Beer and So Much Cheese

My spring break continued with yet another country (The others were Portugal and France).

On Wednesday, March 20^th, Mom and I took a train to Belgium (this is when our Dowton Abbey obsession began) to meet up with my dad, who flew in that day.  It was so fun seeing him in the lobby of the hotel! We spent the evening just the three of us, which was so much fun. I like being the only child sometimes.

Only sometimes.

We went to an early dinner at a place called Restaurant Row, which is a bunch of narrow streets with one restaurant after another. They all serve basically the same mediocre menu and men stand outside trying to convince their food is a better quality and price. The whole experience of walking through there and having people try to lure us in completely stressed me out. My parents, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious and humored the hawkers by talking back to them. Either way, dinner with my mom and dad in Brussels was pretty fun J

The Grand Plas

We did some more wandering around the main city center, the Grand Plas, and visited the chocolate museum! The best part was the free chocolate samples.  After we checked Belgium chocolate off the list it was time for some Belgium beer!

We ended up in a place called Delirium which, we found out, has over 2,000 beers. It won the Guiness Book of World Records award for having the most beers in one establishment in 2004. We had fun trying some different ones! Oh, and we also got a plate of cheese. This sparked a trend for the rest of the trip.

Yummy Delirium Beers

On the way home we ordered some Belgium fries, completing the Belgium food trifecta!

After Delirium we went back to our hotel. Dad fell asleep, and mom and I stayed up watching Dowton Abbey, waiting for Mark to get there! He arrived a little after 11, and I was so happy to be surrounded by some of my favorite people.

The next morning we woke up and played tourist. Dad had the Rick Steve’s book on Belgium and took us a nice walking tour of the Grand Plas, giving us all of the historical facts of the buildings we were seeing. We went to the Belgium historical museum and then made our way to the famous (infamous?) Manneken-Pis statue.

Uncomfortably posing in front of the Manneken-Pis 

The small boy peeing is somewhat of a factor of pride in Belgium, and there is even a whole section of the historical museum with costumes that people make for the statue from all over the world.

We finished off our day in Brussels at the Atomium, an atom-like building that was created for the 1958 Worlds Fair in Brussels.  We took an elevator to the top where we had a panoramic view of the city. In each individual sphere is a small exhibit with information and history of the world’s fair. 

The Atomium

View from the top

Me and daddy