I'm Here for the Chocolate: Our Time in Belgium

Cam's spring break and my reading week lined up - meaning we both had a week off from classes. Cam flew back over to England, and the day after his arrival we were off on our week of adventuring.

March 4th:

At 8 AM on the 4th, we headed to the train station to catch a train to London. We had a flight leaving from London Heathrow to Brussels, Belgium at 3 PM. It took about 4 1/2 hours to ge to the airport from Hull. Before taking off, we got lunch at the Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Heathrow Terminal 5 called Gordon's Plane Food. Once we took off, the flight was only about 45 minutes.

We landed in Belgium, got our bags, and caught a taxi to the hotel we were staying at. It was cold and rainy when we arrived - not great weather for exploring. We went to a new restaurant about 20 minutes away called Chez Jules where I tried Flemish stew, a traditional Belgian stew, for the first time. For dessert we had Belgian waffles with homemade whipped cream.

After dinner, we walked back through the streets of Brussels to our hotel, making note of all the shops we may want to visit during our time there.

March 5th:

On the 5th, we had a tour booked that was going to two other towns in Belgium - Bruges and Ghent. We had to meet the the central train station in Brussels, about a 20 minute walk away, so we got up early to stop and get coffee before our tour. Right near our hotel was a Starbucks with the strangest shape Cam and I had ever seen. Though I don't usually prefer to get Starbucks in a new country, it was the only coffee shop that was on the way to the station.

Bruges is known at the chocolate and lace capital of Belgium. Our tour guide took us on a walking tour around the city, to different chocolate shops, showed us old churches, bridges, and hospitals, and the different places to try Belgian beers.

One of my favorite parts of Bruges was a garden in the middle of a nunnery. You walked through a gorgeous park to make it to the home, passing a canal with swans, people riding in horse-drawn carriages, and cobblestone streets with little shops.

After our tour guide finished showing us around the town, Cam and I grabbed some Belgian fries and headed back towards the park to go see the swans and get some souvenir shopping done. We stopped at three chocolatiers to get some freshly made chocolates, a small souvenir shop to get some postcards, and a lace shop to pick out some hand-made lace pieces. By the time we finished shopping, it was time to go to the bus to head to the next town.

Next, we rode over to the town of Ghent. Our tour guide showed us around the town again, including medieval gates and markets, old churches, even more chocolate shops, and beautiful details in the architecture. After our tour, the guide turned us loose. to shop, eat, or whatever else we wanted to do with our free time. One thing that was different from Bruges in Ghent was the amount of dogs. There were a lot of huge mountain dogs going on walks and that wanted to come up and meet everybody.

Cam and I found a restaurant called Emile Braunplein in between the two churches we saw at the beginning of the tour and ordered a series of traditional Belgian appetizers to hold us over for the night. Soon after finishing, we headed back towards the bus, enjoying the scenes of Ghent, before we headed back to Brussels.

When we arrived in Brussels, the bells for the Cathedrale des Sts Michel et Givdule were ringing. We took the long way back towards to hotel so we could see a new part of Brussels than we had the day before and talked about what we wanted to do for the rest of the evening. We decided to find a bar nearby to try some of the infamous Belgian beer and enjoyed an evening talking about our favorite parts of the day and what we wanted to do tomorrow.

March 6th:

Bright and early on March 6th, we headed out to see what we could see in Brussels. We started with a walk through the Botanical Gardens, which was about a 5 minute walk away from our hotel. It was chilly that morning, and not a lot of flowers were blooming yet. Still, the pathways were pretty and it was a good location to people watch. While we walked, we planned out the rest of our day and what it would look like and read all the signs around the park

After the gardens, we headed towards Wolf Sharing Food Market, a new food market that had opened up near the city center. We tried a variety of foods, bought the cookbook that was a collaborative effort from all of the chefs running the food market, and stopped at the photobooth to get a unique keepsake.

There are two things I love to do when I travel to a new country - tour the churches and tour the palaces. Both of these were on our agenda for the early-afternoon.

Only a short walk away was Cathedrale des Sts Michel et Givdule. We went inside to take a tour of the cathedral, taking note of the similarities between the cathedrals in Ghent and in Brussels, and stopping in the gift shop to get most postcards. Each of the cathedrals had these huge statues and beautiful columns. Some of the church was blocked off to visitors, but you could see gold statues and art behind the gates.

Next up was a short walk to Brussels Palace, which unfortunately was closed off to visitors. You could still see the outside and walk through the gardens. It looked really beautiful. Cam and I took a couple pictures outside the front gates before deciding to to our next adventure. We walked through a beautiful garden and a lovely part of town, taking note of restaurants and a cocktail bar to stop by for dinner on the way back.

We had a museum tour and chocolate making workshop at the Choco-Story Brussels. Cam and I made a variety of different flavored chocolate bars with fun designs and some chocolate dots. Afterwards, we went through the Choco-Story museum and learned about the history of chocolate. The tour was guided and interactive, which made it fun and exciting.

After leaving the museum, we went to a cocktail bar called Chemistry & Botanics for some fancy flavored cocktails. One of mine tasted like licorice, which I didn't think I would like, but it ended up being pretty good, and one tasted like hickory smoke. It was a strange experience to drink smoke, but I was glad to have tried it.

Next, we headed to The Blue Restaurant, where Cam and I both ordered Flemish stew and Belgian fries. It was good, but not as good as the first stew that we had. Afterwards, we took the 45 minute walk back towards to hotel, enjoyed street Belgian waffles on the way back. We stopped by the same bar from the night before so Cam could have his Belgian beer and I could have some Belgian wine before we left the next day.

The final thing we did that night was stop by McDonalds for a late-night snack. Cam has a goal: to try McDonalds in every country we visit. After enjoying our McDonalds, we headed to bed so we were prepared for our early departure the next day.

March 7th:

Cam and I got up extra early to pack everything up and grab some coffee before heading to the bus station. It was freezing outside - a mix of sleet and freezing rain with a chilly breeze. Cam and I were headed to our next location via Flixbus. I had never used this company before, but I have traveled by coach before and I didn't think it was too unenjoyable. Plus, it's much much cheaper.

We had trouble finding where the bus departed from because so much of the station was under construction and we couldn't quite figure out which way to go. When we finally found the location, our bus was about 45 minutes late. We finally boarded, and were quickly on our way to Amsterdam. It was only 2 1/2 hours until we would be in The Netherlands.

In Order: Cam and I at Chemistry & Botanics; A Chocolate Frenchie; The Streets of Brussels; Cam and I at the Royal Palace; Stained Glass in Cathedrale des Sts Michel et Givdule; Statue in the Botanical Gardens; Belgian Fries; The Streets of Bruges; The Streets of Ghent.