On to Brussels

The second day of our European vacation started early as we boarded our bus in London and headed to the continent.  I must have fallen asleep shortly after leaving London, and when I awoke we were driving through the countryside.  It's funny how no matter where you are things can look the same.  The landscape was green rolling hills, sheep grazing in lush pastures, with farms and small towns in the valleys.  I must have dozed again, and when I work up we were in Dover for the crossing.  Sadly, a thick fog rolled in so I couldn't really get a good picture, but they were in fact white!

 Our ferry was quite large--it had a few decks we could be on and had a cafeteria, duty free shops, and several lounges.  After about an hour we had crossed the English Channel and landed in Calais, France, and we met our bus and tour guide and began our official Scenic Europe and Bernina Express tour.

 First stop was Brussels, Belgium.  There were only 20 or so of us on our bus on the ride from London to Brussels, but we doubled in size when we got to the hotel to a grand total of 41.  Maybe a third of the tourists were from the US, and there were others from the UK, Columbia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada,  India, and I'm sure others I'm missing.  Our tour guide was a Kiwi and the bus driver was from Spain.  It was a good group to experience Europe with!

 After meeting up with the rest of the group at the hotel in Brussels, we headed out on the town.  I apologize that I will not remember all of the places that are depicted in the pictures (this holds true for the whole trip, not just this post), but I think they nice pictures regardless.  Here's a nice site if you want more info on Brussels and more info on the sites I describe below.

 We took a bus tour around Brussels and saw the UN headquarters and lots of buildings for the European Union, as Brussels is the capital of the EU.  Also saw the arches erected by the king and the Royal Palace.

When we got to the town center, we hopped off the bus and began our walking tour.  I was completely fascinated by the Grand Palace and Town Hall.  The town hall is the picture above--how beautiful is this building?  It's not symmetrical about the main tower, and apparently the architect jumped off of the tower because of this asymmetry.  The carvings are very ornate and it opens to a large square where the were having a beer festival the day we were there.  I probably took at least 20 pictures of this building alone!

 We then walked away from the town hall and towards a small statue near the center called Manneken Pis.  Our local guide told us there were several stories surrounding how the little statue appeared, but the most widely accepted story has to do with clean drinking water.  Everyone in the city, rich and poor alike, had the same water source.  The poor had a small statue of a small boy peeing in the clean water which made them chuckle and the rich cringe.  The little statue gets dressed by the city on several holidays and is a big tourist attraction.

 There was some sort of festival going on near the statue as well (or perhaps it was just any other Saturday night in Brussels) and there was a polka band out in front of the restaurants and shops.  We ducked into a pub and got some samples of Belgian beer.  I had some sort of cherry beer which was delicious and Rick said the dark was nice as well.  On thing about Belgian beer is that it has a higher alcohol content than the beer we have back home.  So one was enough.

 Then we were off to explore.  There were a lot of little souvenir shops along that we browsed in, as well as several chocolate shops.  I will admit, I think I liked the Belgian chocolate better than the Swiss chocolate we had later in the trip.  So many stores with so many free samples--I was in heaven.  But even better than the chocolate was the Belgian waffles, a dessert that I turned into a meal.  I had mine smothered with strawberries and chocolate while Rick opted for the bananas and chocolate.  So tasty!

 We wandered back to the town center and meandered around that area for a while and I took more pictures of the city hall.  It was a bit strange, because the entire square was so well lit it was like the middle of the day.  But it was so beautiful!  And here I didn't want to go on the optional evening tour of Brussels--I'm glad Rick talked me into it.  It was one of my favorite nights out!