A Few Hours in Brussels

Last week, our friends Ashley and Anthony came to visit us and we took a road trip together to Brussels and Amsterdam. The stop in Brussels lasted only a few hours, but was definitely enough time to check out the city’s main sights and relax for a while before continuing the drive to Amsterdam.

We checked out Grand Place – the main medieval square in downtown Brussels. The square is breathtaking with buildings that had to have taken decades to build and are still decked in brilliant gold, and the ones that aren’t gilded are leaning one way or another from years of holding themselves up. This is the place where the people of Belgium congregated hundred of years ago to buy and sell their wares. History was everywhere we looked.

The sun was shining and the weather was great so we stopped to have a beer and soak in the scenery.

Next, we headed to scope out Manneken Pis – a statue of a peeing boy. The statue is surprisingly small but is a big part of the Brusselian culture. They dress him up as Santa Claus for Christmas and they used to hook him up to a beer keg for their festivals (at least that’s what I read in my guide book). He even has a girlfriend – Jeanneke Pis – but we failed to located her during our short visit.

Then we decided to sample some of the famous Belgian street food – waffles and fries. I would have loved a big bucket of mussels too, but we just didn’t have time.

As Ashley said – we came, we ate, we conquered.

Then we left for Amsterdam.