Europe 2018: Brussels

Europe 2018 Trip

Amsterdam --> Berlin --> Dresden -->  Prague --> Munich --> Nuremberg --> Brussels --> Liege --> Bruges --> Amsterdam

Tayler's thoughts are in blue, Rebecca's thoughts in black.

Brussels

• Fries in mayonnaise. Apparently that’s a thing, and I didn’t even know it. Frites, to be exact. Brussels was great. We splurged on our Airbnb (splurged my be a stretch, but this was the Airbnb we were most excited about), but were disappointed with its location and quality. It looked so cute from the pictures, with a fun loft bed and a pretty wood floor. The stairs to getup to the building were so old and bent you might wonder if they would hold. The apartment was fine, but nothing spectacular. We were on the top floor, so we had these big windows, like skylights that we could open up for some cool air at night.
• There was one particularly pretty cathedral we enjoyed seeing. We also saw the palace where the King and Queen of Belgium would live. The palace was very nice, and it sounds like they’ve thrown quite the parties there--filling big rooms with hundreds of people. One room had a shiny, sparkly green ceiling, and we learned that it was the wings of millions of iridescent green beetles were glued to the ceiling to give it the look. Rebecca didn’t think it was so pretty once she learned how it was made.
• Of course, we had to eat Belgian waffles! I had a couple delicious waffles with chocolate and ice cream. Rebecca knew I couldn’t say no and she convinced me to have more than I should have. Rebecca did her research and found a food truck that had dairy-free Belgian waffles she could eat, even.
• Brussels was not what I expected, but pretty fun! Their center of town was more updated, and I liked that people spoke French there. :) Our walk to our airbnb wasn’t bad, though we did end up bussing part of the time going back and forth. Walking it the first time was a nice way to see more of the city. There was a beautiful park that we had to pass that the palace was just on the other side of, and a cathedral on the way out of town where the Belgium royalty gets married. The cathedral was pretty, but not comparable to many other we’d seen.
• Almost every morning, we stopped by a local market for breakfast--I got an apple turnover pastry and Tay would get pain au chocolat or another pastry to try out, and we’d eat on our way into town. I wouldn’t mind going to the grocery store every day for breakfast if they had delicious pastries!
• We visited the palace in Brussels, and that was one of the highlights. It was fun to see the banquet halls and family portraits, as well as learn about some of the history and events that had happened there. It was interesting to see a palace in a smaller country, as compared to the UK where many people in America know about the royals there--it felt like we were in their own little Belgium world. There was one room in particular that I’ll probably never forget--the beetle room! It was a beautiful green/blue color everywhere on the ceiling and covering the chandeliers, all made out of a certain beetle’s wings! We had seen a picture online of this room and it looked gorgeous, but when we got there and it was all insect wings, I mostly thought it was gross.
• I got to eat a belgian waffle! I found a vegan belgian waffle food truck, and I was so happy about it. Tay was so nice and told me to get an extra to save for later--it didn’t taste as good later (because of the syrup and all), but still delish. The fresh one had what seemed like a pure, thin maple syrup on it. Yum yum yum. Mine was a square waffle, different from the liege waffles that are more circular and have the sugar crystals inside.