Fall Euro Trip Part 4 ~ Bruxelles ~

When we last saw our hero's they were leaving Amsterdam, driving off into the rainy afternoon...
After a bit of Friday night downtown Brussels traffic, we managed to score a pretty sweet parking spot right across the street from our hotel. We got checked in and driven only by hunger and Brad's need to drink some Belgian beer, we headed out into the chilly night in hopes of finding the metro, the Grand Place, and a tasty meal. We were successful on all fronts! The Place was absolutely breath taking against the crisp black night sky.
We ducked into a charming little restaurant pub tucked away in a cellar under the Brewers Museum. The cozy space was a winter evenings dream heated by the kitchens fires, and filled with mouth watering smells! Brad got his beers, and we both enjoyed a good meal. I tried the "black and white Sausage" of which, the black turned out to be blood sausage...I wasn't quite sure either, but if you took it at face value and taste value it really wasn't bad.
Once again driven by our hunger for life as well as waffles, we set out the next morning to find the pick up spot for our bus tour, and a little breakfast on the way. I had a slight advantage in this town since I had visited once before with my good friend Jenna. I took Brad to the very same waffle shop that I had my first Belgian waffle in, and they were still just as amazing! Brad had a traditional Belgian with strawberries and hot chocolate, and I had a liege with bananas and butter. Beer - check, Waffles - check, one last must eat on the list...Frites! We found our bus stop and hopped on board.
The first sight we decided to disembark for was MINI EUROPE! Brad thought it was pretty silly, but I couldn't resist. We took a quick turn through the park, snapping pictures the whole way. Brad joked that we wouldn't have anything to do for the rest of our time in Europe since we had now "seen" all the sights.
I told him this just made it easier for us to tell where we really had to go, like a little preview. As we came to the end of the park, it started to drizzle a bit, so we sped up the pace and hot footed it back to our bus stop.
We took in the rest of the sights and the tour info from on board the bus. The chill in the air, added to the rain was not making for the most inviting touring day. After we'd made the full loop on the tour bus, we got off and headed for some lunch. We enjoyed true Belgian frites, and many other fried treats along with a Hoegaarden the size of Brad's head! Now thats a big beer! After we were warmed and well fueled we set out to see our last, and one of Brussels most famed sites, The Manneken Pis.
We wandered our way through the shop filled streets, stopping in here and there to snap a picture or two. With all the traveling we have done recently, photos are the only affordable way to bring a souvenir home from every place.
It was as usual very crowded around the tiny Manneken, but we snapped out photos to prove we were there, and were on our way. The chill and the rain had worn out its welcome, so we climbed in the car and set our sights further west.
On our way out of town we ran into some unexpected traffic, and eventually set eyes on several sets of polizei in full RIOT gear! After checking the news later that night we found that there had been some Muslim youths causing riots, and that this is a common occurrence each year in this region during the entire span of Ramadan. We counted ourselves lucky to not have fallen victim to the increased number of "carbecues" that take place after the sunset when the angry youths have been fed, and apparently only increase their violent outbursts. You live and learn, and apparently you don't vacation in Bavaria during Ramadan...who knew?

Putting Brussels, the riots and the rain to our backs we motored on to the city of love, lights, and romance...Paris!