Waffles, Chocolate, & Beer: Glorious Brussels

We spent a rainy couple days in Brussels over the weekend.  Despite the weather I was pleasantly surprised with how cute Brussels was.  I wasn't expecting much for some reason.  We of course were excited about the beer, waffles and chocolate but I had no idea that the old town there where we stayed had so much character and really felt like old world Europe.  We got up early to catch the 7am train to Brussels.  The high speed Eurostar goes from London to Brussels in under 2 hours.  Tyler enjoyed the easy train ride and we arrived for a waffle breakfast.  Tyler snoozed in the stroller while we cruised around the Grand Place.  This is the main tourist area where we stayed and on every corner there are at least 5 chocolate shops, 3 pubs, and 4 waffle shops - on EVERY corner.  It was heaven!  Tyler woke up and we set out to find the Manneken Pis.  This is a fountain sculpture off the Grand Place of a little boy peeing.   Apparently it was first put there in the 1600s and people have stolen it several times so the one there now is a replica of a replica of a replica....  After reading about it online, there appear to be many legends about it's significance but it's a funny little statue that gathers quite a crowd of people.  One of the funniest things to me is that he has a "wardrobe" that is changed out several times a week.  They also said online that sometimes they hook a beer keg up to him and pass out cups of beer that he "pees" out to people.  We got a couple of pictures of Big T with the little peeing guy and then set off to enjoy the old town. 

We had lunch at a restaurant near our hotel.  We were familiar with the menu we thought since we were just in France skiing and it seemed to be pretty similar.  One thing I forgot to put in my blog post about skiing in France was I found a new favorite sandwich of all time: the croque monsieur sandwich - description here:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/croque_monsieur_ham_and_cheese_sandwich/
It's this delicious grilled cheese sandwich with melted cheese on top and ham inside.  I saw that on the menu and was sold.  JJ saw the sandwich americain and we googled it and it seemed to be like a hamburger.  I found a fromage sandwich for Tyler and thought - oh grilled cheese - perfect!  We ordered feeling like experts (except that I pronounced the last e in my beer choice Leffe - which apparently is silent).  When the food came we all looked at it with disappointment.  The fromage sandwich was just cold cheese slices on a baguette, my croque monsieur did not have melted cheese on top and was really sad looking compared to what I had in France.  But the worst and most appalling was the sandwich americain - this was raw ground beef on a baguette.  We both looked at it in horror.  JJ touched it to find out it was cold and not cooked and we put it as far away from us as we could.  Tyler and I shared our sandwiches with him and we at least had a good laugh. 

After lunch we sent our to buy some chocolates.  I have to admit Tyler was a really good prop to take to the chocolate shops.  The ladies who worked there loved him and really wanted him to try chocolate.  They would always give us free samples :)  Tyler actually hated the chocolate - it probably had too much of a bitter taste to him but mom and dad sure enjoyed the free samples.  We had a lovely afternoon exploring and then it was dinner time.  I wanted to get mussels and fries that Belgium is famous for, and JJ just wanted some meat that was cooked this time and he was starving after the sad lunch.  We found a nice little restaurant that actually had a high chair and JJ got a real cooked steak so he was happy!  Despite me spilling my beer all over JJ in a sudden bout of typical Emily clumsiness, we had a lovely dinner.  We headed back to the hotel to put the little guy down and then JJ and I grabbed a couple more beers and waffles at the hotel lobby.

Sunday morning was really cold and rainy.  We had breakfast at a little diner where we finally let Tyler try a waffle.  He, of course, loved it.  After his morning nap we set out to see the Atomium - a huge structure constructed for the Worlds Fair in 1958.  It is modeled after the unit cell of an iron crystal.  It ended up being a little over 3 miles from the Grand Place where we were staying so the hotel directed us on how to get there by subway.  The Brussels subway system was a little dodgy (love that English word) but we made it there just fine.  Luckily the rain had stopped but it was still cold and windy.  We stopped at the Atomium to take some pictures and then we headed off to Mini Europe.  I had read about this amusement park right by the Atomium that has little replicas of all the big European cities.  I pictured it being like Its a Small World in Disney and wanted to check it out.  We arrived to find out that it was closed for the season and opened up the following weekend, bummer!  Oh well we wouldn't have had much time there anyway as we had to catch the subway and then our Eurostar train home. 

Overall it was a lovely trip to Brussels!  I think I may have gained about 10 pounds in 2 days, but it was all well worth it!  I really wish that Tyler would be able to remember some of this.  It's so funny to think of all that he has done.  I try to take so many pictures so that he can see how many foreign subways he has been on, amazing food he has tried, and cool things he has seen.  I can only hope that he is absorbing this adventure in some way!  Back here in London it is so cold, windy, and snowy.  We had such nice spring weather last week that is all gone now.  I really hope that this is the last bit of cold weather for us!

Daddy's boy on the train.  Tyler loves his Daddy so much that if I try to pick him up when JJ is around he screams bloody murder until I hand him off to JJ.  It's a little embarrassing for me in public but I'm glad he loves Daddy so much :)

Street in Old Town off the Grand Place

Buildings in Grand Place

More buildings...

More buildings in the Grand Place square

They love their beer, and it sure is good!

Waffles - mmmm!

This was our first waffle - JJ had white chocolate and bananas and I had dark chocolate

Manneken Pis

My boys in front of Manneken Pis

Not a fan of the chocolate - that's OK - more for Mom and Dad!

Our favorite beer - Leffe Blonde!  Oh and Tyler's sippy cup too!

JJ"s raw meat sandwich - yuck!

The best thing about this restaurant was the fish tank!

Mussels - I'm not usually a fan but these were really good.  Look at the size of the pot they gave me! I ate almost the whole thing!

Happy at dinner!

Tyler and a Manneken Pis replica outside the restaurant

Dessert waffles from Haagen Das!

Dessert beers at the hotel :)

Waffle shop

Breakfast waffle with Daddy

Big T loves escalators!  This one is in a Brussels subway stop

No!  Mini Europe is closed!

Park by the Atomium

Welcome sign at the base of Atomium

Atomium Kerns!

Atomium baby!

Close up Atomium baby!

Big T was so tired from the travels.  We had to wake him up from his morning nap to get going but couldn't resist catching a rare picture of him sleeping.