Belgium

We visited Belgium! Our first few nights were in Brussels. Our flights were on time, so we had a nice, unplanned first night to wander around. We stopped by Grand Place and the Mannekin Pis statute. Grand Place is basically the city centre gathering area. Imagine beautiful buildings around a cobblestone square area. There was a live jazz festival going on in the centre, so that was great timing. The aroma waffling around Brussels is unforgettable, I'd say the best smelling city in the world as far as I know :)

The next day we walked through 7 world class chocolate shops. The people were so nice and the chocolate was excellent. My oldest daughter and I loved Passion Chocolat. 

We then took the metro up to a place called Atomium. It's an extremely unique and unforgettable structure. It was built for the World Fair a long time ago, and soon thereafter it was decided to keep it. It basically looks like a huge atom, several hundred feet tall, with large spheres connected by "small" diagonal tubes. Once you're inside, after a long queue, each sphere tells a story about the structure. One sphere is dedicated to young students spending the night for science lessons. The views from the top are great!

The plan was to drive up to a town called Bruges, but we decided we had time to stop halfway in another beautiful town called Gent. I had never been there before. What a great place! It's about an hour from Brussels, and it has the same cute small town feel as Bruges. Except Gent has an amazing area of churches and castles, fantastic. Bikes and cable cars kept the town buzzing. There's a great bridge called St Michaels I think, that gives a view of 5 different awe inspiring structures.

We enjoy researching the names and ingredients of local popular dishes when we travel. Waterzooi is apparently popular in Belgium. I tried it in Gent and loved it, it's basically a thick chicken stew.

We drove up to Bruges from there. I was a bit worried that Bruges would lose its appeal after Gent, but it stood strong. Even driving through rush hour traffic, it was about an hour to get there.

First we walked to a place called Lake of Love. See, Bruges is one of those cities like Venice where there are a lot of waterways and bridges. Bruges was larger than I remembered it, which was a good thing. We took the boat tour around town and then learned that there are only one or two cash machines in the whole area. 

We went to the city centre and had lunch in the view of the tallest building, known as the bell tower. I carried my youngest daughter up 366 steps to the top, but who's counting :)

Unfortunately the Bruges trip ended a tiny bit sour as we shopped. One store owner fussed at my daughters because they were touching the merchandise. It caused a bit of a spat with her, so I guessed we learned local culture the hard way. Still looking forward to going back to the town someday!