Break In Brussels

We always tend to take a vacation in June/July. Its our anniversary month, summer vacation and just mid year to take a break from routine.

We set off to go to India like last year, and on our way we stopped at Brussels. 

During my research on Brussels, I read:

"Brussels, the capital of Europe, is the most boring city on the continent, despite its renown for its waffles, chocolates, and comic books, according to a survey of international travellers published on Wednesday (12 March).Mar 17, 2008"

Brussels boring??? not one bit! At the end of the day in Brussels before hitting the bed at night my kid said "This was the longest FUN day ever". Well that sums up Brussels for us. 

Brussels Airport - Immigration was really slow at the airport and unorganized. Welcome to Brussels at the airport was not so good. Be prepared for long, slow-moving unorganized queue. Keep some water and snacks for the kids handy. 

There are trains at the airport that take you to Brussels Central and Midi however we decided to take the taxi and get a glimpse of the city. We converted some dollars to euros and were ready to leave the airport.We had a booking at Hotel Manos Stephanie about 12kms from the airport. We paid around EUR 45 for the taxi ride.

After checking in and getting ready, no one wanted to sleep. We all had rested the whole night in the plane and were excited to explore Brussels. We took out our stroller and decided to explore. Jay slept off while we decided to walk to Grand Place. First stop - Famous Belgium waffle for Rishi. He bought his own waffle from the truck and he then walked, skipped and jumped. It was a beautiful long walk and there was live music playing at few spots. 

Grand Place

This is a Unesco World Heritage Site.This place has so much energy! It is majestic and really grand. I would say one of the best squares I have visited. During our time we spent here, we ate chocolate dipped strawberries from Godiva, got some sample chocolates, saw a performance by locals, clicked pictures and interacted with local performers, wrote 'I love you in Hindi' on an umbrella for a bride-to-be and got blessed by 2 monks from Thailand. This place made all of us happy! Local performers told us that we must visit Manneken Pis, a 5 minutes walk from Grand Place.

Next destination -  The famous Manneken Pis

My kid couldn't wait to go see a boy statue piss. He was giggling all the way and whispering piss in my ears!! It was a 5 minutes walk but One Direction was playing that weekend and the crowd had gathered to see them walk into their hotel room. We had seen their show in Hollywood, FL (R's first concert) so we were more interested in Brussels. We stopped at another famous waffle place for a strawberry whipped cream chocolate waffle. My kid was in love with Brussels already.

At Mannekin piss.. the tiny 2 feet statue was doing his job. Made my kid very very cheerful to see so many people gathered to see a statue boy do pee-pee. Made hubby and me happy since he was pissing free beer that was being served. On special occasions the fountain is attached to a beer Keg and Manneken Pis pisses beer, which is served to onlookers. We had our chilled beer and it was a good end to a wonderful afternoon.

We took a taxi, went back to our hotel room and slept for a few hours.

Got up and took the metro to our next stop - Atomium. The metro was filled with people going for the concert of One Direction. 

Atomium is walking distance from the metro station. This is a weird looking monument modeled on an iron atom with 9 metal spheres. R said it looked like planets except that it is not in color. There is Mini Europe right there too. We could hear wild applause and music of One Direction, so free music while touring the place was an icing on the cake :)

We took the metro back to crash for the night. Sunset happens only around 10PM so it really felt like a long fun day.  So, we ate dinner and crashed. Looking forward to our next day adventures!!

Few places we skipped this trip but will go to next time - Delirium Cafe, Bombay Cafe Indian Restaurant. Day trips to Antwerp and Brugges. 

Coming up next  - Paris !! A surprise for Rishi