Last Trip to Brussels

After my return from Ireland and Venice, I spent the next few days relaxing in Lille preparing for my return trip home. There was still one place I had yet to visit; the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken. The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken are a vast complex of monumental heated greenhouses in the park of the Royal Castle of Laeken in Brussels. The Castle houses the Royal family of Belgium. The Greenhouses are a beautiful latticework of metal and glass built in the Victorian style. Even though I was very near Brussels for three months I was not able to visit them until the end of the trip because they are only open for 30 days between the middle of April to the middle of May, when the flowers are at full bloom. It was my last chance to see the complex before I would depart the next morning.

I wasn’t able to get any high-speed train tickets on such short notice so I was forced to ride slow trains to Brussels. I got up that morning but decided to sleep in because I was tired; missing the first train. When I woke up I looked up the next train, but when I went to the station I couldn’t find it. It just wasn’t there. I tried once more to get high-speed tickets but failed. I thought about giving up but this would be my last chance to see it, maybe ever. So I tried getting on one last train and actually managed to find this one. I rode to Gent and transferred trains to Brussels Nord Station. When I got off the train I was in a part of the city that I had never been before, so it took some time to get my bearings. I was still pretty far from the Palace, which is in the middle of a massive park, and had to walk the rest of the way. I was in a hurry, as the only train route with one transfer back to Lille would leave the station in a couple of hours. Any trains leaving after that had at least three transfers.

I jogged most of the way to the park, while trying not to look like an idiot. Eventually I arrived at the gate. The palace grounds were stunning. Groups of people were being directed by guards towards the Greenhouse entrance. I went in paid for my ticket then stood in awe at the inside of the massive glass dome. This was only the first of many structures I would visit. The vast dome was inhabited mainly by tropical plants like palm trees. After I was finished gawking, I made my way to the next part of the tour which took me outside the dome to view the vast rolling hills of the palace grounds. I passed by several smaller buildings and a Japanese Pagoda before entering a new greenhouse which had a series of glass hallways and corridors. The walls of the hallways were lined with beautiful flower arrangements and the ceilings had exquisite vines and flowers hanging down. The space got compressed and resulted in large groups of people holding up progress and distracted from the beauty of the space. Looking past the people I was able to true beauty. I have never seen such delicate and intentional design of flora. It gave me a new appreciation for landscape design.

After snaking my way through various greenhouses and passageways I wound up back in the large dome where I started. I lingered for a little while longer before leaving. I jogged back to the train station and caught the train back to Gent. I had to wait nearly an hour for the transfer because of a delay. Eventually I got back to Lille. In spite of any attempts by the universe to prevent my last trip to Brussels, I had seen the Royal Greenhouse. The structure was a little rusted in spots but the plants were stunning and more than made up for it. If I could do it all again, I would have gotten up on time and caught the first train. Spending more time in the greenhouse would have been nice. In the end my last day in Europe wasn’t spent sitting on the couch; I went out and saw something cool.

The next morning I woke up with my roommates and got on a train to Charles de Gaulle Airport and boarded a flight to Chicago. What was my first thought upon landing you ask? “Wow, what’s with all the fat Americans?”