Like horses heading for the barn! And Beautiful Brussels, Belgium

We try so hard to be present and never wish away precious time but I know myself. It happens in Yuma every year. When home time approaches – thoughts take me home. I miss family. I go through the motions and schedules of where I am, but my goals change and the momentum builds to get home. Last stop is Belgium and we are going to work hard at enjoying our time there, but we can both feel the pull of the reins of home and are excited about that too.

Belgium was warmer and that helped. We were able to bounce between jackets and sweaters (and umbrellas- we got a bit of rain each afternoon). We walked from the train station to our Airbnb and at one point couldn’t figure out the direction to go. Google Maps was confusing us. We were up on a bridge and a gentleman was walking beside us so we asked him to help us with directions. He spoke French as most people from Brussels do, but had some limited English and I have some limited French so we were able to communicate and he set us on our path. We had to go downstairs under the bridge to find our way and that’s why we couldn’t make sense of Google Maps. We went down and walked a block or two when we heard a gentleman behind us calling to us. It was the man from the bridge. He was thinking about our destination after he left us and thought of a better way to get there so he turned around, tracked us down over two blocks and gave us instructions. This trip has reconfirmed my faith in humanity – people are wonderful and helpful and proud of their home cities. We were so touched.

Our Airbnb is tiny but comfortable and best of all it is in the Sablon. A beautiful neighbourhood and hill in the historic upper town of Brussels. We loved wandering there. It was full of great cafes, restaurants, chocolate shops and squares.

Brussels is known for many things; it is the capital of the European Union, and headquarters for NATO. It is food famous for waffles, chocolates, fries and beer and is home to Manneken Pis – the very famous “boy peeing” statue. We intend to enjoy the dishes and go to visit Manneken in the next couple days.

We started our second day with a historical tour and met our guide at 10 am in Grand Place, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1988. Victor Hugo, who lived in Grand Place #16, referred to it as “the most beautiful square in the world”. It is breathtaking. Especially eye-catching when you enter the closed-off square for the first time, are the 15th-century town hall and the King’s House, home to the City Museum. Most of the buildings lining the Grand Place are former guildhalls. The decorated facades of these buildings can generally indicate which guilds were headquartered there. Once our guide showed us what to watch for we could see the symbols for tailors and butchers and bakers.

The tour continued through the Galleries, and through the historical centre. We learned a bit about Belgian chocolate and stopped at ‘Mary’s’ famous chocolate shop for samples. Yum!

Once the tour was over, we went searching for lunch and we knew it was going to either be waffles or fries or both! On our way we came across the famous Manniken Pis. The name of this tiny statue simply translates to ‘Peeing boy’. Manneken Pis has been a public fountain, a mascot and the hero of many incredible tales. He has received gifts from lords and kings and has been abducted and saved several times. The statue most probably started out as a public fountain, with the peeing boy as an homage to the tanners; as medieval tanners let children and street urchins pee on leather to make it more supple. It’s a tradition in Brussels to dress the little bronze statue on special occasions. His wardrobe contains more than 800 costumes including the expensive outfit gifted by Louis XV of France. The costumes cannot interfere with him peeing! While we were there we saw him both dressed as a Knight of some order and as a Boy Scout!! He is a national symbol, just as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris and the Statue of Liberty is to New York City; Manneken Pis is to Brussels its most precious possession. Our tour guide explained that Belgians are a humble people with a good sense of humour and they are proud of their statue and how it has survived the wars unscathed and even the bombardments of 1695 that leveled a good chunk of the city. How do you not love the little guy?

Next was a delicious lunch of waffles and fries! If you can imagine it – you can have it on a waffle. Fries come with many different choices of sauce. Mayo is their standard, but ketchup is available too.

We have a new appreciation for Brussels, and are enjoying the city. To add another element, I am getting a cold and starting to feel headachey and yucky so we ventured toward home for a good nights rest.

Day 3 Brussels – last non-travel day of our Adventure 2023!! I definitely have a head cold and feeling less than stellar and Jim is getting it too. We started the day by repacking our bags. We want to bring home some Belgian chocolate for the kids and grandkids but are going to have to make room. My shoes are done – good old Sketchers Go Walks and they have served me well but they are worn out. I have my sandals – they’ll get me home. Shoes- garbage. Next we lightened the load by leaving any liquids over 4 ounces. We are flying with no checked bags so can’t take them – 6 bottles – that made some space. Time to go for breakfast and chocolate shopping.

We went to the train station to figure out our route tomorrow morning. We have to be in Paris at the airport by 10:30 so we had to catch a morning train that would accommodate that. Done!!! 8:17 Brussels to Paris.

Next we did some more exploring of the Sablon around our place and went out in search of a nice restaurant to have our last “date-night” meal out.