Meidy Thoughts

This past weekend I got to tick another country off the list as visited. Dovie and I took the Eurostar train from London to Brussels, Belgium for the weekend (can you believe it is only 2 hours to get there and that is with a stop in France???). Being that it was a long weekend with the Easter holiday and it happened to coincide with my 29th birthday, it was a perfect opportunity to fork out some more money for another holiday!

Belgium is known for three things:

1. Beer - and we had a lot. I tasted 9 different Belgium beers during our trip. If you are a beer snob like us, my favorites were Kasteel, Duvel, and Alvinne. They are all blond beers, which I have decided I like the best. A great place to enjoy all these different beers is a pub in Brussels called the Delirium Cafe....they supposedly have 2004 different kinds of beer, tap and bottle. They provide you with a binder of information to help you choose what to drink, but my advice is to ask the bartenders for recommendations and you will enjoy for sure. And while at this pub, I saw the biggest glass of beer ever (see last picture in link attached!)


2. Belgium Waffles - we allowed ourselves only one a day. On all the streets, you could just pause, grab a waffle, and eat while you walked. Of course if you got Belgium chocolate poured on top, it became a little more difficult! :) I loved the waffles.


3. Belgium Chocolate - now this is something that overwhelmed both of us the entire time we were there. Imagine a street lined with shops and every other one was a chocolatier. All the windows had fun Easter chocolates and lines of people, which made it difficult to ask questions about what surprises awaited you inside the chocolates. It took us until the final day we were there to make a decision...we will never know if it was the best decision, but so far today, my chocolates are very nice!

Besides the weather being absolutely miserable, it was a great break. We spent most of the time in Brussels, but took one day (my birthday on Saturday) to train to a little town named Bruges. This town is picturesque with quaint little shops everywhere and lots of character. If you visit one town in Belgium, it should be Bruges.

One thing I did learn is that Belgium doesn't have much of an identity. It is a country split in two. In Brussels, you feel like you are in France. But when we trained to Bruges, it was like we traveled to The Netherlands with everyone speaking Flemish. Very interetsing.

As usual, I took lots of pictures. We decided early in the trip to take pictures of us with our different beers, so be ready for lots of those. Of course we did do some sightseeing too!

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=184660846/a=7108003_7108003/t_=7108003

# posted by heather @ 8:10 AM