Chocolate, Waffles & Beer

We set out on a Eurostar journey to Bruges, Belgium to find chocolate, waffles & beer last weekend to celebrate Cory's birthday. Luck would have it, we were successful in all three categories and had a wonderful weekend!

We did a little bit of research before our trip, but mainly focused on things to do in Bruges rather than learning anything about Belgium. I mean I could point to Belgium on a map and Cory could tell you that Hoegaarden beer comes from Belgium, what else did we possibly need to know. On our train ride over we were talking and neither of us even knew the official language of Belgium. We both thought Dutch, but learned a little history lesson that in fact Belgium has three official languages - French, Dutch & German. Depending on the region that you are in one language will be more predominant. Bruges is in fact the capital of the Flemish region and Dutch is the first language for most people. Neither Cory or I speak one word of Dutch so thank goodness everyone there also speaks English.

One of the things that Cory and I both thought was cool about Bruges is the architecture is all super old. Not 1800 old, we're talking some of the buildings dating back to the 1200s. Our hotel was right off of the City Market which is in the center of the city. There were tons of restaurants, shops and beautiful architecture everywhere we looked.

Highlights of the Trip:

• Delicious Waffles served with ice cream & chocolate syrup.  Not kidding you these things are AMAZING! 

• Brady pointing at the Belfry clock tower and saying "Look, Big Ben".  He amazes us every day at what he picks up on.  Even if it wasn't actually Big Ben, I was impressed.

• Wonderful meals - Everything we ate was fabulous!  Cory even tried Mussels which is the local specialty. When we started the bowl was overflowing.

• James greeting us at the Hotel entrance.

• Seeing the Holy Blood at the Basilica of the Holy Blood.

• Visit to the De Halve Maan Brewary- Brady had impeccable timing and slept for two hours in his stroller while Cory and I sampled the local brews.

• Walking through more than a dozen chocolate shops and seeing all of the different things chocolate can be molded into - Probably not appropriate for the blog, but can't resist posting.

• Watching Brady get so excited by the horse drawn carriages and listening to him say over and over "Another one coming" as the horses went by.  We took a horse ride Sunday morning and he was so excited!

• Seeing one of the only Michelangelo Statues outside of Italy - the Madonna.

• Random restaurant that wanted to charge 3 Euros to see the owners train collection.  We watched the trains for 20 minutes without paying - Shush!

Here are some more pictures of our weekend.  Enjoy!