Sugar: Apparently the Only Food Group in Brussels

Hope you all had a great Christmas, celebrating with friends and family.  We definitely were sad that we missed seeing and getting together with our loved ones.  We had a small Christmas together and prepped for our exciting trip to Belgium.

We woke up and headed on the road by 6 AM on the 26th.  It took us about 3 hours to get to the south coast to catch the train via the Euro Tunnel.  It was a crazy experience putting your car on a train, knowing you'll be under the English Channel within minutes.  On our way back to England, I videotaped the experiences, as we weren't as quick to think of doing this the first round. Unfortunately, I was unable to put it on this post because the file size was too large. It was a 30 minute ride to France, then another 2 hours (I think, time change has me all confused) to Brussels.  Jeff did a great job adjusting to being back on the "right" side of the road, as France and Belgium are like us, in America.  It was funny to see our driver's side on the right, and most other cars we passed were on the left, like our cars in America.  We had to get a special driving kit to take with us that had a giant GB (Great Britain) magnet to basically let people to know to watch out for us.  The kit also had other safety based tools inside as well, like a breathalyzer. Ha!

 A few facts about the Chunnel before viewing our video:

• 31.4 miles long
• Was finished in 1994
• Drilled through the bedrock at the bottom of the English Channel
• 10 people were killed during its construction
• It is barely profitable and went bankrupt in 1998

Reminder: The video will only work on computers, not mobile devices

We made it to Brussels, checked into the hotel, and hit the streets pretty soon after.  Brussels was a beautiful and fairly large metropolitan city as there were many skyscrapers.  But Brussels also offered the European feel, with many older buildings filled with history.  We didn't really have much of an agenda other than trying all the new beer, chocolates, and our personal favorite...waffles.  They had a couple Christmas Markets set up, which were neat, but so crowded.  We popped into a beautiful church before heading on our way around the city.

We went to a place that made my family, especially my brother-in-law so jealous. Wait for it...Chi-Chi's.  Anyone that knows my family knows we cannot get enough of Mexican food, and growing up we always went there! So, I was a little nervous to eat there as they closed down all of the USA Chi-Chi's because of a Hepatitis outbreak.  There are still many open in China and other European countries.  Definitely wasn't the best food, and no free chips & salsa...but glad we gave it one last go.

We ended our night, walking around the city seeing all of the sights.  The famous Manneken Pis, which is this little fountain of a bronze boy who is peeing into the fountain base.  Not sure how to word this one and still be proper...as the water comes out of, well...you know.  He also has an extensive wardrobe with hundreds of different outfits.  Located around the fountain were all of the famous chocolate shops. We even stopped in for a few to eat later.  Jeff and I also watched a bakery make all of their different goodies, which was fun to see the process.  We ended our night with a street waffle. IT. WAS. AMAZING.  You know we eat a lot when I have a Brussels folder on my computer labeled "Food & Drink".

 Manneken Pis in his little outfit urinating into the fountain

 Even the chocolate shops made their own little statues

Waffles!

The next morning we woke up and headed to this large garden/park.  On the map it looked massive with lots of fountains and garden areas. To our surprise it was a bunch of dead plants, and ill-kept grounds.  We walked through anyway, as the palace was on the opposite side.  We snapped a few photos, and headed to eat breakfast at a cute little cafe nearby.

 You can see how dreary the park looked.

 The palace.  We could not go in, which seemed to be a theme in Brussels.

Mont des Arts

At this point, the crazy weather began as it started to rain and then...SNOW! It was so exciting to see snow, as we had not seen it in a year. Downside, it was freezing cold walking around the city.  We attempted to look for these comic strips on the side of the buildings, but were pretty unsuccessful so we stopped into a pub to have a couple beers to warm up.  We grabbed lunch soon after, and then explored later that night.

 Warming up!

 Town Hall

 Beautiful when lit up. Check out the video below where they created a light show with music.

You'll have to turn your head to the side to view, as I don't know how to change it!

 Steamed milk with a dark chocolate piece of chocolate to mix in to make...Hot Chocolate! 

Sooo good!

 Snow!

 Ice skating.

We woke up the next morning to head to our next destination, although we had some troubles getting out of the parking garage.  For about 20 minutes we thought our car was locked in the garage, as if it was only open on the weekdays.  We ended up learning that 2 out of the 3 garage doors were closed, so we finally made our way into the garage...phew!


On to the next adventure...