Mannekin Pis??

Grant and I headed north to Brussels, Belgium. I was looking forward to trying the chocolate, Grant the beer. We decided to save some cash and take the train from the airport to the city center. We got out of the train station and decided it would be best to take a cab to the hotel since we had no idea where it was in relation to the train station. We put our bags in the trunk of a cab, got in and told the cab where to take us. He looked at us like we were crazy. Apparently the hotel was only 400 yards from the train station! We got our bags back and the cabbie gave us walking directions to the hotel. We checked in and headed out. We only had two nights to see all of Brussels.

 Grant's first beer in Belgium :)

 Our hotel in Belgium...Hotel Amigo

 A few photos from our first afternoon in Brussels

 The royal palace in Brussels...I love anything royal!!

We walked around the city and took the train out to the Automium. It was cool to see it in person, but there wasn’t much else out that way. I didn’t realize that this sculpture was so far outside the city center. 

 Us and the Atomium

 Can you find me in this photo?!

Gay pride parade in Brussels

That night we had a great local dinner at a popular restaurant. The menu was all in French…good thing I know a bit of French! Belgium doesn’t have its own language instead the use French, Dutch and English. I had a beef stew made with local beer and Grant had chili. It was all very good.

 Our dinner menu. It was tasty!

The next day we took the train out to Brugge, the chocolate capital of the world! Brugge is also known as a mini Venice. The town was quaint. The streets and shops were cute and the chocolate was tasty. There were chocolate shops on every corner! On the train ride out to Brugge I heard a couple of girls talk about going back to Gainesville…turns out they were Education students from UF! What a small world! The Gator Nation is EVERYWHERE!

 A map of Brugge (Left), me eating my fresh Belgian Waffle! (Right) 

 Brugge is filled with little canals like Venice. It was really charming.

 Beer shop in Brugge

We headed back to Brussels on the train. When we got out of the train station we heard loud music and people talking over loud speakers…We walked over to see what was going on. It was a giant soapbox derby race with people riding in cars they had made down a hill and around a banked turn and through a finish line…in costume! It was pretty cool.

 The soapbox derby in action!

 After the cars ran the track they put them on display for people to sit in and take photos.

 Grant out front of the soapbox race.

We visited a few more chocolate stores and then were on a mission to find the “Mannekin Pis.” This statue is like the Eiffel Tower of Brussels. They make it out of chocolate, they sell hundreds of key chains featuring it, they have it on tee-shirts. They decorate him with different costumes almost weekly. Here he is…the Mannekin Pis.

Once we found him you couldn’t miss him! There was a crowd of people all around him taking photos. What an interesting mascot to your city, Brussels!

The next morning we flew back to Florida. Our vacation was over. Back to the real world. Back to counting the days until the end of my first trimester. (That Sunday I was only 2 days away from lucky week 13!)