One of the best parts of Europe is how you can move from one country to another so seamlessly and quickly. And that basically answers the question of why we also went to Belgium — because it was there and it's another country to experience. Belgium was quite different than Amsterdam. When researching this trip, I treated Belgium like the red-headed stepchild and didn't put a lot of planning into it, not as much as the Netherlands.
On the morning we were to head out of the country, we got on the Metro and rode to the Centraal station where we'd board the ICE train. We didn't get tickets soon enough for the Eurostar, the fast train.
Day One: Train Ride
We settled in for the three hour ride on a fairly empty car with only a few other people onboard. Unfortunately for them, a pickpocket stole the woman's bag, it was on the floor by her feet, and he reached under the seats to nab it. Her husband only noticed as the thief was running off the train at the stop before they were going to get off. They were incredibly upset and I was so glad I kept my bag straps looped around my arm ent entire time. In true European fashion, the conductor, who they were telling about the incident shrugged and said, "We told you to watch out for pickpockets."
And that was our introduction to Belgium. We rode into Brussels and found we were staying in the European Quarter, where their Parliament meets. Call me American, but I didn't even know there was a European Parliament. The area was very nice, and not very crowded since they were not in session. We stayed at the Marriott Executive Apartments because we wanted to have a balcony to enjoy the outdoors in the evening without being in public.
We had a calm evening and just walked to dinner at The Beer Factory, which was recommended by our hotel concierge, then explored a few bodegas and shops around the area that were so well-stocked. I wish the corner beer and tobacco style stores here in the States were this nicely outfitted!
Day Two: Bruges
Due to how the days fell and with me not wanting to take too many trains on weekend days, we ended up immediately going back out of town over to Bruges, which was about an hour west of Brussels.
Bruges is know for its incredible architecture, chocolate, beer, and its charm. We took in all of that and more. I was hungry from the start, so we began with lunch at De Haalve Maan brewery, a famous old one that had incredible food. We didn't do a brewery tour because I feel like one bright tank looks like any other by now. I went with the three course meal of cheese croquettes, Flemish style asparagus, and a white chocolate mousse with orange confit, plus beer!
The service was very laid back (read: slower) so we stayed quite a while just enjoying the people watching.
Then we got to the sights, which I was oddly excited about considering the first two were churches. Yep, I wanted to go to church, twice. We came across the Church of Our Lady first, where the only Michelangelo sculpture permanently outside of Italy resides. You can go into the church for free but to see the areas with the fancy stuff and the sculpture, it cost 8 euros each. We poked around and looked at the overly ornate stuff.
And at the end (of course) was the Madonna and Child sculpture. You can get a lot closer than I thought to it, which is good because it's also smaller than I thought it would be.
It began to rain as we walked to our next church, the Basilica of the Holy Blood. It was hard to find, and it had a firetruck with huge ladder going up to it, which was confusing. But we finally saw the proper signage and headed up the incredibly old, unevenly worn down stairs. I couldn't believe there was no line to see the holy blood. Oh yes, this church's claim to fame is having a piece of cloth soaked in the blood of Christ, sealed up in an ornate glass vial. Obviously, it was not allowed to be photographed but I snuck a photo of the sanctuary, you can see a little bit of the woman guarding the vial and the glass case. You can just go right up to it and look at it very close up.
I'm not religious but it is cool to think that something organic from that long ago is preserved so carefully. And if it was Jesus, cool. If not, okay. It didn't change my life or make me think differently. But we were both churched out by that point. It was still drizzling as we left the basilica so we stopped at a cafe for a beer before heading to a chocolate shop on the way to the train.
After a long day we got takeout food from Chez Bal which was right across the street from our balcony, and stayed in for the evening.
Day Three: Mini-Europe
One of the few things I did plan for Brussels was to go to Mini Europe, though I still didn't research it much beyond buying the tickets. It was drizzly but not pouring rain this day too, so after we got off the Metro, we put our hoods up and went for it. I was expecting Mini Europe, which has mini versions of many well-known sites in Europe to be... about shed-sized. Nah, these were like, large dollhouse sized!
We were both in pure awe and laughing so hard at this place. It's silly, but also informative and inane. Most of the displays have interactive elements.
One thing we were wondering how they would handle is Brexit. Let's just say they handled it with a definite derision towards it. We crossed through "customs" several times.
After we had our fill of the world, we took the train back and just walked around the neighborhood. We found the Belgium version of Food Lion!
I also got a crookie — chocolate chip cookie atop a croissant — the new European dessert craze, supposedly. It was richly incredible. I didn't eat it all at once.
We went to Cafe Luxembourg near the Luxembourg Square for dinner and kind of overdid it on the eating. I tried one of these olives and didn't hate it, so score one for European olives.
Day Four: Beer and Chocolate Tour of Brussels
Amusingly enough, it took us til our last full day there to really see the heart of Brussels. We were signed up for a three hour beer and chocolate tour with Hungry Mary's. It was definitely worth the nearly 100 euros per person price tag, even with a little rain in the beginning!
Our guides took us to several chocolate shops first, which included stops at several very cool places, like the first modern mall, the UNESCO world heritage site, the peeing boy statue, and the oldest bar in Brussels, to name a few. Totally worthwhile.
And after a long day of walking we ended up getting grab and go food, plus eating all of the open snacks and food we had left in our hotel for dinner that night before we had to pack it up and fly home very early. One of my favorite Belgian treats ended u being cuberdons, little fruity gelatin candy cones that you absolutely cannot find outside of Belgium apparently. I'm considering paying the high shipping costs just to get some more! I just ate my last one I brought back home, in a delicate violet flavor. In the end, we ended up liking Belgium much more than anticipated. With scenes like this just steps, away, how could you not?
And how about the Brussels airport? They even had a beer vending machine! Too bad America can't handle that kind of freedom.
See the first part of this trip which started in The Netherlands. Again, this trip was planned with the help of Less Lonely Road if you ever need help planning any or of all of your next vacation.
