Wednesday, July 23rd

We pulled into Brussels and checked in to the nicest hotel we stayed on the entire trip, the Le Plaza Hotel.  After a short break, we headed out to do the Hop On Hop Off bus tour of Brussels once we found the starting point.  Dave is trying to figure out where that is:

The bus tour was about 2 hours long and took us through the town into areas that we probably wouldn't have gone to on our own so that was nice.  We saw the major sights - the royal palace, EU headquarters, and the big parks.  Back at the starting point, we were near the Grand Place and most of the tourist shopping so we headed that way.  It was about 4:30, 5:00 at this point and since we hadn't eaten lunch, we decided to do an early dinner.  We randomly picked a restaurant and were probably ripped off but that's okay, we're on vacation. 

We all did another fixed price meal.  Dave, my mom, and my dad started off with the garlic shrimp:

I started with the beef carapacio:

Both Dave and my dad had the steak with green pepper sauce:

My mom had the seafood paella:

And I had bouillabaisse:

My dinner was fantastic - the steaks were so so.  But there was still dessert.  Dave had a crepe with ice cream and the rest of us had chocolate mousse.

After dinner we walked to the Grand Place and it is every bit of grand as the name says it is.  Some of the stores were still open, including the chocolate stores.  We went in to Godiva (supposedly not the same company as the American chain but I've seen conflicting information) but did not buy anything.  We did get some things in Neuhaus and that was pretty good.  Dave bought me some of their chocolates on a previous trip and I wasn't much of a fan but I think it was the type of chocolate because these were very good.

The Manneken-Pis wasn't too far past that so we went there next.  It was...slightly disappointing.  I knew it was small but I was seeing replicas bigger than the actual statue!  Speaking of replicas, you can get your own Manneken-Pis corkscrew with the Manneken-Pis as the handle.  Or in chocolate, if you prefer.

There's always more time for beer so we went to the Danish Tavern and had another round:

Everyone but Dave went with Mort Subite products (wheat, raspberry, and cherry) and Dave had a Waterloo.  Cool glass but not a very good dark beer.

Thursday, July 24th

The breakfast buffet came with the price of the room and as it turned out it was the only hotel to do so (the hotel in Germany was supposed to but I'll get to that).  It was a pretty good mix of food and if you were expecting an American breakfast, you could find it.  Because they had real bacon!   Not the chopped up ham or canadian bacon served in other places.  They also had free champagne.  :)

Having breakfast right there allowed us to get an earlier start than the past few days.  We split ways at this point, I was off to the Botanical Gardens and everyone else was going to the Atomium.  I did a little bit of shopping at the mall next to the hotel before heading over to the Botanical Garden.  It wasn't as impressive as some other gardens I've been to but it was a nice place to sit and think.  After I was done, I decided to go to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts since everyone was still at the Atomium.  This was a really nice museum, if not a bit spread out in a few large wings.  I timed it just right as I was finishing up when Dave texted me that they were headed back to the hotel.  I told them I'd just meet them near the Grand Place when they were ready since it didn't make sense to go back to the hotel from where I was.  Then they decided they didn't feel like going back to the hotel either so I just met them where the bus dropped them off.

It was lunch time so we wandered around until we found where we had seen a bunch of Greek restaurants.  It was a nice break from the large meals that we had been eating.  I mentioned I think in the Amsterdam trip report that it was slightly difficult to find lighter eating options on this trip compared to other places we've been.  I know if we had tried harder, we could have found more "fast food" or ordered lighter options but then we would have missed on a lot of good/new food so it works out.

Full after our gyros and dolmadas, we walked around and did some shopping.  We found some lace items as souvenirs.  My mom bought me a cape from Klaus Duffy and a scarf for a friend.  Both Dave and I looked at all the tapestries but didn't find anything that said "buy me".

You'd think that after Brugge, we'd be tired of chocolates.  Nope.  My dad wanted to go to Pierre Marcolini as it is a highly rated chocolatier.  Unfortunately for my mom (and the rest of us, really) it was up a large hill from where we were.  That just meant it was time for more beer.

We both bought a sampler box from Pierre and headed across the square to the Cafe Leffe or that beer we needed.

A Leffe blonde, Hoegaarden Rosee, and a Chimay from left to right (mom opted for coffee instead).

Now we were going back down the big hill back to all the shopping.  After more shopping, we went back to the hotel for a break before dinner.

I've mentioned that the GPS has been a marriage saver and it would have been a frustration saver to have used it to get to the restaurant we wanted to go to for dinner.  None of the maps we had clearly showed the exact location but we didn't realize that until we were about 5 blocks away from it trying to find it!  Find it, we did after asking for directions in the small square it was supposed to be on.  But not before passing something I didn't ever think I would see:

Yes, there's a Chi-chis in Belgium!  The menu wasn't exactly typical as you might imagine.

The last dinner in Brussels was at In't Spinnekopke, billed as a true local restaurant by one of our guide books.  And since there wasn't even an English translation on the menu, I'm guessing it was pretty local oriented.  Our waiter graciously translated the menu for us and another good meal was had by all.

I started with the fromage fondue, my mom had herring in a sauce, and my dad had escargots (which I've never tried and I liked but I think if you put anything in enough butter and garlic, it tastes good):

My dad had a traditional sausage dinner:

Dave had the best steak ever with a Brussels beer sauce:

My coq vol au vent:

And my mom's stew with frites:

Of course, there were more beers too:

The food, while very good, took a while to arrive.  I think there may have been a slow down in the kitchen since it didn't look like anyone else was getting their food.  That meant we were actually out late enough to see things at night.  Night begins somewhere around 10 PM.  For me and my mom, this was later than we liked to be out.  For the other two, who were usually out boozing it up and smoking cigars, it wasn't that big of a deal.

Friday, July 25th

After another fabulous breakfast, we hit the road to Cologne.  The one thing we didn't eat that I wanted to eat was a Belgian waffle.  It kept moving to the bottom of the list throughout the time in Belgium.  And here we were, leaving the country today.  So my dad stopped in the last town before the border, Genk, so we could have Belgian waffles (even if we weren't hungry):

We think the Coke bottles were in Chinese for the Olympics.  Maybe?