Belgium - land of chocolate, beer and the Manneken Pis!

After a disappointing realization that car rentals in Germany were out of out budget, we abandoned our plans to go to Baden-Baden in the Black Forest in Germany and decided to catch a train to Brussels, Belgium. We spent two nights in this charming city and walked the cobblestone streets on the information center's recommended Comic Book and Art-Nouveau walking tours. We walked and walked and walked some more until our feet started to ache and we need to recharge with some famous Maison Antoine "pomme frites" and a little dark chocolate. We learned about the history of comic books in 1940s - did you know the Smurfs were made by a Belgian? We were able to practice our French too before heading to Paris as it is one of the national languages along with Flemish.

Katie in the center of old Brussels.

Seth and Katie outside our hotel on the Grand Place before we got our hair (and Seth's beard) cut!

We stayed in a hotel on the Grand Place, the main square, and toured the City Hall, visited the Brussels City Museum and Magritte Museum, and then caught an afternoon train heading to Paris on Friday. It was a great new city to explore. Besides getting drenched in the rain on our first afternoon, we enjoyed walking around on the old narrow cobblestone streets and admiring the different architecture - from gothic to art nouveau.

I will never forget walking around the corner of a small street and seeing the small fountain of the famous little boy peeing, the Manneken Pis statue, which we had seen souvenirs of in EVERY store but had not seen the real thing. I was quite surprised by how small and cute it was!
On the day that we left, he was dressed up like a school boy!