Thursday, May 17, 2012

In the homeland of Tintin

You must have read and enjoyed the stories of Tintin. Till I reached Brussels on an official tour recently I was not aware that he was born in Belgium. He has been created with Belgian culture and origin. We have many other famous cartoon characters also who can claim a Belgian origin.

Being an official tour I had to look for cheap plane tickets. Our staff members designated to make arrange for the trips of executives has the list of airline prices to various destinations. They also have the details of flights to various destination operated by different airlines including Air China, Air France etc. They did a good job and finally I flew to this city in one of the cheap flights to Brussels.

When I reached the city airport it was around 7 PM and the city outside the airport was shining with different colors of lights. The neon lights used to decorate the buildings were really mixing with the architecture of the building. A city will always look more beautiful in the darkness while a village can be seen in his maximum beauty in the early mornings. Brussels also exhibited her beauty in the darkness.

The next few days I was busy with my official work. The city, which is being the capital of European Union, has flourished in business also. Almost all major airlines are operating flights to Brussels now. With many international brands having a presence here, the city is thriving in business and I felt that the decision taken by our top brass in opening a branch office here was the right one. Once the cheap tickets to Brussels have been introduced, it helped this business community a lot. Now they can visit here more frequently. After hectic schedule of work, I used to return to my hotel room totally tired and hence I did not go anywhere else. After the fourth day I got a bit of relief as most of my work was over by that time. Then I decided to visit the places of importance. The main attraction here is the architecture and the buildings differ in its architecture. I just wandered along the streets for two days seeing the diversity in the architecture and enjoying the beauty of the crowded city.

On the way I reached Saint Boniface. This is the most crowded area of the city with a large number of business activities going on there. You can see the people of all ages and of all classes here. The fashion apparels and the cosmetic items were very cheap here. Perfumes are also available. The small shops and some wayside vendors were there selling cheaper items. They were mainly selling clothes. The colorful and fashionable casual wears looks very attractive and I too brought a few pairs from them.

Rue Neuve is another area that attracts the tourists who are interested in shopping. There are several shopping malls are also here. Leather shoes seemed to be cheaper here and I have seen some special models here which looked unique in its designing. I have purchased a pair of shoes also. While returning from the trip I was planning to visit here once again.