Beer, Chocolate, Waffles, and Frites

We left Paris just as we found it: in the rain. The train from Paris to Brussels was not very long and when we arrived we were greeted by more of the same weather. Lucky for us, our Airbnb host, Chris, offered to pick us up from the train station so we didn't need to find our way through a new city in the bad wether. All we managed to find the energy for the rest of the day was to grab an early dinner and go to the grocery store since we had a full access to Chris's kitchen. We made a list of things to do and began to plan the rest of our time in Bruxelles.

July 2nd - Belgian History

We had a quick breakfast at home before heading out for the day. We attempted to take the nearest subway into the main part of town, but the station was closed for renovations. It wasn't a total wast of time, however. The station was located next to a botanical garden so we walked through before deciding to walk into the city. Our first stop was the Parc du Bruxelles which led up to the Royal Palace of Brussels. Walking around the palace we found a museum that was open for free! Normally we've run into closures on Sundays but the Belvue Museum is free on the first Sunday of the month. The museum was full of Belgian history, how their government is setup, what industries they have, and their relationships with the rest of Europe and the world. It was great to learn all about Belgium and it definitely helped us appreciate our time there.

The Royal Square from inside the Belvue

The rain had started again when we left the Belvue so we quickly walked towards the old part of town and found some lunch. Our two main goals for the day were Belgian chocolate and Belgian beer and after lunch we were able to find both. Belgian chocolate makers strictly do not use vegetable oil as cheap fillers and you can definitely tell in the taste. We grabbed a few delicious chocolates and headed for the famous Delirium Café.

In 2004, the Delirium Café set the world record for the most beers commercially available with 2004 at the time they counted. When we went they were up to over 3100 beers! Mostly Belgian beers as well. Delirium became a regular spot for us to relax and explore the massive menu of beer after walked all over town.

We ventured over to the Grand Place which is the main town square in Brussels. The square is surrounded on all sides by grand, ornate buildings and is easy to find from just about anywhere in the old town area thanks to the the tall, gothic tower on the Hôtel de Ville de Bruxelles, Brussels City Hall.

Hôtel de Ville de Bruxelles

Nearby was the famous Manneken Pis statue so we followed the crowds and souvenir shops to check it out. You know how most people know what famous sites of big cities look like even without visiting yet they still impress you in person like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben? Manneken Pis is not one of those sites. We saw models and souvenirs of the statue all over town so we had an idea of what it looked like but we were less than impressed by the real thing. There are a lot of cool cultural events involving the statue; they dress it up to celebrate events in Belgium and around the world from a library of 900 costumes and will sometimes pour beer from the fountain. Unfortunately we missed one of the days he was in costume. Even though the statue isn't quite as impressive as some other sites we've seen it is easy to recognize its importance to the city of Brussels.

Manneken Pis, not dressed up or pouring beer

We grabbed our third favorite Belgian treat, a waffle covered in Nutella and whipped cream, before heading to a vintage market that is held in town every Sunday. Our busy Sunday caught up to us by this point so we headed home and relaxed before making dinner. We also finally drank the wine we bought from our host in Beaune! It turns out that the wine was corked and was not as good as we were hoping it would be. We drank it nonetheless since we couldn't take it with us on our flight out of Brussels.

July 3rd - Atomium

We trekked up north of the main part of the city to find the Atomium sculpture which was build for the 1958 World's Fair. We took the bus to where the royal family lives and walked through the park past the monument to Belgium's first king, Leopold I.

Monument Léopold I

Towering over the trees in the distance we saw the Atomium. It definitely sticks out from the trees in the park but once we got closer there were some museums and other attractions around.

Atomium up close

We found out that the Manneken Pis inspired a couple of other statues so we made it our mission to find the other pis statues. We traveled back to town and got lunch at a cool café called Peck 47 before finding the Zinneke Pis statue of a dog with its leg raised. The other fountain is known as Manneken Pis's little sister, Jeanneke Pis. Somehow we missed this fountain the day before. It is in the ally across from Delirium Café! We made our way back to see the statue (and for more beer) but not before exploring the Belgian Beer Museum and the Choco Story chocolate museum. The two museums talked about the importance of beer and chocolate in Belgium and we got a tasting of each, of course. The Czech beer museum in Prague was still better. The Czech museum had a better collection of memorabilia and facts about beer, but the Belgian museum was still a treat. After finding Jeanneke Pis and some beer at Delirium, we headed home for dinner.

July 4th

We started off Independence Day by heading to a local Brussels brewery, Brasserie Cantillon. Cantillon specializes in lambic beers and is one of the last remaining breweries in the world to brew lambics the traditional way which only uses wild yeast. All of their equipment is from when they opened in 1900 and they only brew during the winter months because they need the cold temperatures to cool wort and properly inoculate it without risking bacterial contamination. We tried some of their beers at the end of the tour and while neither of us are fans of sour beers, they were still good and it helped that we could appreciate the effort and tradition that goes into each bottle.

A very old boil kettle at Cantillon

We met some fellow Americans at Cantillon who didn't have a great start to their trip. They had diverted and delayed flights that caused them to lose all their luggage. They seemed to be in good spirits with their freshly bought clothes but all I could think of was how thankful I was we haven't had to check a bag on our trip so far.
We left Cantillon and got some lunch before visiting the Palace of Justice. We learned about the Palace of Justice at the Belvue: when it was built is was the largest building in the world. It's built on the top of a hill and can overlook the entire city. It's a towering display of the judiciary in Belgium and meant to embody the importance of the judicial branch of the government. When we visited it was undergoing a lot of renovations but it was impressive regardless.
We walked down the main road and passed a few cool churches and parks before finding St. Michael's Cathedral. St. Michael is the protector of Brussels and appears on their crest and flag. St. Michael's is very much like Notre Dame in Paris with Bell towers out front but there were not nearly as many people as at Notre Dame.

Cathédrale des Sts Michel et Gudule

We had walked a lot by this point so we made our way to Delirium one last time and also found a BrewDog bar close to St. Michael's. We had a fairly large lunch so we just snacked on our fourth favorite Belgian food for dinner: frites. Brussels was a very cool city with a unique mix of people and cultures. I would love to come back to Belgium and tour the country visiting the Trappist monestary breweries. We managed to have beer by all but one of them from Belgium but only because the last one only sells beer on site at their monastery. That will have to wait until next time I suppose. Now we head north to the Nordic countries starting with Denmark!