Scott wanted to travel Europe by train, specifically, over airplane. So we took the Eurostar train from London to Brussels, Belgium. It goes on from there to Paris and a few French cities OR to Amsterdam.
The train was amazingly fast & comfortable. We got to Brussels in something like 2.5 hours. We were using this as a quick stop to see a few sights, say we’ve been to Belgium, and move on to the next leg of the trip.
Belgium is known for great Belgian beer, eating pomme frites, waffles, chocolate, and mussels. We walked from the train station and happened upon a little restaurant that seemed cool. The sign out front offered mussels, fries, & a beer for EUR 18.50 ($20.00). Mussels have no brain or nervous system, so I justified eating them as a cultural experience. Scott ordered Belgian meatballs.
We wandered around some more, saw the major sights of Brussels – Grand Place, Saint Michael Cathedral, saw the Royal Palace & park, a chocolate museum, the Belgian Beer Museum, and of course the oldest resident of Brussels, Mannekin Pis. We also managed to eat some Belgian waffles!
The maze of small, winding roads set between old buildings made for really interesting walking. You never knew what was around the next corner! The location of the city made for an easy transition to Europe – despite the official language being French, there were tons of other languages being spoken and nearly everything was in English too.
The obsession with Mannekin Pis, the peeing boy statue, is a bit strange. It’s not a big statue. It’s not in a grand square or part of a large fountain. It’s tucked away in a nondescript corner and part of a small fountain. If it wasn’t so old (~1450AD), it would be just another statue/fountain. But it’s a cultural touchpoint, so we saw it.
We enjoyed our time in Brussels! It was a good stop. But we had our sights set on getting further into the continent and caught a train the next morning…