Kevin and I were able to make a long weekend to Brussels, Beligum in August. I feel like I've said it a million times, but we had the BEST time. It was pretty much perfection in our opinion. :) We loved the city and and pretty much everything about it. We were able to go the weekend of the Flower carpet, which is only done this weekend every other year (only on even years). The design is different every year and it takes up most of the inside of the Grand Place (which is huge). It has +/- 750,000 flowers. Most of the flowers are begoinas, and the first time it was made was in 1971. Every night they had light shows we were able to attend and enjoy. If any of you know me, I was just taken away by the color and beauty of it. I probably could have stared at it all day. All of the buildings in Grand Place were also absolutely beautiful.
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| Grand Place and Flower Carpet 2014 |
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| Flower Carpet at night- Beautiful |
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| Our attempt of getting the entire Flower carpet! Doesn't do it Justice :) |
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| Town Hal in Grand Place |
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| Flower Carpet with my love |
I would like to confirm that everything great you here about Belgian Beer, chocolate, waffles, and frites are completely true. We did not try a beer we did not like, and we tried A LOT. It was almost overwhelming with the amount of choices. We were able to go to a famous bar that holds the Guinness Book of World Record for having the most beer choices--they hold it at 2,004 different beers. It is called Delirium. They had a magazine you could flip through to pick your beer. The neatest thing about every bar was that every time you ordered a beer, they would always serve it in its proper glass (most of them were very unique). We were able to purchase a few of our favorites to bring home. They had a Belgian Beer Brewery Museum (which of course included beer), which was also a lot of fun. One of the bars we went to the first night had some great beer samplers- you could choose between getting 5, 7, or 15 to try. We just went for 7, however if you did order 15 they would bring in out to you on a long wooden plank and blow a whistle all the way to your table. It was pretty awesome. We did love the waffles, but they put SOO much toppings to cover the waffles (see below). My first waffle had strawberries and whipped cream (and it was loaded). We ended just getting the plain waffles that you could buy for 1 Euro, however the one with strawberries was delicious as well :). Another big thing to buy are the Pommes Frites, which they have stands all over town (they are fried twice). From what I have seen and read, most people order them with Mayo on top (which to me sounds awful). However, they have tons of Sauces to choose from that they squirt all over the top (Kevin Loved). His favorite was the Americano sauce-- it was spicy. The most popular item of course was the chocolate--we saw hundreds of chocolate shops there. They was even a Chocolate Museum, which explained a lot of history and had samples for you to try (yum). There was also a demonstration that was pretty impressive showing how they make some of the treats. The guy that performed it spoke to the crowd in three languages Dutch, French, and English--which i thought was super impressive. Belgium has three languages spoken there --French, Dutch, and German (although the German percentage is pretty small). We were told that a very popular dish to get in Belgium was Mussels, so of course Kevin had to try--and he loved. He also tried blood sausage one night (not my favorite, ha-I will not be posting a picture of that). We did go to eat at the famous restaurant, Chez Leon, and it was very good.
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| Our First beers of the trip! I had to use two hands to drink the Hoegarrden! |
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| Our Beer Sampler~ Good portions and all delicious |
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| 15 beer sampler! |
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| La Corne Beer-- we enjoyed drinking out of the Horns! |
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| Delirium Bar- Guinness Book of World Records Certificate |
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| Kevin with his Pommes Frites! |
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| Examples of different waffles you can get! |
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| Loving our 1 Euro Belgian Waffles! |
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| Waffle with Strawberries and Whipped Cream |
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| Our Demonstration at the Chocolate Museum- That we got to try :) |
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| One of the many chocolate shops |
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| Kevin and his Belgian Mussels |
There are many famous statues in Belgium, and the one that stands out over all is the Manneken Pis. Yes, it is the statue of a young boy peeing. It is actually a fountain in the center area of town. They have imitations of him everywhere. Ha. We have seen him made out of chocolate, christmas ornaments, glasses, pitches etc. At the Brussels museum you can actually go and see all of the Manneken Pis costumes that he has had over the years--there are hundreds and hilarious. There are a lot of them that represent different countries, different careers, sports etc. Pretty much you name it, and they have it. We were cracking up. I encourage y'all to research the statue, and the history of it. It is very interesting. There is also a statue of a dog that is peeing-- which is called Zinneken Pis. They are also well known for their Comics- they have a Comic Strip Museum and a Comic Strip Route. The Route is very neat as you can walk around the city and see comic murals painted on buildings. I really liked running into those. We did also go to the Museum, which was interesting--however I would have liked to read most of the comics but only a few were in English. Ha.
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| Manneken Pis |
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| Manneken Pis |
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| One of the Manneken Pis Costumes |
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| Manneken Pis Costume |
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| Manneken Pis Costume |
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| Zinneken Pis getting Kevin! ha |
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| Part of the Comic Book Route |
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| At the Comic Book Museum |
We also did go see the Atomium- which was way bigger than I had imagined, and we went to Mini Europe. Mini-Europe had a section for each country in Europe with miniatures of all of their major landmarks and buildings. It was really neat, and Kevin and I enjoyed exploring and standing to take pictures next to them. Some of our other favorites in Brussels was the Musical Instrument Museum and the Old City Wall. The MIM had hundreds maybe even thousands of instruments from all over the world, it was very fascinating. And the Old city Wall is the only remaining part of the wall that once surrounded Brussels. Another beautiful thing in Belgium was the Lace and there were many lace stores there as well. We ended up purchasing some. :) Overall we just loved walking around the city and enjoying the atmosphere. Kevin loved that we could head into a pub and get a great beer anytime he wanted. :) It was a beautiful town, and we highly recommend it.
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| Mini-Europe with Atomium in the background |
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| Kevin's attempt at the Atomium |
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| In Front of the Atomium |
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| The Old City Wall- "Porte de Hall" |
