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If ever one day you arrive by train in Brussels you will arrive at the main station where I take you today.
Bruxelles-Midi (Brussels South) is the major railway station in Brussels. The station is bilingual French-Flemish (dutch), or at least should be, but if you take a closer look most of the informations are written in English that way it wouldn't offend neither the French nor the Flemish speaking people in Brussels. With both languages, there would be no room enough on the signs.
The railway station opened in 1869. In 1949 the station was demolished and replaced by the current yellow building with the clock tower.
An old picture. The South station outside, has the still the same look today .
In the 1990s the terminals of the high speed train Eurostar which runs through the chanel tunnel and connects France to the UK and the Thalys which runs to Paris, were added.
you can biggyfy all pictures
the huge hall
At the entrance of the Eurostar, there is this typical English telphone booth
time tables
and seats in front of "Air France"
A car rental office and not a red zone spot !
Snacks, cafés and restaurants
Boutiques and shops
of course the Belgian chocolate
the way through a shopping gallery
Not much work anymore mostly to exchange $ and £. Nearly all European countries have now the Euro currency.
A design of Hergé the "father" of Tintin and Snowy
and his signature
The outside looks like it's a real industrial area but the inside is beautiful. Not having train stations over here in Hawai'i it's wonderful to see things like this :)
ReplyDeleteLooks great to me, Gattina! Wish I had the opportunity to visit! Great photos! And, yes, it is wonderful to get to visit -- at least this way!! Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
The Eurostar stops here? Looks like Waterloo Station in London, but they don't have as many shops. Great photos.
ReplyDeleteThat is some railway station. So big and modern. I wish someone from the transport department from here would visit and come back and improve ours.
ReplyDeleteWow - the train station is HUGE! What's inside the old English phone booth?
ReplyDeleteI hope I see it sometime!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great tour Gattina! Just send the chocolates my way OK?
ReplyDeletethe inside of the rail station is great...the main station in rome is nothing as nice as this. as that is the only station i frequent yearly, it's the only comparison i can make ;0
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing this info...one day i may train to brussels from france...you never know.
hugs
nothing like that here at all...
ReplyDeleteI do wish the trains would be updated in the US
Thanks for the visit at the train station in Brussels! I really hope one day I will have the chance to visit it. Tintin is one of my prefered cartoons. I remember the good time I had when little girl I red all the albums. If all informations would be in english at french train stations I am sure people should learn this universal language. But now the tendance is to learn dialects we spoke here at the 19 th century still! Crazy!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I don't think you could FIND a phone booth in Union Station in D.C.! As a matter of fact - I remember the trouble I had finding a phone booth ANYWHERE when I asked for it on a scavenger hunt! IF we have any in the states anymore they need to make them BIG and RED like the English versions - or no one will ever find them! Every one I did find had been vandalized and was no longer a working telephone!
ReplyDeleteIt looks really big and modern. So much bigger than our little Stockholm Central - the main station! *giggles*
ReplyDelete