eating my way through belgium

Belgium: land of waffles, beer, french fries, mussels, chocolate, waffles, beer, and chocolate. In that order. Please and thank you. That's my trip to Belgium in a nutshell but I shall elaborate below.


Jess and I took a cab to the Madrid airport at 5am on Thursday morning. The streets were quiet and my eyes struggled to stay open as images of waffles danced in my head. Though I questioned our 7am flight choice, watching the sunrise from the air made it all worth it (even though I was temporarily blinded.) Upon our landing in Brussels we bid farewell to our Spanish speaking skills and plunged into the trilingual world of French, Dutch, and German. After some public transportation mishaps we ended up taking a bus, train, and metro before arriving at our hostel where we dropped our bags and set out exploring.

sunrise from 30,000 feet

We started out walking south on Rue Royale towards Brussel's main park. Soon into our walk Jess made an exciting discovery and screamed "omigod! it's a CONCHA!!" We took advantage of the photo-op and made Amalia proud. (If you don't know what I'm talking about that's okay. Camino de Santiago anyone?) The park itself was pretty barren compared to our Retiro but it was "so Belgium." with it's woven tree branches, frolicking Belgian children, and statues. We walked through the park and then ran across a pretty busy street (we like the thrill of risking our lives) to look at Palais Royal before letting our stomachs guide us towards the center of town where our first Belgian waffles awaited.

concha excitement

now that's an intimidating lion!

We quickly found a spot to have liege waffles, they're circular and the sugar is baked into the dough rather than sprinkled on top. I opted for a waffle with bananas and Jess chose a waffle with nutella. Good choices on both of our parts. We ate and smiled and "omg"-ed a whole bunch. With happy tummies we check out the impressive Grand Place/Grote Markt, the main square of Brussels. We did a couple 360 degree turns, snapped some photos, and headed towards Manneken Pis.

pre-inhalation of waffles



Grand Place

Manneken Pis is a statue of a little boy peeing that has become a Brussels landmark whose origins are not really known. He's a lot smaller than I expected but managed to attract quite a crowd. After taking some obligatory touristy photos, we went into a bar right across from Menneken Pis that was straight out of Harry Potter (I'm talking 100% The Leaky Cauldron...) where we warmed up by a fireplace and sampled some flavored Belgian beers. My favorite was Kriek, a beer that is fermented with sour cherries!

little Manneken Pis!

Belgian beer by the fire

Next stop: french fries. Though not a huge fan of fries myself, I had a few of Jess's and must admit that they were delicious. After the fries we went to look at the Cathedral and then happened upon what is possible the cutest cafe in all of Belgium for some coffee. The owner is a short French man who loves his bright red sweater and a skinny black and white kitty was curled up on a banquette nearby. When he woke up I let him like some cream from my finger and it made my day; Nais, you would have been proud of my cat wooing skills. Ready for dinner, we found our way to Rue des Bouchers, a crowded street filled with fluorescent lights, tourists, and practically identical restaurants. Men from each restaurant stand outside trying to get people to come inside for dinner and the competition is fierce. Our decision was pretty easy once we were offered free glasses of champagne (which somehow translated to three glasses of champagne and three glasses of white wine each. Free.) and a table by the window. We hardly glanced at the menu and braced ourselves for Brussels' mussels. We learned how to eat with a mussel shell and we filled our tums and returned to our hostel exhausted, content, and giggly from the drinks.

Belgian french fries

bonding with the kitty

mussels in Brussels

We woke early the next morning and walked to the train station where we took an hour long train ride to Bruges, which we found to be overwhelmingly cute and straight out of Hansel and Gretl. We walked through the quiet Beguinage, which is sort of like a monastery, and continued on cobblestone roads towards the main square. Horses clip-clopped beside us as we passed chocolate shop after chocolate shop and crossed over picturesque canals (Bruges is sometimes called the Venice of the north). Michelangelo's "Madonna and Child" sculpture is housed in a church in Bruges so we stopped in quickly for a look at one of just a few of his works that exists outside of Italy. We then picked a tea room in the main square where we ordered waffles and tea, again without glancing at a menu which we regretted after seeing our 30 euro tab. Our server was a quirky French (?) man who claimed to have hung out a bunch with Colin Farrell while he was in Bruges filming his most recent movie. He also said that part of the movie was filmed inside the restaurant so perhaps the 30 euro tab was worth it after all... After our Belgian waffles (shaped like squares, sugar on top!) we walked around for an hour or two and saw the Bell Tower, the church that is home to what is believed to be a few drops of Christ's coagulated blood (...), and lots of lace and chocolate shops. We hopped on a train back to Brussels that afternoon, took catnaps back at the hostel, headed back to the French cafe with the kitty for dinner, then stocked up on some chocolate before calling it a night.

the Beguinage and a canal

the main square

waffles with fruit, ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce
(we don't mess around)

window of a chocolate shop

Again we were up bright and early to catch our flight back to Madrid. Public transportation was again a little tricky but we managed to make it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. After a brief tiff with some airport security women we were soon back on our way home, a little sad to leave behind two cities that we had completely fallen for. But true love lasts forever (or something like that...) so I'm sure we will return some day!

our plane's shadow in a circular rainbow...just a trick of the sunlight or a fairy?!