Brussels
Today was our day in Brussels, or as Willow would call it, the day of chocolate! I told the kids we would have a day when we would walk around and visit lots of chocolate stores, and they couldn’t wait! It was supposed to rain all day, but that wasn’t going to stop us! There was this cool fountain right beside our hotel, and as we walked into town we passed several interesting buildings, some graffiti, and even the ‘North Pole’! We went into this small church since it was open, and it was pretty cool because there was a small stone altar in the middle with the chairs all around it; different from most other churches we have been into.
Our first stop on the walk was to see Manneken-Pis, the statue of the boy peeing. It was a lot smaller than I thought is would be. Beside the statue was a building with colored bicycles stuck on the sides, which was cool. The kids loved the rainbow-colored crosswalks and hopped from color to color. Our first chocolate shop was Mary Chocolatier, which was the most expensive chocolate of the day. We only got one piece each here, but they were good. All the chocolate today was good! The kids got to take turns taking pictures with the chocolate we bought in front of the store signs.
We made it to the Grand Place, the central square with the Town Hall and other giant buildings. It was really beautiful; the pictures don’t do it justice!
In the Grand Place was Neuhaus, our second chocolate stop. It started raining now, but we made our way across the Grand Place, down some narrow streets, and found the Brussels (#BXL) sign to pose in front of! We got our next chocolate fix from Pierre Marcolini Chocolates.
The Église Notre-Dame des Victoires au Sablon church was close, so we went in and looked around. There was some beautiful stained glass.
Across from the church was a surprising park with beautiful green grass and hedges that led to a fountain.
We kept walking past the Old England Building (which is now a museum of musical instruments) and some other large buildings. I thought the old-fashioned waffle truck was super cute.
The Palais de Bruxellles, or the Royal Palace, was down the street. In the summer you can go in and visit the Palace, but not in the winter. Across from the Palace is a park, and we took a break into wander through the park. There was a bunch of logs that are probably for seating when it is nice outside, but the kids liked hopping from log to log.
We made our way through the Monts des Arts square, which had some cool graffiti and a statue that rotates. It was really starting to rain, so we got the umbrellas out, but Zoey and Ronin wanted to save the poor statue from the rain too!
The St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral is the large Brussels Cathedral, and by the time we got here it was pouring! We stayed here in the cathedral for quite a while to try and outlast some of the rain.
Within the church was a display of different nativity scenes from different countries. Some were large, and others were smaller, but all were unique. I like how each culture sees the characters within their own culture—the Japanese display has them as Japanese, the African have them with very dark skin, and some were colorless and all wood, clay, or ceramic. These were pretty cool. It was still pouring by the time we were ready to go, but we decided to keep going on our walk and just get wet.
It was raining so much some of the streets looked like little rivers! We stopped for Belgian frites at Chez Papy, which was packed but for good reason. The fries were so good! We then went next door to Los Churros & Waffle and got the kids a waffle to share. It was only take-away so we went to the little tables outside, but they were all soaked because of all the rain. The whipped cream was really good—it was real whipping cream.
Right across the street was the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, which is an indoor shopping street. We got chocolate at Corne Port-Royal and ate our chocolates by the Love sign. The kids wanted to get a picture of us with a smoochy kiss, so of course we had to oblige. I liked the decorations hanging from the big glass ceiling.
From the Galeries we waked to Jeanneke-Pis, which is the sister of the peeing boy, and of course she also had to cop a squat. We stopped for a beer at Delirium Café, a bar with a ton of beers on tap. Their mascot is a little orange elephant, which is totally cute. Since the kids were so good at the bar we went our next chocolate shop, Elisabeth, and then made an impromptu stop at a shop with huge meringues in the window to get some crème-filled meringue which was divine.
Our last chocolate stop was at Le Comptoir de Mathilde, which has hot chocolate spoons! Zoey and I shared one, and the other kids had chocolate bark with M&Ms in it. We passed these dog statues which the kids loved, and Ronin got mad because…well…I can’t remember why! But of course we needed a picture for posterity. We also got some more fries at Friterie Tabora, but I forgot to get a picture of them. If possible, these were even better than the last ones!
It was getting dark so we discussed what we were going to do for dinner. After a whole lot of fries, chocolate, waffles, and beer, we weren’t really hungry. So we walked back to the hotel and bought some microwave popcorn on the way. Dinner of champions! The Grand Place was really pretty at twilight with the spotlights on the buildings. The next day we would have to get up early to take the train to France for the next phase of our trip.
