Brussels and Bruges

Last weekend, Hannah and I woke up to catch the 3:50am train to the airport for our 7am flight. We were running on 2 hours of sleep. That seems to be a habit of mine…it wouldn’t be one of our European adventures if I didn’t start it off with 2 hours or less of sleep. There’s just lots to do before trips and time just slips right on by! I can’t help it! Luckily, my excitement and anticipation for our adventures keeps me running pretty strong.

On this particular adventure, Hannah and I headed to the land of waffles, chocolate, and beer…BELGIUM! And I can say that they do each of those things amazingly well. They are also known for their fries, but Hannah and I both agreed that they shouldn’t tell people that because their fries had absolutely nothing on our beloved Chipsy King in Amsterdam. In fact, we threw out our Belgium fries before finishing them because we just didn’t think they were even worth it. Bummer. The waffles however were to die for, the chocolate too, and I don’t know much about beer but what I had was quite delicious and refreshing! So kudos to Belgium for those three things!

Day 1:

We spent our first day in Brussels in awe of the beautiful buildings in the Grand Place, wandering through the streets, finding Tin Tin cartoons on the sides of buildings (the cartoon was created in Belgium!), eating waffles, and going in and out of the shops.

Of course, we had to stop by the infamous Mannekin Pis and admire its weirdness. This peeing statue is replicated everywhere…in the airport, in the tourist shops, on beer bottles, and everywhere else you could think of. It’s just bizarre.

And then we ended our day at the Atomium, which was built for Brussels World Fair in 1958.  We went up to the top and admired the view of the city we had just walked all over. And then, we were pretty exhausted so we got an early night sleep.

Day 2:

The next day we took a train to the nearby city of Bruges, which is a pretty cute little city. So quaint and charming. We started off our morning by climbing 366 stairs up to the top of the Belfry tower, and the view of the city at the top is 100% worth every huff and puff up there.

 

^^It was crazy windy up there!

After that, we decided to break for a bite of waffles of course.

Then, we took a horse and carriage ride, wandered down every single street in the city, shopped around, ate some delicious chocolate, and ended up at a restaurant for dinner that had 400 different kinds of beers to offer. Don’t worry we didn’t try all 400 of them. Only 2 and they were quite delicious!

^^Cherry beer…so delicious!

The next morning we were jumped back on a plane and headed back to Switzerland, where we spent the rest of Sunday relaxing and pinching ourselves because this life we are living is just crazy. I feel so lucky and so grateful. And don’t want to waste a second of the rest of my time here because it is FLYING by.

P.S. Oh, I almost forgot…meet Serafina and Genevieve! (Fifi and Gigi for short) Serafina is my piggy on the left and Genevieve is Hannah’s piggy on the right. We found these adorable finger puppets and simply could not resist. They’re going to be our travel buddies! So, be on the lookout for them all around Europe!