We caught the 7:45 train from Paris to Brussels. Of course we were all a bit groggy from our late night date with the Eiffel Tower.

We had one quick train change and had a giggle about the phone charging stations that required you to pedal to create the electricity. After this trip, I will should get one of those to electrify my house to burn off all of these choc croissants I have been eating!

We got to Brussels and had a few challenges. Firstly these doors were unlike any we had seen before and they nearly chopped us in half.

Then we were walking up these stairs and I tripped and fell in the lip of the step. Cat thought it was hilarious until she tripped and fell as well!

We took another walking tour. It’s a great way to get a quick understanding on the history of the city and the background to the landmarks that everyone is there to visit. Note: Cat was quite pleased with herself that the guide singled her out because she was so well behaved.

This building was the Town Hall.

Notice that the doorway and tower are off center. Legend has it that the architect saw this and climbed to the top of the tower and committed suicide but this is just legend because he built several other buildings afterwards. It was mainly just the result of building it in 3 different phases.

Of course we saw Manneken-Pis (Statue of the Pissing Boy).  Manneken-Pis is regularly dressed in a choice of some 800 outfits supplied by its very own tailor. 

There are many legends around his origins but no one really knows it’s true significance. One legend is that the boy’s father,  the king, died and the throne was passed to his 2 year old son. During a battle, the soldiers kept him in his bassinet and hung it from a tree where he slept quietly. The story goes that the opposition was winning the battle and was under the tree when the boy stood up and peed on the high ranking officials from the tree branches above. This gave his soldiers the motivation they needed to continue fighting and win the battle. This sounds like a good story to me! 

While we were there he had an outfit change as well! 

Of course we stopped for a Belgium beer on the tour.

They have a cathedral that is similar in design to the Notre Dame Cathedral but it just didn’t have the same presence.

On our walk we came across seashells that marked the path for the Camino de Santiago de Compostella. My goal is to do this trek when I am 50. I feel like it wasn’t a coincidence that we came across this!

We got some more Belgium beer outside of the Beer Guild and also tried Belgium waffles and Frites. We had to make the tough decision to stop and get chocolates or miss our train.

We caught our train with a promise to ourselves that we have to come back to try the chocolates.