For my first travel experience outside of Amsterdam, I spent a day in Brussels with three of my new friends. To travel there from Amsterdam, it took us about four hours each way because we had two transfers. When we arrived, it felt so different from Amsterdam. The stones they used for the buildings were lighter colored, giving the whole city a fresher, brighter feel than the whimsical “gezellig” nature of Amsterdam. There were many more hills and less bike lanes as well. We first headed over to a place where we had looked up had the best Belgian waffles. I had a waffle not only topped with strawberries and chocolate, but also with whipped cream! 

We didn’t realize it, but the waffle place was actually right next to Manneken Pis (the fountain statue of a little boy peeing). 

Then we headed to Grand Place where there was a cathedral and a museum about Brussels. A couple was getting married in the cathedral and afterwards we saw them ride about in the square on a tandem bike while their friends and family threw rice over them. We walked to St. Katherine’s Cathedral and then met a friend who was studying abroad in the city.

She was a great help navigating the chocolate scene of Brussels. We went into Pierre Marcolini, or as I like to call it, the “Gucci” of chocolate where someone’s job was to open the door for us and greet us, and the chocolate looked more like artwork. I bought two thimble sized chocolates for 1.80 euro. One was called “Violette” and the other was “Palet D’Or” which actually had gold flakes on it. 

After our delectable dalliances in the Gucci of chocolate, we walked around, enjoyed the architecture and parks of Brussels, visited another cathedral, and saw an underground palace. Yes… the palace is actually underground due to a fire and the placement of another more modern building on top. The Coudenberg Palace was uncoverd by archaeologists and is now a museum that you can explore in. Overall, we fit an incredible amount of site-seeing (and tasting) into our day.

Location: Brussels, Belgium