Bruges & Brussels: Wafflemania!

I realize it is a bit of a cliché — okay, a lot of a cliché — to associate Belgium with waffles, but my waffle experience was truly one of the highlights of our visit. I tried a waffle in Amsterdam last spring and was not very impressed, so I was pleasantly surprised when the one I ordered from a stand in Bruges, complete with fresh strawberries and cream, was delectable. When in Belgium…

Overall, our visit was pretty brief — I was in Belgium for less than 48 hours, in fact — but still gave us a nice feel for the country. After I landed at Brussels airport Friday night, I met Gui, his mom and his sister at the train station and we grabbed dinner at a place called Fritland, which specializes in — you guessed it — frites! (That’s French fries, fellow Americans). Gui had arrived earlier that morning and his family had come in the evening before, but I followed a Friday night because I didn’t have the day off work. After stuffing ourselves with frites, we walked around downtown and then headed to Brussel’s Motel One, our home for the weekend.

On Saturday morning, the four of us took the train to Bruges where we spent the day exploring the city both on foot and via a boat tour of the canals. We visited the site of a medieval hospital, saw Michelangelo’s Madonna of Bruges and checked out a couple of nearby windmills where my sis-in-law proved herself to be a selfie stick master (thanks for the photo, Catherine!) It was a quite long but fun day 🙂

On Sunday, after Catherine caught her flight home to Canada, Gui and his mom were kind enough to walk me around Brussels so I could see what I missed on Friday. Highlights included the famous Manneken Pis fountain — a statue of a boy “peeing” into the water, often outfitted in different costumes — which was much smaller than I imagined but very fun and quirky. We also walked down the the European Union headquarters and had a lovely veggie lunch with Belgium beer at The Sister Brussels Cafe, right off the main square. Oh, and Gui and I squeezed in one last waffle and some chocolate shopping before heading to the airport. Enjoy the photos!