Brussels – 5th September

On Saturday 5th September Captain Caveman was still in pain with his gout and was a bit reluctant to go anywhere that involved walking, but that didn’t work out that well for him. I said I would go in to Brussels to meet Louisa for lunch so he made the effort to come. The journey turned into a bit of a fiasco as the transport company had decided to do some maintenance and had put replacement buses on so it took us ages to get into town, as well as more walking for Captain Caveman than he’d expected. We met at Wolf Food Market where Captain Caveman and I had been before. He chose it because it’s a bit like Cambridge Street Collective and Cutlery Works which has lots of different food outlets from around the world which means there’s lots of choice and everyone can have something different if they want. The tables were busy but we managed to find a seat and it’s one of those places where you order via a QR code, pick up your drinks and a buzzer at the bar then wait for the buzz to then find the appropriate outlet and pick up your food. It’s not really my thing as it’s a bit of a faff but the dim sum I had was tasty. Captain Caveman and Louisa had something spicy like tacos, if I remember correctly. Captain Caveman paid for for ours as he knew how to work the online payment, whereas I don’t use virtual card payments on my phone. It filled a hole and then we did a bit of shopping. I bought a t-shirt from Uniqlo for £6.81 in the sale, an ideal top for travelling back in I thought. Louisa bought a nice jumper and Captain Caveman looked for a bag but didn’t find one. I knew Captain Caveman liked pistachio ice-cream and I thought Louisa might fancy one too so I suggested they might want to find a place for ice-cream. I can’t eat it because of my stomach so we strolled about but then both said they didn’t want any ice-cream when we got to a shop so I must’ve misunderstood. We went in to a Belgian chocolate shop where I took my Lactase pills to be able to sample some – it was so good. We bought some to take back for The Sprouts (aptly named as they are the family from Brussels). That’s when we realised we were going to be late for the rugby match so we had to rush off. Louisa had politely declined Anna’s kind offer to join the family BBQ as she’d have to get a taxi or public transport back afterwards so she was going to continue having a look round Brussels. She was hoping to get a bit more sleep tonight as the hotel hadn’t been quiet last night.

We rushed off to get numerous trams and buses to the rugby pitch and were late but luckily hadn’t missed the eldest nephew coming on to the pitch. It was a lovely sunny day by this point and I made friends with a very cute dog who gave me kisses. William played very well and we were impressed at the level – I even enjoyed the sporting event more than I thought I would. I got a message from Louisa with a photo of her ice-cream which looked very impressive, so I was pleased she had found a good one. 

The Sprouts went back home by car and we got the bus to the big supermarket, Delhaize. We had said we would get the BBQ shop in as a thank you for letting us stay so we did that and Simon picked us up. By this time it was obvious to me that Captain Caveman was in a lot more pain and he had to push the trolley just to be able to walk better. He still insisted that he didn’t think it was the beer. I found it very interesting to compare prices of groceries and wine to both the UK and Türkiye and there was some really good wine for decent prices.
Captain Caveman paid for the shopping and here’s what we paid in Euros;

Red peppers 1.44
Potatoes 1.99
Apples 2.19
Burger buns 2.58
700g tomatoes 4.49
Cheese slices 4.61
Charcoal 4.69
1 bottle white wine 7.99
1 bottle rosé wine 8.99
500g Halloumi 9.18
3 litres of apple juice 9.85
Chicken 14.54
Burgers 19.80
Total spent €92.34 (£77.28)

I think it compared favourably with the UK and we got everything on the list, which would not have happened in Dalyan.

While Anna kept the wine flowing and Simon cooked the meat, we had a few games of sticks where Captain Caveman managed to teach his youngest nephew, Felix, the art of not winning every time. I confessed to William and Thomas about me having to jump the toilet barrier in Poland which we all had a laugh about.
The BBQ was an absolute triumph and Captain Caveman snaffled down far more than his fair share of the burgers. It was really good to have another family meal and my stomach was fine all day and night!
Tomorrow would be our last day as we were heading back to Manchester, I felt like the weekend had gone far too fast and we hadn’t managed to fit as much in as we could have.

Gratitude List
1. A new top from Uniqlo
2. More family time in Brussels
3. A better stomach!