June 28-29:
We traveled to the capital of Belgium – Brussels! We arrived around 8:00pm to our Airbnb, which was centrally located inside the bustling city. Brussels had a different feel about it than other cities we’ve visited – everything was alive and very metropolitan. It almost felt like New York City.
Our first night in Bruges we found ourselves unable to get any dinner because it was so late, (11:00) and everything closes early in Bruges. Thankfully, we had saved one soup packet from our Iceland campervan travels and cooked it in the shared kitchen of our Airbnb.
Brussels is the complete opposite. Things are open late into the night (the pub in our apartment complex closed at 4AM and reopened at 6AM!). We grabbed some Indian cuisine for dinner that night. The best garlic naan we’ve ever had! So good!
The first night we arrived we listened as we were trying to go to sleep to excited Belgium football (soccer) fans as they cheered their team into victory. It was incredible to hear the deep rumble of cheers whenever they got a goal. (We were live streaming the game from our phones in bed haha) After Belgium won, the streets erupted in coordinated singing and fireworks.
Grand Place
The Grand Place is a large city square surrounded by beautiful historical buildings dating back to the 14th century. At night the square is lit up. People during the day and at night sit on the ground and enjoy hanging out with friends or family. We loved this spot the most in Brussels!
Mont des Arts
Mont des Arts is a beautiful landscape garden on a hill with a great view of the city.
Triumphal Arch
We walked 2.5km to a beautiful city park with a grand Triumphal Arch at the end. After doing so much walking, we decided to cave and rent some Lime scooters to ride back into the central district of the city.
Manneken Pis
Graham’s grandparents have a miniature version of this statue in their downstairs bathroom that we always thought was funny. We had to go visit the real thing! It is a 17th century fountain and the boy is sometimes dressed up during different festivals. We must have caught him at a bad time though because he was missing all of his clothes.
Le Pêcheur- Belgium restaurant
For dinner, we headed to Le Pêcheur for some Belgian food. The menu was only in French. We both ordered from the page that stated “entree”, with more reasonable prices for dinner than the following pages of the menu. Graham ordered some mussels and Lizzie ordered a plate of croquettes au fromage (cheese croquettes). The plates came out and we then realized we must have ordered off of the appetizer or small plates page. Lizzie had two small cheese croquettes (looked like 2 freezer cheese sticks) and Graham had a very small plate of miniature muscles. We both ate very small bites to make it last. Thankfully, the restaurant gave out free bread, which we gratefully ate two baskets of.
France football
After our small dinner, we headed across the way to a sports bar for a drink and to watch the exciting football game between France and Switzerland. It was a highlight of our time in Brussels. We sat around very enthusiastic fans singing fight songs in French. It was a great experience!
Laeken Cemetery
The next morning we went to Laeken Cemetery to see one of the twenty original sculptures by French artist Auguste Rodin – The Thinker. The cemetery was filled with beautiful unique graves and tombs. It was very humbling walking around. Many of the tombs had old pictures of the deceased that you could still see. Some were so old that you could barely read the lettering on it. Walking through reminded us of how quickly life goes by, how grateful we are for our friends and family currently around us, and how appreciative we are to be on a journey like this – knowing that this life is but a single breath.
