Chocolate and frites

Today’s weather forecast; -4 to 4 degrees. But the most spectacular blue skies. We walked past a digital thermometer, where Nick read 9 degrees. I had to correct him that infact it said 0.9 degrees. That ‘point’ made a VERY big difference! 🥶 had our thermals on under the clothes for the first time, and the girls bought super thick scarves.
Today we wandered the city of Brussels, sampling all the things it’s famous for; beautiful churches, waffles, chocolate, frites and the very famous statue of a little boy urinating ‘manneken-pis’. This 55 cm bronze statue draws crowds from all over Europe, where people come to watch the little guy wee, and on special occasions gets dressed up in costumes significant to local festivities.
After turning a corner on our walking journey, we came across a huge crowd, accompanied by a brass band… and the little guy dressed up in… well… we aren’t sure what. He certainly looked festive…… very Mardi-gras worthy?!
Plenty of phallic references lined the streets and shop windows for the next 3 or 4 blocks. Much of the girls initial surprise and suppressed giggles turned into raucous laughter at all the little weeing penis statues everywhere. With that cultural learning opportunity 😜, we decided to offer a more… wholesome… visit to a few of the local churches/ cathedrals. They are IMPRESSIVE (the architecture word won’t be mentioned… but IMPRESSIVE). The girls lit a candle to think about those less fortunate (and we have seen a lot of that on our travels) and reflect on how fortunate we are, standing in a beautiful place half way across the world from home.
We continued our culinary journey with (hand on heart) the best chips (frites) we have even eaten, and wandered around looking at the beautiful shops with the most special window displays. They all look like glittering little cookie cutter displays from a perfectly wrapped sweetshop from 1950’s Europe. We all chose a couple of beautifully hand made chocolates each, and (to the girls delight) were just as delicious and magical as they looked! The girls learnt the lesson of quality over quantity!
We finished our day with a trip to a quirky ‘illusion’ house, where we had fun with trippy illusions and take some pretty great photos.
Nick finished his day as a very happy man with a big plate of mussels (another Belgium must ticked off) literally smothered in garlic and butter (will work on cholesterol once holiday is over…). He said to tell you pa that they were horrible and you wouldn’t have wanted to try them 😉😉😉
The girls have just fallen asleep after they were literally jumping off walls and laughing hysterically at nothing…. I think the chocolate here is STRONG… might ease up on it tomorrow……
Off to Bruges for a couple of nights tomorrow- really excited and hoping this will be as special as we have seen in pics.
Until tomorrow… (5kg heavier…)Leer más