Gaufres! Tasty Gaufres with Lots of Syrup

Our first European stop with skyscrapers: Brussels!

Have you ever been in a sewer? How about a sewer museum? Well I have, and it only cost me 4€. It really was cool. Dare I say it should make your bucket list! It's something everybody needs to do once. Learn everything there is about sewers, especially Brussels' sewer history, and smell the stinking l'eau usée. The Brussels Sewer Museum was a step underground and away from the typical museums. And you know it is authentic because there were no English translations. Learned a lot of French potty language.

The device pictured is used to reduce the cross-sectional area of the pipe beneath it and redirect the flow to the bottom of the pipe, thereby breaking up the caked sludge.

As cuisine goes, Brussels is known for waffles (gaufres), vol-au-vent, carbonnade stew, beer, and chocolate. The chocolate is good, but I am not a chocolate guy. Similarly, I should not judge beer, but I did have a couple because Belgium touts ¨trappists¨ which I did know to be a type of beer I like... as far as beers go. The vol-au-vent & carbonnade stew main courses are excellent; I had the former, similar to chicken pot pie with an extremely light and crispy biscuit as ¨crust¨, and Phil had the latter, a hearty beef stew.

Chocolate? Chocolate!?!? CHOCOLATE!?!?!?!?!?!

Sint-Katelijneplein

Congress Column

European (EU) Parliament

Saint Boniface

Inside a church, forget which one

Porte de Hal castle

WWII Memorial and a shot of the huge Brussels cityscape.

Église Notre-Dame du Sablon

Baldwin I, First King of Jerusalem

Mannekin Pis (Piss Boy) dressed up for some royal Ethiopean gathering.

Semi-outdoor shopping gallery (Les Galleries Royales Saint-Hubert)

But now the waffles. I still drool over those. It is easy to find those Belgian classics here in Amsterdam, but I have resisted buying any more. There are actually two types of Belgian waffles, the Brussels variety and the Liège. The Brussels waffle is light and crispy and classically covered in sugar, as a funnel cake. Though that one is good, the Liège waffle is the stud. It is chewier and covered in carmelized sugar.

Some shots of the Grand Place

I am a little behind on my posts, already in Amsterdam and getting to Berlin tomorrow. We are moving so quickly. We have had the time to hit everything we want in the cities so far, but not much time for writing blogs. When we get back to our hostels, we collapse exhaustedly. Anyway, I hope to catch up on my writings in the next few days.

I am through it already but my next post will be for our smaller Belgian destinations, Ghent and Antwerp. Then I will post for Amsterdam, which we just finished touring. Next stop and subsequent post: Berlin.

Overall, Brussels was the best destination yet, easily. Livable, modern and historic, tantalizing food, and French. Let's see if Berlin can top it.

Have you been listening to Bleacher's dropped Gone Now album? I have, and I love it. Of the pre-release teasers, I Miss Those Days gets the most playtime. But of all the songs, Goodbye and, above all, Goodmorning, are my favorites.

Angering a dinosaur outside the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences