Brussels

Ah, Brussels.  What better way to start off our 10-day adventure in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France than in the center, the heart of Europe, where both French and Dutch are spoken equally.  David and I had been talking about Brussels since our friend Maddie went there last year and raved about it.  My favorite detective, Hercule Poirot, hails from Belgium.  For me, a trip to Brussels was all about the art, architecture, and food! 

Because the weather was less than ideal (cold and rainy), we went to a lot of museums.  My favorite museum in Brussels was the Musical Instruments Museum.  It holds a vast collection of musical instruments from all time periods and areas of the world.  We had headsets that would automatically play the instrument we were looking at.  Pretty cool, huh?  The instruments were beautiful, the music was beautiful, even the building was beautiful!  The museum is in the former Old England department store, and it's a classic example of art nouveau architecture.

Some pieces from MIM as well as a spiral staircase

All those hours spent in museums sure can make a girl hungry.  And oh, did I eat well in Brussels!  We rented an apartment in the center of the city through Air BnB (which I highly recommend) and the woman we rented from owns the restaurant below the apartment, called Le Chat Noir.  She serves up traditional Belgian food like mussels, fries, and Flemish beef to tourists and locals alike.  Her food was so good we ended up eating there twice.  David enjoyed sampling Belgian beer as well.  Of course, no trip to Belgium would be complete without chocolate!  We bought a box of chocolates intending to bring them back to Bologna, but sadly, they didn't even last until we reached Amsterdam.

After dinner one night we strolled to Grand Place, the main square in Brussels.  The 300 year old buildings are beautiful during the day, but even more so when they are lit up at night.  It was the perfect end to a perfect day. 

Well, those were my highlights of Brussels.  David would like to add he also enjoyed eating Belgian waffles, checking out the brews at Delirium, reading old issues of The Spirit at the comic museum, and snapping photos of art nouveau buildings.  Stay tuned to find out what we did in Amsterdam!