Waffles, Fries, Beer, and French in Brussels

We have spent the last two days in Brussels, Belgium.  We did the lower part of town one day and then the upper part of town the second. However, getting off the high speed train when we arrived from London (we went through the chunnel! ;)) was an adventure.  We had to try and find a cash machine that would let us get out enough money in the huge station (their train and metro stations are as big and nice as airports). And then we needed to find the trams, not the real train,s or the metro, or the buses... as that is what our directions said. But not everyone speaks English here as we found out! However after some time wondering, we made it to the hostel! And its nice and new compared to our others we've been in so far- even sharing a 6 bed room :)

The history and government of Brussels is very interesting and confusing as we have heard and figured out. If you're interested- look it up-but it will probably just confuse you more since the locals here can't even seem to keep it straight. They have more than one official language and so all the street signs and everything are in both French and Flemish, In fact most everything that has a sign reads about 3 to 5 different languages with English being one of them only about half the time. The tour guides even find out who there speaks what before they begin so they know what to speak as everyone here speaks about 5 languages too.  But the streets are full of character in the lower end and there are fascinating things around every corner.

We went to the Grand Place (which our hostel is just half a block from) which is the city's main square full of beautiful buildings. And in there we took the Town Hall tour and learned some interesting things along with getting to see some gorgeous government rooms/buildings.

Then we went and found the famous Manneken Pis (little boy peeing fountain) and the Jeanneke Pis (a girl peeing) and the newest statue the Zinneke Piss (the dog peeing on a street corner). I told you Brussels is kind of quirky and crazy- but fun!

We ate lunch at a beautiful cafe "La Mokafe"  in the elegant expensive Galleries St Hubert (which is an enclosed shopping area) and had a delicious authentic Belgium Waffle. Although ordering lunch was difficult since we didn't know what we were getting (it was all in French!) But the people here take their food very seriously and everything is presented so beautifully on the plate and always looks amazing!

We also went through the Chocolate Museum and all the little hand made Belgium Chocolate shops to try some DELICIOUS chocolate! My favorite :)

And we also found a cute toy store called the Grasshopper! So adorable, with old wooden toys and some new Euro style games and toys.

Last we found St. Nicolas Cathedral and admired yet another beautiful cathedral in Europe ;)

Then today we explored by walking the upper half of Brussels. This area is very different then the lower half- in fact they speak a different language! But the streets are cleaner and the houses and buildings are fancier. We spent the morning walking around and saw the Place Royale, the Royal Palace (yes- two different places) , the sculpture gardens, walked through the Mercedes House Museum, saw the Notre-Dome du Sablon Church, the Place de Petit Sablon (another garden) and an amazing viewpoint of the city.

We also went the the Musical Instrument Museum -since the alto saxophone was invented here in Belgium!!!

We then had lunch in the park and walked through the huge (well, large for Brussels)) Parc de Bruxelles.  Delicious!!!

The afternoon we spent a little ways outside of the main part of Brussels at the Automium and Mini Europe.
Automium was originally built in 1958 for the World Expo in Brussels and is now considered the 'Eiffel tower of Brussels'. It is a huge (magnified 165 billions times) iron crystal. It has some strange exhibits inside, but a great view!

And then Mini Europe is an 'amusement park' of miniature models of famous places and monuments all over Europe. Like here we are at the Eiffel Tower in Paris! haha- it was fun!

We then ate lots of fries this afternoon and went to a bar that serves over 2,500 different kinds of beer! Wow!  The people here are not as friendly as the UK, they are kind of just fine with doing their own thing- it is more like if you leave me alone- I'll leave you alone.

Thanks all for now folks!

~Becky and Clark <3