Hallo, Brussels!

Brussels has been an interesting experience. It’s a mix of all kinds of people and backgrounds. When walking down a block you’re guaranteed to hear at least 5 different languages. It’s amazing!

We started our day with a walking tour and our guided said it best, welcome to Belgium’s beautiful “tropical weather” where it rains 260 days a year. Being from Seattle, we felt right at home. We threw on our rain jackets and wandering around for two hours learning all about the history of buildings and places to try after our tour.

We met in Grand Place, which was originally built as Place to house and entertain the King’s guests as well as the original public market for the city. Over time the public market place turned into the center for all of the guild headquarters. The buildings are painted with gold (not real now but real back in the day) because the trades wanted to show the royal family how wealthy they were. The trades held all of the power and the royal family was just a figure head/ military leadership even in the 18th century. In the late 18th century the country even became an elected monarchy eventually becoming totally democratic.

After that we walked over to the famous statue Manneken Pis, which we had already seen last night, but we learned that this is the third most disappointing monument in the world…hahaha, but we found it to be just fine.

The fun fact that most don’t know about is that Manneken Pis has a sister, and she sits hidden out side a very popular bar, Delirium Cafe.

Delirium Cafe, the one that serves over 2,004 different beers. It’s three stories tall and depending on what beer you’re looking for, you go down or upstairs. Looking for a rotation of traditional brews? Main floor. Craft and Imported, downstairs. Local, upstairs.
We continued the tour by walking to the Museum Square, which is a intersection that is surrounded by most of Belgium’s museums, inculding the instrumental museum, which has roof access to gives you a view of the city. We unfortunately didn’t get a chance to check this out, as we prioritized the Museum of Comic Books over this one.

Once the tour ended we headed to find some lunch and had some nice warm stews to warm us after all the walking in cold, windy rain.

Once finished we headed over to the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate. There we learned about the different types of cocoa fruits and how they are processed and distributed around the world. We also got to see a local chocolatier demonstrate how he makes a praline. It amazed me, but he simultaneously spoke French, Spanish and English to have everyone indterstand the demo. After this trip I am even more committed to being bilingual, at least.

We ventured to get some of these famous beligum frites we’ve been hearing all about, because despite what most people think, fries were not invented by the French. Not disappointed in the least.

The Museum of Comic Books, is where we got lost in all the cool history of the comic and the different types of art approaches there are today. Belgium is home to Tin Tin and the Smurfs to name a couple popular comics.

It was a respectable time for a beer and our tour guide, Rick, had suggested a great bar called Le Lombard that served his favorite beer on tap, Triple Karmeliet, we had a taster tray with that included. It felt good to sit and pause for a moment. Plus the atmosphere was very relaxed, so we hung out awhile.

Dinner became next on our list, curtsey of Rick once more, we went to a local Belgium favorite called 9 et Voisins, the whole menu was not in English, but we saw the table next to us get this amazing sausage dish, so we asked for the exact same and the gounash. Once agains we cleaned our plates.

I wanted to check out this chocolate shop I saw walking about earlier, so we headed back that way, they had so many beautiful chocolates! My favorite were the chocolate spoons you could order with hot milk and voila, you have some amazing Belgium hot chocolate.