Wife in the Fast Lane: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Wednesday, July 16th

After winding our way through the very confusing streets of Brussels we found our apartment. It was a six- story building with the narrowest, staircases I've ever seen! (Perfect for a baby! Ha!) The apartment could sleep 11 total, but we only had 3 adults. It was tough trying to decide which bed to sleep in.

My goal was to basically eat my way through Brussels. I wanted to try chocolate, waffles, fries, and mussels in Brussels! Yum! Hopefully not all at once. Also, there aren't too many major sites in Brussels. The top two things on our list were the Grand Place, and the mannekin pis. Sounded easy- food and two sites.

We first made our way down Bouchers street first. It was lined with restaurants selling mussels. We weren't hungry yet and we were in search of a bagel, so we kept on going.

Along the way, Liz pointed out the female version of Mannekin Pis. It was down a little alley with a lot of loud, obnoxious college students, so we only stayed long enough to take this photo.

The bagel store didn't have what we were looking for, so we continued on to the Grand Place. (which we kept calling Grand Palace.)

We entered the square near these homes with gabled roofs. I probably took 100 photos of all the gabled rooftops. I couldn't get enough!

The buildings on the square didn't disappoint. This is the side of the Town Hall.

City Museum

You can see the Belgium flag on the front of the museum. I still don't think the flag fits the county. I imagine Belgium with a light blue or cobalt blue flag. The harsh black, gold and red look too similar to their larger neighbor's flag- Germany.

Town Hall

Liz and Steph admiring some art on Grand Place.

We were starting to get hungry and we didn't have a place to eat yet, so we made our way back to restaurant row through the Galeries.

Bouchers Street - aka "restaurant row."

We found a spot the good ol' Rick Steves' recommended - Restaurant Chez Leon. They were cranking out mussels to hungry Americans. Our waiter, Xavier, was entertaining to say the least.

I stayed safe with the fried mussels, Liz tried mussels with cheese, and Steph had just mussels! They all came with a side of fries. Nom nom nom!!

After dinner we walked around the city a little more to snap a few photos. Henley loved Brussels!

Liz found her very own chocolate store!

Henley looks like he's copping-a-feel here and loving it! No wonder he loved Brussels so much!

We made our way toward The Bourse. It used to be an old stock exchange. We were very distracted by these performers. There was a woman playing an instrument, and a man standing next to her doing interpretive break dancing. On the ground in front of them, a homeless man thought he would add his own flare to the performance. I think we were all a bit more entertained by the homeless man.

Instead of walking around The Bourse, we were enticed by this waffle store.

My very first waffle in Belgium! I had the Liege style, which is plain and simple.

Steph is jumping for joy!! Haha!

Liz got one with chocolate and strawberries. Henley's eyeing it...He got his first taste of chocolate that evening! Liz put a teeny dab on his tongue. He couldn't figure out how to swallow it. It just stayed on his tongue. It was pretty hilarious to watch. :)

We found our way back to Grand Place (again!) to make our way over to the Mannekin Pis.

We found a professional model in the square! Haha! He had his pose down. Hands on hips, butt out, head high, leg out. Haha! He held this pose for a few minutes while his wife snapped photos. It was pretty hilarious.

Before we reached the statue, we found the popular Waffle Factory. We didn't actually get a waffle here because we had just had one, but it was tempting!

Belgians are known for their comic artists. Here's Tin Tin running down a fire escape. It's just one of many free art displays through out the city.

We finally found it! The tiny statue that tourists flock to see. Sometimes he adorns flamboyant outfits, but today it was just the mannekin. For how much hype it gets, it is slightly anti-climactic seeing a statue of a boy peeing.

We made our way up to a geocache, and then over to St. Michael's Cathedral.

These lovely seats were in a park facing the cathedral. It looked like a homeless hang out/ couple make-out park. We clearly fit right in!

We kept seeing this metal seashells embedded in the tile. I haven't done a whole lot of research, but if you know anything about it do tell!

We entered our little apt and climbed, and climbed and climbed to our respective bedrooms.

I would not want to climb that everyday...or in the middle of the night.

We had an eventful day despite only wanting to see two sites, and eat food. I was beyond ecstatic to get up to Bruges on Thursday.

Thursday, July 17

Where do three girls go for breakfast in a major city? Starbucks!! What a treat! Usually in a foreign country or city, I'll try to eat local food. But man, it's great to have some comfort food from time to time.

This Godiva chocolate store was tempting, but I had just had some Neuhaus chocolate the night before near the little boy statue.

After Steph and I got some Starbucks, Liz got her fill of bagels at "Delish." We ordered sandwiches to go, but didn't realize until later that they had given us the wrong sandwiches. They were still 'delish' though.