Valentine's Day in BRUSSELS! xo

Brussels is known for a few things: waffles, capital of the EU, moules frites, and the Manneken Pis. But above all Brussels (well all of Belgium) is known for their chocolate! It is therefore quite appropriate that we spent Valentine's Day in the chocolate capital of the world.

We took the train from Paris early this morning into Brussels. Our hotel room wasn't ready yet so we left our bags with the concierge and explored the city a bit. We passed by shop after shop of chocolate filled wonderlands so we couldn't help but stop in to get a few for ourselves; after all, it is Valentine's Day! We then walked through the streets and got to the Grand Place to take pictures of the gothic style buildings and courtyard and meandered through the streets to a tea house that specialized in making Belgian waffles. That was a must-stop! We walked in and there was a gush of sweet waffle smell, along with chocolate, cakes, cookies and ice-cream. We took a seat upstairs and enjoyed our Belgian waffles along with a cup of mint tea. I got the advocaat and ice cream waffle (advocaat is the most delicious liqueur I've ever tasted - it is thick and creamy like a custard but very strong in alcohol!), and dad got the stewed cherries with ice cream waffle. OMNOMNOM...NOM!

We continued our walking tour for a few hours, checking out churches, cathedrals, antique shops and government buildings with the occasional stop-over at a pub for a good Belgian beer and then decided to get an early dinner in the city. We got the classic moules frites, since Brussels is known to have amazing mussels and "French fries" actually originated in Belgium. The mussels were good, but the fries were nothing special.

We ended the day back at the hotel with our chocolates we bought this morning, a cup of tea and CNN on the television. All in all it was a nice day spent in Brussels and a successful Valentine's Day filled with chocolate and dessert.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Alexis