Brussels Belgium 2009

Thank goodness for my cousins clean socks

With Shannon and Alli in Brussels

When Nicole, Nikkiy and I arrived in Brussels, we were picked up by my cousin Shannon who was living at the time in Brussels with his wife Alli.  This was perfect as they supplied us with not only a place to sleep for two nights, but they also acted as our tour guides.  We were only in Brussels for a day and a half, so we really crammed in our touring.

City Center of Belgium

Jason's bus arrived not long after our train got in, so we picked him up and headed back to Shannon's place to clean up and head out for some touring.  When we got to the apartment and Jason took off his shoes, the dead animal smell came back.  for some reason, he was still working off of the same two pairs of socks, and the sink washings were not helping.  Every time we had been out shopping and playing, the smell was covered by Jason's shoes, so we kept forgetting about needing them.  But after the long shady bus ride from Prague, the socks had to go.  Shannon donated a clean pare to him and we set out to see the sights.

The Original Belgium Waffle

The old town city center of Brussels is amazing.  Even in a world wind tour through the city.  Shannon and  Ali took us area by area and showed us all of the highlights.  Chocolate shops that were decorated as if they were selling Tiffany's Jewelry stores (which I almost got kicked out of taking a picture.) & restaurants selling Belgium waffles that didn't need ANYTHING added because the waffle was amazing alone.  Even beer shops, because we all know that Belgium is almost as well known for its beers as it is for its waffles.  (I was like a kid in a candy store trying to look through the shelves upon shelves of different Belgium Beers.

Random Beer shop.

Manneken Pis

Even though we only had one day to visit the city center of Belgium, we really were lucky to have family in town to help us to see everything that we needed to see to feel like we actually visited Belgium.  We even got  to see the famous statue of Manneken Pis, which is actually a statue of a naked little boy urinating into the fountain.  This specific day they must have known that we were coming because the statue was completely clothed.

We only had one day left this trip, and we would be visiting Amsterdam.  My next blog will tell you about our one day trip. I just have to decide how to tell the story without getting anyone in trouble!  ;-)