Quick Trip to Brussels

When we found out our Belgian friends in Costa Rica, Michael and Johan, were going to be in Belgium when we were in France, we decided to meet in Brussels.

Off to the Paris Nord train station again!

 

And the Thalys high speed train to Brussels. This is the same train used in the movie Mission Impossible where the helicopter followed the train into the tunnel. Nothing that exciting happened to us. We found train travel in Europe to be refined, quiet, fast, and comfortable.

 Our hotel in Brussels, the NH Atlanta. NH is a Spanish hotel chain, and their hotels are very nice.

We had a large lovely room overlooking downtown Brussels.

Michael and Johan took us on a quick tour of Brussels. Brussels is a lovely old European city. The architecture had a flavor of French, but with its own special architectural style.

The Grande Place, or great plaza. This is the town hall covered with beautiful stone carving and statues.

Tim, Michael and Johan are touching the bronze statue of Everhardt Serclaes, hero of Brussels, for good luck, a tradition among citizens of Brussels.

The Manneken-Pis, or peeing boy. Uh, the statue, not Tim.

Having seen this Brussels landmark in photos and postcards for years, we were surprised at how small it was. The statue wasn't very big either.

They love Tintin in Brussels and maintain paintings on the blank sides of tall buildings.

The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gundula where the kings all get married. The day we visited, there was a short concert on the steps of the cathedral by the children's choir of Romania.

The cathedral is another beautiful example of gothic architecture.

The Belgian royal palace. The flag on top means the king is at home.

Arch of the Cinquantenaire built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Belgium independence from the Netherlands.

Brussels is famous for its 350 varieties of bier.

And of course, Belgian waffles. We had one with dark chocolate. Delicious!

Another tradition in Brussels: the "Half & Half." Half champagne and half white wine. Part of the tradition is that the glasses are filled to the brim so that you have to lean over the table to take the first sip so as not to spill!

And after a day of sightseeing, we went looking for some Belgian cuisine. We found it at a seafood restaurant in a park not far from the hotel.

 Tim had grilled gambas (prawns) for starters.

 I had a shrimp cocktail of North Sea shrimp.

We both had a whole lobster with the option for two different preparations. They brought half the lobster as Lobster Thermidor. This preparation for the other half was Lobster Amoricaine--lobster in a tomato cream sauce with rice. Delicious!

The next morning before returning to Paris, we went to see the Atomium. Built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, it is built of steel and stands 335 ft. tall. It represents the atomic structure of iron.

 

Looking up through the Atomium at a gray cloudy Brussels sky.

Mini-Europe is in the same park as the Atomium. Mini-Europe is an educational theme park celebrating the countries of the EU with models of buildings from each country.

Here Tim and I are visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Saying "au revoir" to our European tour guides, we headed back to Paris. Brussels is a delightful city and we could not possibly have seen so much of it without our expert guides Michael and Johan.