Friday in Brussels

Friday was great, since we knew we had the entire day to just explore the city and the sights. It's typical in European hotels to offer a simple breakfast, and those of you who know I need my 3 squares a day, of course I opted in for breakfast. It consisted of juice, coffee, tea, milk, croissants, bread, jam, butter, spreadable cheese and corn flakes. It was actually pretty good, and I took some extras to Charlie, since he's not much of a breakfast eater, but I figured some bread and juice would do him good.

So we got going late morning and went back to the Grand Place square in the middle of the city for some pics and to layout a plan for the day. One thing we wanted to try to figure out is how to call our parents. We bought a calling card, but couldn't figure out how to use it from a pay phone. We tried asking around, but to no avail. So we put it on hold and decided to try later. We both had the same tour guide book, which has great photos and walks to go on, so we decided to hit up the main touristy sites and just take our time. Brussels is home to the European Union, so it's quite metropolis, but it's actually less busy on the weekends, than during the weekdays. So good for us.

Well without boring you with all the exact places we went to, I'll mention some fun Belgium places and things. The most popular site is the statue of Manneken Pis. We were expecting him to be a larger statue, but he's doll-sized and he pees water out of his wee-wee into a fountain. Visiting dignitaries from around the world will bring an authentic costume for Manneken Pis, and he wears it while the dignitary is visiting. Pretty interesting concept! We found the Brussels city museum, and learned a bit about the city's history, but the coolest part was the costume room for Manneken-Pis. We could view all the different costumes from the last 60 or so years. They are pretty amazing and elaborate. So that was definitely a highlight. Especially the video we watched of a British woman viewing the statue and saying it wasn't as big as she thought. Her husband asked, "What, the kid or the weenie?" Those British!

Some other fun things were eating Belgium waffles from the street vendors, taste testing belgium chocolates from many, many chocolatiers, and viewing the Royal Palace and surrounding park and art museum area of the city.

We popped back to the hotel for some re-energizing, and hit an early dinner. We figured we better eat on the cheap from this point on, and we had spied a kebab place. It was called Sultans of Kebab, and was a chain. But I tell you, it was delicious! If you order the doner kebab, it's sliced lamb in a thick pita like bread, with garlic or hot sauce and tons of lettuce, slaw and tomatoes. Cheap and delish!

So we figured we'd have an early night, but still wanted to stop at a few cafes for some beer. Well, by the time we visiting 4, and ended up at our new favorite one we found the night before - it was well past midnight and we had the munchies. So we headed back to Sultans of Kebab - kid you not! But on the way there, some reggae music pulled us down a narrow street and we ended up in a Belgium reggae bar! Pretty funny, but fun atmosphere and we made new friends. :) Stayed for just one drink, but it was the best mojito I'd ever had. Ended up with kebabs and chips (french fries) and headed back to the hotel to crash out. Oh, and in this last pic, Charlie is holding ice to his shoulder after pitching the day before. We basically scooped up ice from the seafood restaurants throwing it out on the sidewalk as garbage! Charlie said it didn't smell too fishy ... :)