Writing this, I realise that I haven't had a rant yet today. Well let me tell you about the ability for my car to connect to my phone to play music. If I have my phone charging from the USB socket in the car (which I do all the time as it's also my satnav), then it auto plays the music from my phone.

This would be OK if actually played the music, instead it plays every voice sample from my satnav software one at a time in each language. It's an interesting way of learning new languages and I can now say "in 1000 meters turn right" in English, French, German and Japanese. Once it's finished with those it starts playing a random song then crashes half way through. It does this every time I start the car.

Needless to say, the volume is now set at 0 and I play music through my tinny phone speaker.

Rant over, I'm done now.

Belgium - Day 2

An early start this morning, it was like getting up for work. I woke at 6ish and had a lie in until 6:30, it's a good job I didn't want longer as they decided to vacuum the hallway outside my room. They also appear to have wired the doorbell into my room, as it couldn’t have been louder. You see you can't just walk into the hotel, you have to ring and wait each time. I guess that's the price to pay for staying in the Green Zone in Little Palestine.

Anyway, that's it for Brussels for a few days, I'm off to the racetrack. I was going to stop by my new hotel on the way but there's no way I'd be able to check in at 9:30am which is when I'd get there. So instead I headed straight there which is much quicker and I'd have been way too early.

My plan therefore was to avoid motorways which turned my 1.5 hour journey into a 3 hour one.

So I stuffed my freshly purchased croissant (which came with a free hand grenade) in my face and hit the road.

The roads were awesome, so much so that I made up 30mins on the satnav. That was until I got to the circuit, I had prepaid parking but it didn't say which of the three thousand lots I was meant to be in. To be fair it wouldn't have helped that much as apart from 1 sign 5km away, there were no other directions. It took 20 mins to find a lot and I've no idea how, considering that the circuit is the only thing here it was pretty poor.

Once in the circuit I was desperate for the loo, these were also badly sign posted and when I did find them, they charged per usage so I made sure I got my money's worth.

I had a look around and then headed into the paddock just as a practice session ended in the hope of bumping into some drivers. As luck would have it, I found Anthony Davidson for the second race in a row, so I got him to sign my Super Aguri cap as that's the team he raced for in F1.

The racing had stopped for a while and some people were allowed in the pit lane to have a look around, no one stopped me so I spend a while poking around and seeing what was what.

I then tried to get into the media centre but someone did object to that so I returned to the pits.

For lunch I ate at the mechanics cafe as although it was the same food I figured it would be cheaper (fat chance). I ordered a cat food burger, but you have to queue again for your fries and then again for a drink. Obviously it was amazing after all that...

For the afternoons racing I walked around the circuit trying to find the best spot, I ended up sat in some woods where there blatantly should be a grandstand but isn't for some reason. As I walked around some fat bloke tried to sneak in through a turnstile by pushing it around the wrong way but got his arm stuck so everyone laughed at him.

Spa (the circuit ) for those that don't know, is massive, one of the longest out there and after walking around in 25c heat all afternoon I was knackered. So I headed back to the paddock and got an ice cream then retired to the main grandstand for the final events of the day which included qualifying for tomorrow's big race.

For some reason, there are no napkins in Belgium, so when you're wearing half your Icecream, isn't ideal. Oh well.

Porsche got first and second so I was happy, Toyota beat Audi too which was surprising. It should be a good race with those three teams quite close in race trim.

It was time to head to the hotel which, avoiding motorways still, was an hour away. More awesome roads and I was there. To say that it was a step above the previous hotel is an understatement. My room is a suite in the loft of a big house in the country. Nice.

After a quick 10mins walk to town I found somewhere that served beer and steak, so have camped out there for a while.

Oh, I appear to have 3rd degree burns from being in the sun all day. # beetroot

Belgium - Day 1

My latest trip is really just a long weekend break in Belgium to catch the WEC race at Spa. 

Of course things got off to a good start as my first train was delayed but that was OK as my second train was delayed too. 

At the airport my flight was also delayed, typically on 3 screens of flights, mine was the only delay. It's a 90 min delay too, now considering that the flight is only 55 mins, that's impressive. I reckon the pilot forgot something, we've all done it, you're half way across the channel and you remember that you've left the iron on, or forgot to feed the cat. 

Anyway, Tiddles has had his breakfast now and the normal rush for the plane ensued. I got on, but had no storage space as the first aid kits were taking up the overhead storage. Reassured that's normal I used the storage for the seat in front. 2 mins later, some spotty Belgium girl is going mental because someone has used her luggage space. She had a massive strop at her boyfriend about this who couldn't really give a shit. 

I was going to point out the empty storage behind her, or to the left or the empty seat next to her but decided to do the British thing and just sit there and smirk. 

The pilot made the journey in 40 mins, lazy bastard, why does it normally take 55 mins? 

Finally in Belgium I collected my hire car and then navigated my way around the most poorly signposted airport in the world. I swear getting around Vietnam was easier without a satnav using a language that has a different alphabet! 

The Corsa I'd ordered had been upgraded to an SUV which was nice. It was manual which is always fun when you're on the wrong side. 

I found my hotel easily but spent 30mins finding somewhere to park. People double park here a lot. I saw a coach double parked blocking 3 cars in, 2 hours later when I went past it was still blocking the same cars... 

It turns out that the area of Brussels that I'm staying in is Little Palestine which isn't the best. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to buy an AK from the shop next door but there's no use for one of those here. 

My room is 200 degrees and is tiny, however, they've still managed to cram a separate bathroom and toilet in there, I'll have to be careful that I don't rollover in the night and flush myself down the bog. 

I took a stroll into the centre and had a walk around for an hour or so, it's very busy today for some reason, maybe it's the first sunny day or something. I stopped for a beer as it was about that time then found somewhere to eat. Belgium is good, they have English menus everywhere and everyone speaks English, makes life much easier.

After spending far too long picking at the bones on my plate I headed back to Little Palestine. On the way back I noticed that every bar or restaurant only had men, it's like the women aren't allowed to socialise. 

I also found some more brilliant virtues about my hotel, it has a massage parlour next door, a club opposite called 'Crazy Bar' and a sex shop just over the road. It's a good job I had headed back otherwise I might have missed the chanting mob/protest that went past waving their flags and shit.

At least the hotel is good for transport, it's on the busiest junction in Brussels and has a train go past every few minutes!

Regular readers of my blog will know that when I'm away with Tim, he constantly asks if I've done the blog yet. Well you'll be happy to know that even though he's not here, I've just had an email off him to that effect!