A holiday enhanced by lateness.
ADVENTURES #1: BRUSSELS AND LONDON (PART 1)
A holiday – even a brief one is usually a once-a-year thing. If we’re very lucky, maybe twice. It had been four years since we last ventured overseas, and since then, we’ve only had one holiday in England and a weekend in the Cotswolds after our wedding. It was very exciting then to have the funds to afford a few days away in Brussels. I had never visited Belgium before, and my wife had only been once when she was about ten years old, and remembers little of it… other than the Manneken Pis. Being into photography, it was my first trip since getting my latest camera, and also my first trip since starting this blog, so I was excited for new sights to capture and a chance to write about something in Brussels that intrigued me – The Pixel Museum. More on that later though.
Tuesday morning had us both up at about half five, a distasteful time for a wake-up call, but once we were dressed, and after we packed our last essentials, we were outside and the fog of sleep evaporated. There is something otherworldly about being out of the house before six. The birds were singing already and there was a beautiful full moon lighting our way. We hopped in the car and drove to the station to catch our first train. We then switched at Preston Park in Brighton and headed off towards King’s Cross St Pancras, arriving at eight twenty. We moved through the station with relative ease (and some haste) to reach the Eurostar terminal twenty-nine minutes before the train was to depart. Unfortunately, that was one minute less than we needed. Us and some American bloke uttered the word “fuck” almost simultaneously as we quickly found out what exactly those sixty seconds had cost us. One hundred euros and about ten hours of our holiday. Well… at least we were in London, lots to do. We had our heavy bags with us though, so we needed to find a luggage storage place. Fifteen quid per bag. That’s another thirty gone. Great start to our trip. Spirits remained dry however, as it was a beautifully sunny and very warm day. Spring had boinged into action. The impromptu day in London, as it turned out, was somewhat of a blessing and we fully made the most of it, deciding to do all things British. We got ourselves a coffee and a tea and sat outside the British Library, waiting for the doors to open and for the queue to thin out.
The main attraction at the British Library for us was their ‘Treasures of the British Library’ exhibition which included, amongst many other pieces, pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, manuscripts made by the John Lennon, Suffragettes artefacts, sacred books, and the Magna Carta. Well worth seeing! There are excellent study areas in the library too, and it made us both want to write an essay… About what, we didn’t know - perhaps the importance of punctuality when travelling to Europe? Anyway, after taking in the exhibition and snooping about a bit we browsed the gift shop and made use of the rather nice facilities (a nice place to have a piss is always appreciated). After we were done in the library, we made for the British Museum. I think I had only been once before as part of a school trip, and I almost certainly didn’t appreciate it then. I remember seeing the Rosetta Stone, but little else. This time I was in full museum appreciation mode, and we took in almost every exhibit, soaking up in particular as much ancient Egyptian stuff as was on show, it having always intrigued me thanks to Lara Croft, those See Inside books you have at school, the Mummy films, Lego Adventures Egypt sets, and the Egyptian pages of Where’s Wally books.
After this, the ‘British’ themed plan fell apart somewhat, unable to find a British Heart Foundation charity shop to peruse, and unwilling to pay for a train to the Tate Britain, we opted to get a drink in Pret and enjoy a stroll around Russel Square before exploring a few local bookshops. After being booked out, we decided to grab an early dinner. We stumbled across a restaurant that someone Lottie watches on YouTube went to in one of his vlogs, but we realised upon looking at the menu that we didn’t want to spend that much money, having already cost ourselves quite a bit in the aforementioned lateness disaster. So, we opted for the cheaper option and ended up finding a Zizzi – the pizza was good, and all was well. After filling ourselves up, we made our way beck towards the station only to realise we had forgotten our swimwear, and a pool at the hotel was something we didn’t want to miss out on. So naturally we had to find a shop to purchase replacements. That took a little longer than expected and somehow, we almost missed our train again, only getting through security and border control with a few minutes to spare. From then the journey was rather smooth – well, until we reached Brussels Midi at least. There we rather stupidly walked the thirty or so minutes to our hotel (mostly uphill), which was an entirely pointless exertion, as our Eurostar ticket included travel to the next station. This as it turned out was roughly four minutes from our hotel. Oh well… we appreciated our bed all the more after that.
As with our unplanned day in London, our first full day in Brussels was gloriously sunny. After consuming as much of the included breakfast as we could at our hotel, we set off! We wanted to explore the city, but we had a few specific places in mind to visit. The foremost for me however was the Pixel Museum, and after a lovely walk across the city, through the cobbled streets, and over the river, we found ourselves at a very expensive gallery of shops. This perplexed us somewhat and for a while we thought we had come to the wrong place. That was until we realised the museum was in the basement of the building. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I suppose a basement for a gaming museum is appropriate. I also wasn’t sure what I expected to see upon arriving, and judging by the rather humble entrance, I thought the museum would be rather small and our visit would be rather brief. Not so. The museum is both comprehensive and vast. Exhibits date from the early seventies and it ends with modern day releases. Amongst the computers, games consoles, figurines, and other pieces of promotional and collectable ephemera were playable arcade cabinets, former demonstration consoles, and a variety of other opportunities for gaming. And while I hoped this might be the case, it was a joy to behold. Many of these setups represented hours spent in shops fawning over the newest releases of the time, and the arcade machines were always a rare indulgence in my youth for the severe lack of spendable pound coins. Penny machines were less fun but always seemed to be the value option during my childhood, and it was a fortunate day indeed if I got to play the likes of House of the Dead or Time Crisis.
It was a wonderful moment indeed then when I discovered a working Area 51 cabinet, and the pleasure was intensified ten-fold upon realising that it had been modified and entirely free to use. Playing this old game was rather eye-opening actually as I realised how much of a hole there was in my day-to-day gaming fun, and the shape of that hole was a perfect silhouette of a Lightgun. Arcades introduced me to the fun of shooting things on screen with the use of a prop, but my copy of Time Crisis 2 on the PS2, and the included GunCon showed me just how much fun I could have at home when it came to gaming, and it wouldn’t cost the world! Another such example of this was when I got a flightstick for my Gamecube and I realised the potential of Rogue Squadron II. Back to Time Crisis though, and it was a wonder to be able to retry upon death, as many times as one would like. This of course took the sting out of the challenge somewhat, as well as the mystique of the latter levels, but a price worth paying for the endless hours of enjoyment.
This pleasurable pastime was taken from me in the HD era however as it likely was with many others. I upgraded to an LCD telly and while there were undeniable benefits from this upgrade, I was crestfallen to discover that my Lightgun no longer worked with it. Advancements in technology it seems sometimes leaves treasured loved ones behind. The Wii, and I suppose the Kinect (although I never had one), and probably a bunch of other platforms and systems offered a comparable workaround to this problem, but none seem so good. VR probably offers an equal or even superior experience, but I can’t afford that… probably can’t afford a decent CRT either these days. Anyway, the Pixel Museum showed me a little of what I had missed and was a rather nostalgic trip through the history of gaming, and an education in everything gaming related that occurred prior to my birth. After getting our gaming fill, we parted via the gift shop, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a selection of games, books, and trinkets available for sale. None took my fancy unfortunately, bit it was nice to see. I did pick up a few postcards though – had to get something! As we departed, we both felt rather satisfied with our experience at the museum. It was a rather fair twelve euros per adult to enter, and for all the exhibits, knowledge, artefacts, and interactions on offer, it was an experience we’d both recommend. As we left, I thought of something that I had seen in the past, and it struck me that I hadn’t investigated it further since first seeing it some years ago. This was the Sinden Lightgun, and it appears the project is alive and well. I’ve not used once myself, but I am awfully tempted after having my love of Lightgun games reignited at the Pixel Museum.
I’ve had to split this post in two because it was far too long. Turns out I can talk a load of crap about a few days away, and I took way too many photos - so bear with me if you were enjoying this. And apologies if you weren’t, there will be more for you to dislike next week - aren’t you lucky! In the mean time, feel free to catch up on a few of my previous posts.
And as always, thank you for reading. If you’d like to support the blog, you can do so over on Patreon, or by subscribing and sharing!