Mussels In Brussels

"Grand Place" Brussels City Center

We left Paris early Thursday morning, destination Amsterdam. After nearly 4 hours on the bus we pulled into Brussels for lunch. Our tour guide, Mark, informed us that Brussels is the machine that runs Europe; the city where all the paper work and technicalities are taken care of. For such a drab sounding place we weren't prepared for how beautiful the center of town, appropriately named "Grand Place" was going to be. The square is surrounded on all four sides by towering buildings with ornate gold decorations. The lower level of each massive building consists of cafes and bistros with their dinners sitting leisurely under huge red umbrellas.

Mussels in Brussels! Absolutely amazing

We only had two hours in this town so we tore off down one of the narrow, cobble stoned roads in search of a lunch spot that would serve us Brussels's most well known dish, mussels and fries. We hit the jackpot with an elegant hotel that had outdoor dining and clean white table clothes. Our friendly waiter explained the menu and before we had time to blink huge bowls of steaming mussels and lightly seasoned crispy fries were being set before our eyes. The waiter explained that in Brussels it is typical to eat an oyster with an oyster, pinching the meat from between oyster A by using Oyster B as a small little clamp. We felt euphoric after our amazing meal and swore that any chance we have to eat mussels and fries again, we will take.

Viking Beer

With only an hour left in the town that was getting better by the minute we skipped off in the other direction in search of some quality German beer. We did well once again and sat down at an outdoor Beer Garden, each ordering something worthy of writing home about.  I ordered "La Corne" a hoppy, full flavored beer that is served out of a true viking horn. I couldn't have been happier.

Manneken Pis

With twenty minutes to go we rushed to the only well-known sculpture in the town of Brussels, the Manneken Pis; commonly recognized as the little baby boy holding his privates as he takes a pee. The statue was underwhelmingly small, true to size of a little baby. It was put up to honor a little boy who walked between two battling armies in the Grand Place square, he started taking a pee directly before the battle horns were sound and the two armies started laughing so hard that the entire battle was called off.

Waffles covered in strawberries
and chocolate. Oh lala!

Before we loaded back on the bus we made sure to pick up some of Brussels famous waffles, I got mine absolutely slathered in fresh strawberries and chocolate syrup. For such a clerical town, Brussels was extremely impressive. Some of the best food and beer that I've had up to this point in Europe and the cutest little cobble-stoned, flower lined streets I've had the pleasure to run down. Not to mention the people are smiling and English is known by all.

We hopped back on the Bus and made it to Amsterdam by 7 p.m. Here my roommate and I stayed in to enjoy the comfort of our nicest hotel yet. With Green Paisley wall paper, fluffy blankets and a big modern bathroom we were ready to get some much needed rest.