Over Easter weekend we took a trip to Belgium. UK has Holiday for Good Friday and Easter Monday so we took a long weekend in Brussels. Belgium is all about the beer, waffles, fries and chocolate and boy did we eat and drink a lot of it! Brussels was a blast, heres how we spent our time there...
We took the train from London and arrived Friday morning. This was our first time taking a train to a destination rather than flying. While it was a little more expensive than a flight the convenience of it was awesome and it was great to not have any luggage restrictions for once. We stayed at Novotel Brussels Centre Tour Noir. The hotel was great and was a 5 minute walk to the center of town where all the action was.
View from our room:
We walked to Grand Place where we had lunch in the main square at Aroma Coffee Lounge. This is where we had our first Belgian waffles and they were amazing!
Next was a 5 hour beer tour! Beer tours were a little pricey and we debated if we should do one but in the end we were so glad we did- it was a blast and we learned a lot! We also met some new friends from Switzerland and London!
We sampled 8 beers with very high alcohol content so by the end of the tour we were having a blast! We lucked out and our tour was only 6 people so we all continued the fun after the tour was over with our own bar crawl and dinner together. The bars we went to on the tour were: Toone, Delirium Cafe and A I'lmaige Nostre Dame here were some of our favorite beers.
Saturday we took a daytrip to Bruges (1 hour away by train from Brussels) which was absolutely beautiful
We went to the Basilica of the Holy Blood
We rented a tandem bike (only bike they had available) saw the windmills and went around Bruges!
We concluded the day with drinks, a view over the main square and dinner of flemish beef stew.
Easter Sunday we walked to the Gran Sablon area. On the weekends they have a huge antique market so we walked around browsing there.
We caught a little bit of Easter mass inside this beautiful church in Gran Sablon and explored the garden outside of it
On the beer tour our guide pointed out that you could enjoy a beer that has been named the best beer in the world at Au Bon Viux Temps. Apparently the best beer in the world does not even need a label....Matt gave it his seal of approval.
There. Are. No. Words. OK maybe a few...when we were first heard we had to try the frites in Belgium I thought...ok but I already like fries how different can these be? Oh my goodness these fries (frites) were AMAZING! Im so sad we waited until the third day because we would have gotten them everyday instead of just twice (we ate them for dinner for the last 2 nights). In Belgium they tripple fry their fries in duck fat so they are crunchy and delicious and they have tons of yummy sauces to choose from. These frites were from Georgette that is where we went both times for our fries.
Monday we went to Mini Europe which was a theme park that was like a poor mans Epcot. If you are ever in Belguim it is not worth going here (thanks for nothing Trip Advisor) haha but nevertheless here are some photos...
The remainder of the day was spent back at the city center taking in the chocolate shops and having a few more good beers and of course more frites.
We tried all the must do's/must eats and everything Belgium is famous for (except Mussels because we were told it was not a good time of year) and we were not dissappointed! Belgium was so fun different from anywhere we have been yet- I cannot wait to go back!
