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Belgium

Brussels |

Lach and I just returned from a most enjoyable trip to Belgium. We left on Friday morning nice and early and arrived at Brussels airport at about ten am where we were pleasantly surprised at how smoothly our transition to Brussels Central Station was… Luckily for us it was an ease of navigation which continued for the duration of the trip!

The hotel we were staying in was in a great location, very close to the station and only a short walk from Grand Place and Saint Catherines Cathedral – both of which are popular attractions in Brussels.

Shortly after checking in to the hotel we leisurely wandered the cobbled streets of Brussels and came across Saint Catherines Cathedral. It was a huge and spectacular piece of architecture with the most amazing stained glass windows I have seen since Notre Dame. There was also some archaeological sight beneath the floor of the actual church with crypts and other significant structures dating back to the eleventh century. Later we discovered that its bells could be heard chiming from our hotel room.

From Saint Catherines we ambled to Grand Place. This used to be marshland before being built up into the central market of Brussels including guildhalls and a very old and exclusive hotel. As a result it now houses some of the most spectacular art nouveau architecture in all of Brussels and perhaps Belgium...

Again meandering through the back street we seated our selves at one of the many outdoor cafes to sample the signature dish of Belgium; mussels andchips – with mayonnaise. Thinking that surely the serve of mussels would be in proportion to the chips I was not to concerned at not knowing if Iactually liked mussels, however as the waitress delivered our meals I was quickly proven wrong. We had a small dish of chips and a huge pot of mussels... And then we had to figure out how to eat them.

From here we returned to Grand Place – as we would frequently during our brief visit – and sat at a table in an out door café and sampled a variety of Belgium beers.

We had a lovely meal that evening in a cosy little restaurant where I had the most delicious food I have probably ever eaten in my entire life! It was the most amazing lamb dish – cooked Belgium style. Lachlan was impressed by the earlier mussels and had some impressive mussels for his meal. This was followed by the most luxuriously rich chocolate mouse I have ever eaten. I could live in Brussels just for the amazing food.

We also popped into a recommended chocolate shop called Godiva. Unsure of the choice we bought a small selection to sample. And lucky it was only a small sample because we opened the packet to taste one and ended up polishing off the lot!!

Locations Visited: Brussels


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