Be Wanderlustful: Belgium!!

August 29-September 1, 2008 Courtney, Lisa Marie, and I flew up to Belgium for Labor Day weekend...my long awaited trip to Belgium! Our first stop was Brussels for 2 days, 1 night. Our hostel, The Moon Hotel, was in a great location - we were in the same square as the market...just steps away from the Grand Place! I had my DK eyewitness Top 10 book out all weekend to guide us towards all the "must sees." We met up with an Alpha Phi (my college sorority) alumnae, Anne, and her friend, Christine, for some sightseeing and Belgian beer. Unfortunately, Anne wasn't up for dinner as she had just gotten back from Paris but she did point out a few of her favorite thai restaurants on this row of solely Thai restaurants. After receiving our dishes, Lisa Marie and I both, at about the same time, ate what we thought was 1/2 of a cherry tomato, which ended up setting our mouths on FIRE for the rest of the evening! Guess it wasn't a tomato and we learned our lesson! Before leaving Brussels we checked out an art exhibit, showcasing the work of Jurgen Schadeberg (per Anne's suggestion). Then it was off to Brugge for 2 days and 2 nights via an hour train ride. As we were walking from the Brugge train station to the restaurant where we met the canalhouse owner I was melting over the adorably cute houses! When we met Fleur, the owner, she showed us the canalhouse and I was so excited because we were staying in one of those cute and adorable houses, water/canal front!! The room was pretty large - mini kitchen, full bathroom, double bed, and a twin bed. Downstairs we had access to a full kitchen where Fleur left fresh bread for us each morning including jams, nutella, meats, and cheeses. We didn't do anything too daring in Brugge - just a lot of sightseeing and waffle eating. Brugge was more expensive than we had expected. We had a hard time finding decent priced meals. A margherita pizza was average of 9 euros, roughly $13.50 - not that we ate pizza while we were there but just to compare - the most we usually pay for a margherita pizza is 4 euros. All in all, we were happy with our decision to split our 4 days between Brussels and Brugge (instead of also trying to fit in Antwerp and Ghent) and thoroughly enjoyed the pommes frites, waffles, chocolates, and beer! Now that we're home we all wish we had brought more chocolate home!! C'est la vie... more pictures

Le Cornet, Grand Place, Brussels
The outline of the roofs resembles the stern of a galleon. This building complex used to be the guildhouse of the boatmen.