Day Two.

Day Two.  Fast and furious!! We had so much to do, so we popped out of bed at 7:15 and were out the door by 8.  The Grand Place is a very quiet place at 8 am on a Sunday.  For those of you who don't know, the Grand Place is the great center of Brussels, the buildings dating back to the late 17th century.  It has 7 streets running into it and has always served as a common marketplace as well as city hall.  It is absolutely beautiful and grand and during the day is a bustling center of action.  

This was taken the night before....and is not very good, unfortunately the rain really let me down on these photos! 

We chose a small restaurant right on the Grand Place for breakfast.  We were starving and didn't want to spend an hour searching for an open place on a Sunday morning.  Turns out, this decision was pretty solid too.  Our waiter was overly friendly (which is always a new concept coming from Paris where they slam your food down at your table).  The pastries were bang on and the orange juice-fresh!  I don't even need to go into the waffles and how good they were....you can just see from the picture. 

Next on our list was the Manneken Pis.  This is a bronze statue of a little boy peeing into the fountain's basin that was created in 1618.  All the tourist shops, chocolate shops, and restaurants have pictures, keychains, chocolate bars, candy, t-shirts, and magnets with the Manneken Pis.  As hyped up as this landmark is, Kerry and I were expecting a rather large statue.  But no, he is pretty small as you can see from the second photo.  The city has over 400 outfits for the little guy and are changed quite frequently.  There are many stories behind the manneken pis, one assuming the manneken pis as the savior of the city, drowning out the flames of a deadly fire. Another variation is that he, with precise aim, extinguished the fuse that would have caused a devastating explosion.  Another story says that he is a street urchin who was unwise enough to relieve himself on the doorway of an evil sorcerer who then condemned him to that position and to pee for eternity.  There are many legends, so, you are left to choose which one you like...

The EU flags hanging in the streets.

The Atomium!! The atomium is quite a ways out of the city.  We took the confusing metro there, and it was about a 10 minute walk.  It's a very strange looking structure...seems like it would start blinking green lights and fly away like a UFO.  I'm always amazed at how structurally sound things like this are...it seems so fragile.  We arrived at a quarter past 10, just in time to miss the lines and crowds.  We took the elevator to the center "atom" and checked out the views of Brussels.  Too bad the windows had smudges and our reflections.  We were disappointed by the main attraction, and only hoped that the exhibits would be better! 

We ascended into the upper atoms by escalator, which held exhibitions of all sorts.  Our favorite?  The space exhibition.  There were stars and planets everywhere...and this very interesting box with reflecting mirrors.  

Were you suppose to stick your head in the hole? Well, no.  Did we?  Well, yes.  It was much cooler that way to take a picture.  Who just wants to look in and see some stars?  The funny thing is that we didn't realize we weren't suppose to stick our heads in until some other people came along.  We could not stop laughing at each other...but didn't care because it made for some pretty awesome photos.  

Next up was the Basilica Koekelberg.  It was a bit out of the way as well, but was worth the trip!  It's one of the top 5 largest basilica's in Europe and wasn't finished until 1971.  King Leopold II began the building in 1905 but because of the World War's construction was interrupted.   

Being European, Kerry wanted to stop by the EU headquarters which is located in Brussels.  It was on my list of things to see as well and I'm so glad we found it!  It is a beautiful building that is constructed of mostly glass.  With of course, all the EU flags out front just as Kerry had expected!  At this point, I was beginning to get tired.  We had walked everywhere, and Kerry walks at a swift pace so I was just trying to keep up!!  Lack of sleep, walking, a lot of eating, rain, and lots of photos makes for a tiring weekend.  But alas, we trudged on!  

Loved the reflection of the France flag! 

Heading back towards the city center was Cathédral Saint-Michel.  I am not use to seeing so many beautiful churches, so its almost overwhelming how incredibly huge and detailed they all are!  My favorite thing about this church?  The organ.  It was massive!! And there was a little guy somewhere up there playing all those pipes! Whew! What a job!! 

Around 2, feeling like we got a lot accomplished, we agreed it was time for lunch.  I had Flemish asparagus just to try for my appetizer.  Flemish asparagus is white asparagus basically floating in butter.  It also has boiled eggs, nutmeg, lemon juice, and parsley.  In some cases, the asparagus is served with the melted butter on the side.  But in this restaurant, it all came floating together.  I am not sure how you can turn something as healthy as asparagus into a heart attack on a plate...but the Flemish definitely conquered that with no problems.  I'll have to say - it was quite delicious!

Up next on the menu....I couldn't leave Brussels without having moules-frites.  I ordered my moules in white wine sauce and they came steaming in a closed pot so that when the waiter took the lid off we both got this steam facial of white wine and fresh vegetables.  It smelled divine.  The big pile of frites only topped the experience off.  

Our very last must-do thing was the Chocolate Museum.  It was right on the Grand Place so it was a very short walk.  There was a short demonstration which was boring and I didn't learn anything, but we got to try all kinds of cacao, cocoa butter, and 2 types of white chocolate.  

After the Chocolate Museum we stopped to take a breath and see where we were on our list.  We had accomplished most everything we wanted to, except for a few random things which were too out of the way to do at this point.  Realizing there were only a couple of hours until we had to catch the bus, we popped in a few stores and bought our last morsels of chocolate for the road.  Saw these blazing pink gems.  Kinda reminded me of Nashville a little bit, unfortunately, they were hideous.  At this point, I felt we were walking zombies and we just wanted to get on the bus and get back to Paris!

Our tickets said to get on the bus at Gare du Midi, but once we got to Gare du Midi, there was no bus station.  We found the information booth quickly and fortunately they told us it was outside the station and just up the road.  Thank goodness we asked because we would have never found it!  The bus was full on the way home and as usual....the ride home was much longer than the ride there!  I thought we would NEVER get back to Paris.  But boy was I glad to see Charles de Gaulle!  

Kerry's chocolate we shared on the bus.  Filled with Blue Lagoon, Mojito, Pina Colada, and Daiquiri.  

Overall, it was a smashing weekend.  It went by so fast that I'm glad I took so many pictures so I can look back and see exactly what happened.  Kerry is a great travel partner, and always up for anything, so I'm hoping we get to venture out again very soon!  Brussels is a beautiful city and full of great food and very lovely people.  I recommend it to everyone!  Sorry my posts were so long for the weekend....I had so much information to share I just couldn't fit it all in.  This week is back to the grind-which is good!  I always love being on a schedule.  It's nice to be back in school as well....my proper French was getting a bit rusty!