Our return trip, although fun was pretty standard and uneventful. As such i leave you with the tale from our last visit.

The word epic. Its been floating around the internet for a while now and is generally used for something that is a level above the rest. But recently its become a bit overused, people seem to dish it out like free copies of the metro. Its everywhere and to be honest has lost its meaning. So the dilemma, with the word epic seemingly pointless and out of commission what do you call the top level places now?.

The Law Courts of Brussels or Brussels Palace of Justice (Palais de justice de Bruxelles) is the most important Court building in Belgium and is a notable landmark of Brussels. It was built between 1866 and 1883 in the eclectic style by architect Joseph Poelaert. The total cost of the construction, land and furnishings was somewhere in the region of 45 million Belgian francs. It is believed to be the biggest secular building constructed in the 19th century.

We saw this building while roaming the city of Brussels and as soon as we saw it the explore'o'meter shot into the red. Our journey through Belgium so far had consisted of industrial and smaller sized locations, so something high was definitely welcome, although it certainly didn't look like the easiest of target. The courthouse was in an extremely touristy location, two meter high metal fences surrounded any climbable section and also contained the ultimate anti explorer device, a snoozing hobo!.

We spent almost an hour looking for a viable way up before finally agreeing, we waited for the right time and scrambled over the fence. Well that was the first part done now we had to climb, sounds easy enough apart from the fact your going up backlit ladders with crowds of people walking about mere meters away. In another word, exposed. We had no choice but to sit and wait, and wait, and wait some more until there was little or no people.

We finally were given a break with just three people in the surrounding area but they were looking straight at where we needed to go. A few minutes later they were still there discussing something while looking at the roof of the courts, then they disappeared out of sight. We kept as quiet as possible trying to work out where the hell they had gone, then we heard several banging sounds where we climbed in. Crap the were climbing over. With nowhere to hide we had no choice but greet the clearly stunned three with a simple "bonsoir". They all spoke english so we got chatting and turns out we had the same objective, get to the top. Talking over we teamed up and headed to the roof.

We took the climb in two stages the first being the eastern tip of the building and the second being the dome. We weren't even half way up but the views were already incredible. Given the horrific weather which seemed to have followed us from England tonight we were blessed with a crystal clear sky so photography was a treat!. We sat on the lower tips of the courts taking pictures all the while conversing with our new friends about our trip and their own past adventures.

The time had now come, cameras away, lets go! We climbed our way over to the central tower across several springy roofs that were clearly not meant to be stood upon and headed up. I must point out now this scaffolding has been here a long, long time. And it shows!. The wooden boards were spongy and rotten and the bits that had broken or split simply had another board nailed over the top, given this and the fact you were 100ft in the air with a nice long drop beneath you it was a little bit daunting.

A bit of climbing and statue fondling later we had arrived at the peak of the courts just below the dome,. 360 panoramic views were our reward. Brussels is a beautiful city, if I could I would certainly live here, just for the fact that I would befriend the security of the courts and everyday after work come to the roof and chill out with a beer. Time seemed irrelevant as we sat taking pictures and talking about "good times" before we decided it was getting a little late . A quick group shot with a large lady and we began our descent.

Although the building tops out at around 100ft, the character and charm of the courts gives up several 1ups over any crane or tower block I've been on. Its like Broadgate if it had swallowed the mushroom from Super Mario, its just better. To top off a fantastic evening we were invited back to our fellow adventurers house for music, drinks and a bed. This is where we found it, our new word. Its been used before and seemed to have been forgotten about, but the way it was said and given the hand movements at every break it easily beats epic. Altogether now, Le-Gen-Da-Ry!.