Brussels: Waffles, Chocolate, Fries, and Beer!

Today we traveled from Paris to Brussels. We were only staying for one night so we got to Brussels at 9 in the morning to make the most of our day. It seems that the rainy weather has been following us all over Europe. It was raining when we got to Brussels. We walked to our hotel through the city. Luckily, it was close enough, but Brussels is rather small.

We stayed at a Marriott and it was amazing. It was nice having a King size bed again! We were really early so they put us in as a priority and told us it'd be ready in about an hour and a half. We left our bags with them and went out to see the town.

I read up on Brussels while we were on the train and found out about its places of interest. It was more about the food than anything. Belgium boasts of the world's best chocolate, fries, waffles, and beer. So we had to try them all (except for the beer).

We headed to the Grand Place, which really turned out to be quite grand. It was only about a block from our hotel too. The architecture in the square was absolutely amazing. I loved all the alleys leading to it too.


Grand Place (square)






We ate at the cafe at the base of this building








We decided to go for some waffles at a cafe in the square. I also got a cappuccino and when the waiter brought it, Doug thought it looked so good that he got one too! And it really was good coffee. And came with sugar, and a biscuit. Cheaper and better than the cafe in Paris :)



The view from our table


Waffles! Eaten with sugar. There were four kinds. It came sprinkled with powder, then he brought a plate with white, brown, and darker brown. We put all three on top!





We also found the people much nicer in Brussels. And it helped that everyone we encountered spoke English. Which was refreshing.

After we ate we walked around the streets near the Grand Place. We got our ornament and enjoyed the atmosphere of the place.

We went back to our room and it was ready. We both took a nap since we had been up early and traveling. We only slept till 2 in which we still had plenty to do around Brussels (in the paper that our eurail gave us with our tickets, Brussels was noted as the second most boring city in Europe).

We were hungry so we decided it was time to try the fries. They double fry them for you. Instead of scooping them out of a heater like they do at McDonalds, they fry them again before they serve them to you. This means that they're doubly delicious and very hot. You can also choose which sauce you want on top. We went with ketchup. I still don't understand the mayonaise thing...




They were quite good. Different, but I can understand why people say they're the world's best.

We walked down to Brussel's most famous statue (seriously, google it, this is it), the Manneken Pis.




A bit anticlimactic if you ask me. But oh well, we saw it, got a picture, and moved on :)

We found a chocolate museum that went through how chocolate is made. It also let you try some for free. So we got our chocolate fix in. The master chocolatier also gave a presentation on how he does chocolate molds. He did the presentation in both french and english, easily switching back and forth. The whole building smelled wonderful.








We went back to our hotel and I finished the book I was reading on my kindle. Doug went and got us Pizza Hut and we ate in our room while watching t.v.

We decided to go see a movie since we had finished up our site seeing in Brussels. We saw Transformers 3. It was ok, but I still like the second one best. At least it was entertaining though! We went to bed kinda late, and left for Amsterdam in the morning.

Although we were only there for one day, it was definitely enough. I loved Brussels and felt satisfied with our visit. It was a nice relaxing day instead of trying to cram a lot into it. I think we made a good choice. Plus, our stomachs were really really happy :)