And the #airbnbexperience does it again: the highlight of our stay in Brussels. We did an entertaining and delicious historical highlights and food tour, including sampling the classic Liege waffle, Belgian fries, Belgian beers, and chocoholic Dave was in heaven at #corneportroyal in the Galerie de la Reine. You’ll note Jacob is conspicuously absent from this food tour: after the last food tour in Venice, we opted for babysitting this time around. 😉
After nearly six weeks of fun but also tiring travel with a toddler, sometimes you just have to make the space for playtime in the Airbnb (in this case we had a beautiful and spacious one on the Grand Sablon Plaza) and afternoon beers in the park. Though the cobblestones don’t make it easy for the stroller, we also enjoyed walking many of the cute neighborhoods and street markets in and around the city center. But for the decent playgrounds, you have to venture to the outskirts of the city, where more families live.
No visit to Brussels is complete (for history buff Dave, at least) without touring the European Union Parliament building, with 705 representatives across 28 member countries and 24 official languages translated – quite an operation! Though we didn’t get to see Parliament in session, we imagine they’re getting more done than the US Congress any day of the week.
We also took a day trip to charming Bruges, about an hour’s train ride from Brussels. This is the place for aimlessly wandering, eating more chocolate, and taking lots of photos with the colorful buildings and calming canals.
Finally, Dave took a solo day trip to Waterloo, site of the famous battle in 1815 that ended Napoleon’s reign. The land is now just private field and farmland, but the museum does an excellent job of bringing the battle to life for visitors. The grassy hill in the last photo is Lion’s Mound, the Dutch monument honoring their own bravery and contribution to Waterloo.
