Stop 3 (Day 1): Brussels, Belgium

Monday morning, we left home base. It had been a good, few days, but it really was time for us to move on....to Brussels! On New Years Eve (morning) we headed to Brussels, Belgium. I am going to apologize in advance because this post has a lot of pictures. But, really I'm not sorry because Brussels was pretty neat. Although, I have learned that I am not as big of a fan of the big cities as I am of the little quaint cities. The big cities (ie: Brussels, Rome, etc) always have too many people. They're loud, busy, dirty. I prefer quaint, quite and charming. Brussels was no exception to the loud/busy/dirty rule. Plus, it was New Years Eve, there were some crazies out! 

We left fairly early that morning so, Kason was still in need of sleep ... apparently this is comfortable? 

The one nice thing I like about cities in Europe is pretty much all of the stuff you want to see, is all in City Centre. So, it maybe a big city, but you can easily knock out all the sights in one general area. 

Here is the main market place (Grand Place): 

Town Hall: 

I loved this row of buildings. SO picturesque! 

Right in Grand Place is, Hard Rock Cafe. We have kind of started the tradition of hitting up as many Hard Rock Cafe's as we can. We get a sampling of food and buy a glass with the city name on it. It all started when the eternal mate and I went to Seattle on our Honeymoon. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe there and walked out with souvenir glasses. When we went to Prague, we did the same thing and we thought, "Ya know? This is an easy way to collect items from each city we visit!" And there you have it, the tradition of Hard Rock Cafe began. Not every city has a Hard Rock, but, most of the big cities we have been to do! And they're never very hard to track down ...

(Our waitress at this particular Hard Rock was awful though. She probably could have cared less that we were there eating. And she got our check wrong THREE times. Finally, we just paid the extra 5 euro she charged us and called it good.) 

After lunch we headed off to find the little peeing boy. Weird huh? I'm not really sure why he's so famous but Kason got a big kick out of him. Each season or holiday, they dress Mannequin Pis up in different outfits. I read online (at visitbelgium.com) that he has over 760 outfits. Seriously!? 

On the way to Mannequin Pis we passed this wall of TinTin art! Apparently Belgians l-o-v-e cartoon characters and you can find proof of that all over the city. 

This picture cracks me up. Kason is like: "I am so annoyed right now. I don't want anything to do with this family."

Brad is like: "I am so good looking so I am just going to stand on this street corner and let people admire me."

I'm thinking: "This moment is epic, I need a picture."

Moving on ... we then meandered through the city and found some random statues. So, of course we took pictures. Who wouldn't? Our end goal, was the cathedral.

I was terrified taking this picture of the Smurf. Not because I am scared of Smurfs but ... because there was a group of really sketchy homeless guys who were off to the sides. They kept looking at us and I kept thinking, "The further away from me that Kason gets, the closer to them he's getting." So, I told Kason to hurry, I snapped the pictures, honestly didn't care if it was blurry and we took off. So glad my hunk of a husband was with us to keep the cool and protect us. Scary stuff! 

That facade on the outside dates back to the 1250's!

Brussels is the home to all of the European Union offices and government buildings so, we ended up seeing a lot of those. This is the Belgian Parliament building. It is right across the street from this really big park that I am sure is gorgeous during the spring and summer. During the winter, it's kind of ugly. 

This gazebo was neat though ... 

And, on the other side of the park is the Royal Palace! If the Belgian flag is flying on top of the Palace, it means the King is in the country. Looks like he wasn't far from home while we were there! 

So random but, this street was so WIDE! 

The buildings in Brussels were all pretty. Some had really fancy molding. Others had a really fancy balcony or gold leafing. It was so fun to see all the different designs. 

A view of City Center:

As we were walking back down to the city centre, we came across the firework show, all set up, for that night! 

On the way back to the car, we passed this adorable brick church, right in the middle of town! 

Once we got checked into our hotel, we walked back into town and saw a few more things. 

This building is the Bourse. It is the main Stock Exchange building in Brussels. The locals like to sit on the steps and enjoy some local Belgian fries (which are amazing by the way ... and if you go to the fry stand right by the Bourse, you can have some eye candy, too. Just a heads up for you single readers planning to visit Brussels). So ... we decided to get some fries and sit on the steps, just like the locals. (That is the Brussels Christmas market going on still, below the Bourse...) 

While we were wandering around, we passed through this little street. It's called: Rue de Bouchers. It's a charming little street that has mostly seafood restaurants. I wish I had gotten a picture of the food they display. Each restaurant has a display out front of seafood piled high on mounds of ice. 

We also walked through the very first shopping mall in Europe. The Galeries St Hubert. I wish we weren't all starving so we could have enjoyed the shops.

Here is another 'TinTin' shrine ... okay, a store really but, it was EVERYTHING TinTin. 

Brad was really wanting some French Onion Soup so, we were trying to find a restaurant that had some. There was one in Grand Place that served it so, we went in, sat down, got the menus and realized that everything was seafood (Kason and I don't do seafood...) So, we decided Brad would just get soup and we would be good.

Well, apparently that's not an option in Brussels:

Brad: "We will just have a bowl of French Onion Soup."

Waiter: "That is it? What about them?" (Pointing to Kason and I)

Brad: "Oh, no. They don't want anything. So, just the soup please."

Waiter: A look of disdain came over his face. "No! This is a restaurant. If you are not going to eat a full meal and not everyone is going to eat - you CANNOT eat here! I am sorry. Good day!" 

He grabbed the menus and hurried off. So, we left. When we got outside we couldn't help but laugh. It was pretty comical and we will never forget the time we got kicked out of a restaurant in Brussels for wanting food! 

So, instead we settled for Belgian waffles. What the heck do they put in those things!? They are AMAZING. I don't care what the topping is, your Belgian Waffle is going to melt in your mouth and taste like a little piece of heaven. So good...

At night, they light the Town Hall up with lights. I'm not sure if they do it all the time or if it was only like that because it was New Years but, it was still pretty neat! 

So, as we were walking down one of the side streets Brad mentioned that there was a man sleeping under plastic right behind us. I didn't believe him, but I turned around and right on cue, a scruffy old man, probably reeking of alcohol, rustled under a heavy sheet of plastic. Jeez! It's like a horror flick down those side streets. Brad loves a good scare but, I assured him, he doesn't have to tell me everything he notices while we're traveling ... 

I decided I needed some Belgian chocolate to calm my nerves. Belgian chocolate is heaven. I think that when we move back to America, we are going to have to order boxes of European chocolate to get our fix because it's so much better than American chocolate!!

Finally, we decided to head back to the hotel. As we were walking, we passed a couple guys in suits ... and name tags! Sure enough - they were a couple of Missionaries for the church! We stood and talked to them for a few minutes and come to find out, Brussels is part of the South Paris mission - luckies! Elder Olivander was from Cache Valley, Utah and Elder Thomas was from Scottsdale, Arizona. (Should have snapped a picture ... darn it!) We had fun talking to them and seeing how their missions were going. I LOVE being a member of the church, no matter where you're at, there's gonna be somebody serving the Lord and somebody you can relate to. It was awesome. 

Then, when we were almost back to the hotel, some yahooligans were throwing around smoke bombs and laughing as they would explode around people. I noticed the young punks laughing and pointing in our direction after one had been thrown and I realized it was about 5 feet from us! We backed up as much as we could before it went off. That sucker was LOUD. Our ears were ringing for hours. Needless to say: I was ready to get out of the cold, off the busy streets and away from crazy Belgian kids wreaking havoc. Back in the comforts of our hotel room, Kason gave us a dance show: 

Then, we ushered the rockstar to sleep ... Brad got Pizza Hut pizza and we sat at the window and people watched the hotel rooms across the way from us. We really know how to party and bring in the New Year! I think we both fell asleep around 10:00 that night which is a real bummer because I was excited for a New Years kiss from my Mister!! But, he wouldn't settle for anything less and he woke me up at midnight, told me happy New Years, gave me a kiss, rolled over and fell back asleep. Talk about romantic! Actually, after sorting through the confusion of what was going on, it made me smile that he did that. Best New Years kiss ever. I watched the fireworks going on outside for a couple minutes before realizing sleep was more exciting. So, we all welcomed in 2013 with dreams and confusing kisses. I wouldn't have wanted it, any other way!