Belgium

Sunday, July 17, 2016
Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium
As Bryan mentioned in our last post, we had originally planned our stay in Brussels to facilitate a plane trip home. Since that didn't end up being the plan, we really didn't have any strong opinions about what we wanted to do or see today. Basically, we just wanted to eat some iconic foods. Bryan was excited about a Belgian waffle, and I wanted some French fries.

We started our day with complimentary breakfast where Bryan was able to order his waffle . It was light, not nearly as dense as our waffles we make at home. He ate it with the whipped cream (which he would never do at home) since that is how it served here. He said it was good. But he did mention it needed more cinnamon. I enjoyed some granola with soya milk. I did not enjoy my scrambled eggs, as they were not cooked as thoroughly as I like. (The same could be said of the smoked salmon last night. Oh well.) Desmond wasn't sold on the eggs either, but enjoyed his pancake, and fruit.

After breakfast we spent some time in the hotel room. I was going to organize our bags which have been a bit jumbled ever since we did laundry, but Desmond dropped his dump truck in the toilet and was making up various other unapproved pastimes, so we cut that short and headed off on our walk. It was nice to see the town on a Sunday morning before many people were crowding the streets, anyway.

The main square was quite impressive . The buildings were highly ornate and the scale was large.

We found out about a free walking tour from a friendly traveler that would leave in about an hour, but the length of it didn't mesh well with our plans for Desmond to have an in-crib nap today, so we passed on the guided tour and did our own thing. Besides which, Desmond was currently playing the broken record game saying over and over, "I want down please." So we saw the sights, including a fountain of a little boy peeing, and made our way to a playground.

Desmond played and had fun climbing and sliding. I watched the colorful birds hopping around and tried to get a picture but never really got a good one. Bryan and I talked over options for the day, and we decided a day of rest before Paris and Disney were in order. After the playground started filling up kids we meandered off down to look at the palace.

Not long after that we decided to head back to the hotel . I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the coffee table in our suite and felt a little silly about it. After eating sandwiches it was nap time. I fell asleep in no time and enjoyed the rest as much as Desmond did.

When we woke up we went down to the lounge and ate some little sandwiches and treats. Desmond loves the Nutella muffins. But really, Desmond loves just about any muffin. This time before we left we noticed protestors and police outside our hotel and were sure to ask before we left if it was anything to avoid. The woman we spoke to from the hotel said "They are manifesting. We do not know exactly what. There is no concern." So we went out and about without concern. Always worth checking though. They were playing music and holding signs very peacefully. The crowd did not seem upset.

We walked along much the same route as this morning. The main square was filled to the brim with people playing a sport of some kind (a variant of handball is Bryan's best guess) and all of the spectators, some in seats, others standing in rows. We continued along and started looking for a bankomat so we could get some cash for fries and so forth. Bryan had the genius idea to have Desmond start looking for trash cans (which are pretty interesting to him, for whatever reason) and he did better in the carrier, less asking to get out.

We had some really tasty fries at a place called Fritland . I was wishing we could get a flight of the different sauces to try. We stuck with ketchup since the sauces were .80€ each. But they were generous servings of sauce. We had some left over even. Next we wandered down to get Bryan a waffle with some chocolate ice cream on it. He said it was quite tasty, but difficult to eat with the little taster-sized fork they gave him. And the ice cream melted really quickly, since the waffle was warm.

We wandered a bit more and then came back to our (large) hotel room to let Desmond play. He played with crayons, and coins and so forth and had a good time not being in a stroller or carrier. Finally we decided it was time for dinner. Boy were we wrong.

We went out to find pasta, it was what sounded good to me. We followed Siri's directions to a restaurant with delicious looking pasta. They didn't have a high chair available. We took our wiggly toddler with us and kept looking. The next place we went down the wrong way and ended up in an alley with tons of restaurants. They were selling seafood. The spaghetti they offered didn't look appealing. Despite offers of a high chair in this area, we kept looking. The next place "Pasta Queen" was not where the map said it would be. Maybe it has closed down? We kept looking. We found a place with to-go boxes of pasta. It wasn't open this evening. Then we found another promising Italian restaurant. They didn't have high chairs. We went back to the first place to see if we could get something to go. No, they didn't offer food to take away. By the time we made it back to the hotel, it was 8PM. I had been hungry for hours. Bryan wasn't feeling too well and wasn't sure he even wanted to eat.

I fed Desmond half a PB&J and ate the other half weighing the 19€ it would cost me to get pasta room service. I got Desmond ready for bed and then went down and ate some salad in the lounge instead. Then Bryan went down and had some bread and gingerale. Not exactly what we would have hoped for for our evening, but we all managed to eat something before bed.

Tomorrow we are on our way to Paris!

~ Merilee

I really like waffles.

~ Bryan
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Comments

Andrea
2016-07-17

Feel better, Bryan!

2025-02-16

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