I left Singapore to meet some friends in Europe for a 10 day extravaganza, including a professional presentation in Amsterdam. What better excuse to visit Europe than a conference? Our first stop was Belgium because we all love beer, chocolate, cheese, and waffles! Let me tell you, I gained 10 pounds in my three short days in Brussels. Also, I had the horrifying realization that I didn't bring enough Belgium chocolate home for myself!!! Oh well, I guess I have to go back :)
Now for some pictures....
These are some pics of the La Grand-Place, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It includes city hall and the King's house as well as private buildings. It was the center of all the action. On our last day, they were getting ready for a visit from the King and some medieval games like jousting.
Manneken Pis
This is the famous Manneken-Pis.
It is listed as one of the top tourists destinations in Brussels. It
is hilarious, in case you can't tell it's a statue of a little boy
peeing. They have all sorts of souvenirs you can buy with him -
including chocolate figurines. Also, over the years, he has worn over
500 different outfits including a suit made of gold given to him by a
King.
They even name french fry stores after it. BTW, we ate here, it was amazing. Apparently Belgium is where french fries were invented.
It rained a lot...but the city was beautiful.
For our first big adventure, we got lost far away from "tourist land" trying to find the Lambic brewery, Cantillon.
We used public transportation and google maps really let us down once
we got off the train and the brewery was no where to be found. Luckily we
found some other Americans that just left the brewery to point us in the
right direction.
Anyhow, Cantillon is a family-owned
brewery since 1900. It was an interesting tour, but we didn't really
enjoy the beers. They can only brew them in
the winter, and they don't add yeast. They allow yeast from the air to
naturally ferment the beer. The beer seems more like a wine. Also, it's
not as sweet as the Lambics we get in the States.
Katie, Sage, and me...Katie was a trooper, she had just flown in from Colorado!
Belgium beers are strong....really, really strong....
Chocolate!!!!! I was too busy eating it to take a lot of pictures. But Elisabeth had particularly pretty shop windows.
Also, they had football sized meringue...and yes, of course we bought some :)
Cheese!! We bought cheese at a market for the train ride to Amsterdam. It was delicious.
And let's not forget the Belgium Waffles. Soooo good.
This one is covered in no less than three types of chocolate. And yes, this was for breakfast.
This was yummy, I had a stuffed eggplant, mozzerala, basil waffle and a desert waffle with speculoos spread on top. Divine. The spread is hard to explain, it is somewhat like a biscoff cookie but in spread form (apparently Trader Joe's sells a cookie butter that is a close approximation).
There were lots of strange bars in Brussels. One was a adult puppet theater, and one, La Mort Subite was filled with coffins and a supposedly real skeleton - see Sage below.
Off to Amsterdam next!
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