This weekend we decided to keep the travelling light, and just do a day trip to Brussels, Belgium. The trip was 4 hours and £5 each way, courtesy of Megabus (Yes they have that here too! This one is run by the UK). We arrived to Brussels at 3:30PM and it was rainy and gloomy, but I had worn my Hunter boots so I wasn't too phased by it - Vivian: 1, Rain: 0.
We walked to Galeries Royales St. Hubert and made our way through a few of the stores. The first store we stopped at? A chocolatier of course. The chocolate stores smelled beyond heavenly. There were so many different types of chocolate, I just wanted to eat them all. Letizia managed to snag a free sample even though they didn't really give out samples... something she was quite the expert at doing the whole day. After, we stopped briefly at a small market before finding a restaurant that served Belgian fries, something that Belgium is apparently famous for. We found ourselves at Belgian Frit 'n Toast where we each ordered a cornet of fries, and dipping sauces. I found their Andalouse sauce (a mixture of ketchup, mayo, and pepper) the best tasting, so I recommend trying that if you ever decided to order Belgian fries. Not really a fries person anymore, I didn't find the fries themselves to be anything particularly special, just that they were very potato-y.
At this point it was around 9:30, and we had nothing else to do. We decided to go watch Taken 2 (something we were supposed to watch back in Paris but didn't end up going) to kill a few more hours before our 2AM bus back home. We went to a UGC, and wow, boy were we surprised when we got into the actual theatre. It was painted and decorated with gold, the seats were ridiculously comfortable, and the screen was huge. However the movie itself was mediocre. There really was no storyline, and was just packed with fight scenes and car chases. After the movie, we stayed in the theatre for a bit, waited for everyone to leave, and then ran to the front of the stage and started prancing and dancing around. We eventually saw that one of the employees was watching and laughing at us from the top part of the theatre where they projected the movie. By this point, it was 12AM so we found a Quick burger restaurant to sit at where we killed an hour before making our way to the bus stop.
We walked to Galeries Royales St. Hubert and made our way through a few of the stores. The first store we stopped at? A chocolatier of course. The chocolate stores smelled beyond heavenly. There were so many different types of chocolate, I just wanted to eat them all. Letizia managed to snag a free sample even though they didn't really give out samples... something she was quite the expert at doing the whole day. After, we stopped briefly at a small market before finding a restaurant that served Belgian fries, something that Belgium is apparently famous for. We found ourselves at Belgian Frit 'n Toast where we each ordered a cornet of fries, and dipping sauces. I found their Andalouse sauce (a mixture of ketchup, mayo, and pepper) the best tasting, so I recommend trying that if you ever decided to order Belgian fries. Not really a fries person anymore, I didn't find the fries themselves to be anything particularly special, just that they were very potato-y.
Inside Galeries Royales St. Hubert
Window display of a chocolate shop
They don't look too special, do they...
Being the Statue of Liberty
After we finished our fries, we tried finding the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate. We asked at least 3 different people but we still couldn't find it. We made our way towards the Grand Place, which was absolutely stunning, even in the rain. For those who don't know what the Grand Place is, it is essentially a square surrounded by buildings on all four sides, one of which is Town Hall.
Grand Place
Brussels Town Hall
After walking around the square, we eventually learned that the chocolate museum had already closed for the day, so we had to think of other things to do for the rest of our time in Belgium. We made our way down a street to look for more chocolate shops. We stopped at La Belgique Gourmande, as well as Elisabeth, where we did some serious damage. I bought lots of chocolate to bring back home as souvenirs and a few truffles for myself which were simply delicious. We wandered through the streets of Brussels, looking for more chocolate shops and just exploring the city. We somehow managed to unintentionally find the Manneken Pis, which is a famous statue of a little boy peeing into the fountain.
Chocolate spoons you mix into hot milk to create hot chocolate - these ones involved alcohol
Our collective chocolate haul
Manneken Pis
Manneken Pis corkscrews...
We then decided to go find our much awaited Belgian waffles. We picked The Waffle House, mainly because it had seating for its customers, as opposed to many of the small waffle shops where you could only grab a waffle and go. I decided on a legere waffle with dark Belgian chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Legere waffles are made with a dough instead of a batter, and has little pieces of sugar in it which makes it sweet and fluffy. People are not lying when they say Belgian waffles are amazing. The waffle I had was the best waffle I had ever tasted, words cannot even describe... I'm drooling again just looking at the photo.
Inside the theatre
Private ballet show?
No comments:
Post a Comment