Adventures in Brussels

As I was planning our week in Belgium I knew that we would probably go to Brussels, but I really wasn't looking forward to our visit there.  I do not enjoy big cities and am much happier when we spend our time exploring smaller cities.  However, there were interesting things to see and do in Brussels and I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity.  I had read and been told that I shouldn't try driving into downtown Brussels because it is a maze of confusing one-way streets.  That was fine with me, as a lot of what stresses me out about cities is the traffic and parking.  Once I decided that we would take the train to Brussels and use the subway once we got there, I found myself more excited about our day.  Plus, the youngest three girlies rode for free on the train making our round trip cost just 45 Euro - way less than it would have been for gas and parking.

Despite Europe having an amazing rail system, this is the first time I've taken the train anywhere.  Madison, Emily, and Abigail have taken the train lots of times for school field trips so they knew what to expect, but it was a new experience for Natalie, Samantha, and I.  We got on the train and got settled in our comfortable seats.  After about ten minutes the conductor came through and punched our tickets; it all felt very Polar Express.  Unfortunately, our seats were a little too comfortable.  I had unknowingly gotten into a first class car but had only paid for second class.  So we moved one car down to seats that were still very nice, but just a little less cushy.  After about an hour we arrived in Brussels . . . so much easier than driving, navigating traffic, parking our big American car in a little space.  I might start taking the train all the time!

  The main train station connects to the subway system so it was pretty simple to get off the train, buy a daily pass for the subway, and get on a train to our first stop of the day Brupark Brussels and Mini Europe.  Through all the train rides, ticket purchases, and connecting trains the girls were amazing.  Natalie was my biggest worry because she can be so stubborn and loud, but she just a sweet well behaved angel.  So, Mini Europe wasn't all we were hoping it would be.  It's billed as the best way to  have a whistle stop tour of Europe in one day.  The park is filled with detailed scale models of the main monuments and sites around Europe.  It looked and sounded fun, but in reality it wasn't so fun.  Still, it was neat to be able to see models of places we've already been and even models of places we were going to see later that day.  Emily was our photographer for the day and she snapped some good photos.

The girls are looking over the model of Brussels Grand Place which we would visit later that day.  The space ship like thing behind them is the Atomium which is a monument that was built in 1958 for the World Fair.

One of the best parts of the park were these big statues that the girls could climb into for me to take their picture.  Here is Abigail as a viking

I have no idea where this Ferris Wheel actually is in Europe - I'm pretty sure it's not the London Eye and that's the only big ferris wheel I know about.  Emily wanted to take a picture here because the red in the ferris wheel matched my jacket

Natalie told me that she needed to make a serious face to be a soldier.  Even with a serious face she looks cute to me.

Here's all the girls standing by the white cliffs of Dover just in front of the Eiffel Tower.  The whole time we were at Mini Europe Natalie kept running ahead to try and make it to the "Heiffel Tower" first!

Another fun part of the park was this display of a busy Parisian street.  On one side of the display there were two little bicycles that would race down the street powered by the girls turning the gears.  Madison and Emily are racing here but everyone took a turn.

Emily at the Arc de Triomphe

This model is the Porta Nigra in Trier, one of our favorite cities in Germany

Okay, for a place that we all agreed was just so-so we took a lot of pictures!  Before we left Mini Europe we had a quick snack of some traditional Belgian foods, waffles and fries.  They were just okay, but still not the amazing treats everyone had been telling us about.  Either way, it was good to eat something before we got back on the subway to continue our day.

Our next stop was the city center to see the actual Grand Place, not just the model, and then on to the (only open on Wednesday afternoon) Children's Museum.  Once we got off the train I was feeling a little turned around, but we had a city map and Madison so everything worked out!  She once again led us just where we wanted to be.  We spent a little while admiring the amazing buildings around the Grand Place and then went in to the Tourist Office to find out the best way to get to the Children's Museum, the one thing Samantha wanted to see in all of Belgium.  We were very disappointed to find out that the Children's Museum was actually on the very outskirts of the city and that the subway didn't go out that far.  We could take a bus and then walk for 45 minutes, but I just wasn't willing to do that.  Samantha was so upset that she sat down and cried and I felt really badly for not being a better planner.  Maybe we should have brought our car after all?  

To cheer Samantha and everyone else up we decided that we would walk back to the train station and ride back to the hotel, but on the way to the station we would stop and look at anything that caught their attention.  I wanted to find the famous Mannekin Pis statue, but the girls were not at all interested in seeing a statue of a little boy peeing!  Instead we looked in shops for souvenirs, finally ate some delicious authentic Belgian waffles, and spent some time sitting on a bench looking at a lovely fountain.  It was actually kind of nice to slow down, stop worrying about finding our way from point A to point B, and just walk around and look at whatever seemed fun. 

Natalie and Samantha both really wanted a scarf. As soon as we bought them, Natalie wrapped hers around her head.  All day we'd been seeing women on the train wearing hijabs covering their hear.  Once she got it on how she wanted it she told me, "There, now no one can see my hair.  That's how they like it here."

We stopped in a wonderful chocolate shop and bought lots of delicious Belgian chocolates.  

Natalie really, really wanted this huge Easter bunny

We finally found the delicious waffles we'd been searching for!  They were so good and  the girls all topped them with lots of different deliciousness - white chocolate, powdered sugar, or whipped cream

Abigail's had the most whipped cream I'd ever seen.  I think it was more whipped cream than waffle.

And I finally found the delicious Belgian fries we'd been hearing about.  Even better, the guy at the fry stand spoke German!  I can't even explain how happy I felt to be able to communicate with another person.  

Obviously this day was all about the food!  We were excited to find a real Domino's Pizza just down the road.  We were hopeful that the pizza would be honest to goodness American pizza . . .

and it was!  The pepperoni was pepperoni, not salami.  The cheese was real mozzarella and the sauce was so very good. The pizza was the perfect end to our busy day in Brussels!