It was found, and I was told this place was called La Grand Place; and I saw Dunkin Donuts, Pret A Manger, The Belgian Chocolate Factory, and Starbucks while wandering around in search of the metro part of the station, signs continued to be horrendous, and eventually – a taxi rank was found. My mother’s French sounded quite authentic when telling a driver where we wanted to go, I saw a building called Liberale De Vakbond, another with College Jesuit on the front, a man on a bike with an Uber Eats box on the back, and it was 1.07pm when we got out. We passed a big McDonald’s, continued to wander, a chocolaterie was noticed – among a lot of jewellery shops, tents were in the square, and it seemed to be the Belgian Beer weekend; and we ended up seated in Le Roy D’espagne. A very nice man (early 30s) took our orders (which were cheese rissoles and a vegetarian burger) partially in French and partially in English, bright sunshine was out by 1.40pm when our plates appeared (via the same man), there was a burst of very loud music (in English) over the loud speakers and it was rapidly turned down, 1 of the staff was scraping water off the outside tables with a car window scraper, a guided tour was being led by someone with a lollipop sign, and I was reminded that we were in Belgium. A parade began across La Grande Place, and I dashed out to film some of it – with a very misted up camera lens due to all the rain (the staff person told Mum that it was the start of the beer festival)…

We decided to head back to Brussels Midi station, and we left at sometime I forgot because the Square was wandered across, 1 bar of chocolate was purchased from a Godiva stall there, I saw La Rose Blanche – which was advertising shrimp, a massive stone building had ‘Maison Des Brasseirs’ at the top, and we went through an archway, entered another Place, I managed to get the filter off the camera lens and let it unmist, there was a magnet shop in another Place, somewhere was selling legal weed…

Leonidas was a chocolate shop…

…there was a church, a random little blue tractor, barriers of netting, and in a very bright and sunny Square at 3.15pm, someone was playing the saxophone, we sat on a big wooden bench; and then we went looking for the metro station – which was found, tickets were purchased from a machine, a tube line that seemed to have the name ‘mannekin-pis’ got boarded, and we weren’t entirely sure where we were going. We got off at Gare Du Midi, I forgot when because confusion began kicking in (with – in my case – where we were and where we were going, and in Mum’s case, not being able to see the departures board), and continued until getting advice from a staff member, who told us about an earlier train at 4.13pm (rather than the 4.57pm one planned). We found the right platform without much confusion; and up there, I saw a woman eating a big waffle boarding a train, adverts for what looked like chocolate spread on boards, Mum got a bit agitated over train times, my feet felt a bit soggy, and announcements were being made repeatedly in French, German and English about a five minute delay of the train we were meant to be on.

That appeared at 4.10pm on my watch, we seemed to seat ourselves on the 2nd floor of it, and half of a croissant nicked earlier was consumed (and a little bit of chocolate), and then we decided to move up to the top floor for a better view. Edingen was stopped at at 4.38pm, my trousers were drying out, what the population of Belgium is was wondered about before the next stop, groups of 3->4 wind turbines were reasonably common, and the stop just before 5pm was at a station with no indication whatsoever visible of its name or location. I noticed a woman with an extremely sticky out and pointy nose sat nearby; after the next stop were more wheat fields, we got up and went back down (while wobbling), and it was around 5.15pm when we disembarked at Tournai; then a bit of confusion kicked in with what train we were meant to be on, and we ended up on a double decker 1 (having jumped on it at high speed) which moved at 5.27pm. Froyennes was the first stop of that one (and my jeans had mostly dried), Baisieux was the next one Villeneuve d’Asaq followed, by which point a boy was rolling cigarettes on a table a bit further down the train; and at 6.05pm, we got off, someone was being arrested by uniformed police (who Mum thought had guns) outside the station…

…we got in a taxi, the man (early 30s) drove off at rather high speed with 1 arm dangling out of the window, and while stuck on a road (that I think was named the M651) due to traffic, he seemed to be answering messages on WhatsApp. Back at the hotel at 6.20pm, Mum started whimpering about her soggy jumper, I realised how soggy my socks were, she had no trousers on when deciding to boil the kettle, then we both poked our electronic devices and discussed the events of the last 48 hours (and I read out a few excerpts of notes and counted the number of pages I’d written). I checked plans for tomorrow, and she decided to go flop for a while; as it started to approach 8pm – and looked like the sun was beginning to set – I decided to put my pyjamas on, and it was just after 8pm when she regained consciousness. Neither of us were hungry, pyjamas were put on and devices were stuck on charge, the socks I’d worn today were still soaked, and it was 9.20pm when I flopped.