The 2.5 hour drive to Brussels was fine, but once we got to the city, our driving directions were lacking the specificity we needed to accurately find our hotel. When you reach a dead end and it says to 'continue on' the new road--- what exactly does that mean--- left or right??? We tried left 4 times before we realized it meant right. It took us over an hour to navigate these cryptic instructions. So... nerves frazzled... we arrived at the hotel Bedford, which was nice and very close to the Grand Place and Christmas Market. Anna and I fell exhausted into an afternoon nap (driving under high stress for that long makes you tired!) and James and his mom set off to explore the city Trish remembered from her trip there as a 16 year old.
So, that afternoon and evening we all explored the Grand Place which had lighting with synchronized music on our night there. The interesting closing number of the show was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody... not quite the usual Christmas finale, but good with flashes of color and lights. The Grand Place is a large square with amazing old buildings. I think it was the most interesting part of the city.
Also, we also took in the full Christmas market, which was quite large, but also very crowded, as it was the Saturday evening before Christmas. As an aside, all major European cities hold Christmas Markets in December. They sell food, drink, and items that you can give as Christmas presents. The decorations and fun of the markets are a wonderful thing to experience. James hit all the major food vendors: beignets (soft and chewy, fried dough-nut type balls covered in powdered sugar); frites (french fries) with a spicy sauce; roasted chestnuts (which taste terrible!!! yuck. really. a horrible taste that linger in your mouth for a long period of time. awful.); vin chaud (hot mulled wine, we had lots of this!) and Belgian waffles (wow are these really good! a hot waffle covered in sugar that carmalizes on the top covered in thick whipped cream & strawberries or chocolate. totally worth the 2000+ calories that I'm sure are lurking inside). Also, at dinner we discovered raspberry Belgian beer... so good. We did do some non-culinary shopping at the market as well. We got some beautiful ornaments and Anna got a Santa hat from Grandma with pigtails included.
On Sunday morning, we took a walk to see more of the city. Nothing special to report. It was winter so the parks weren't pretty. All in all we were glad we visited in December, since the market made it a special memory for us!
No comments:
Post a Comment