I think it is the chocolate that lured us to Belgium. Without a plan or a hotel room we found ourselves with only one day in Brussels, so we set out to hit the highlights.
What can I say about a city whose most famous statue is a boy caught in eternal pee? We had to go and see the statue that emphasizes rebellion.
The statue looks life size in photos, however, I was surprised at how small this statue is in real life . . .
And how large it is when people emulate it for commercial purposes.
Gotta love Brussels’ light-hearted sense of humor. Actually, it was the aroma of the freshly prepared Belgian waffles that lured us to find this replica. They are as good as they smelled, even better when drizzled with Belgian chocolate.
As chocolate lovers, we couldn’t resist a visit to the local chocolate museum, although I believe the more famous one is in Bruges. What we liked about our visit was the chocolate display at the beginning. Not a traditional part of the visit, after the chocolatier finished his talk, and the other visitors had walking away, my teen asked and was allowed to help stir the giant vat of melted chocolate. She was delighted he said yes . . .
Making Belgium Chocolate
It wasn’t all about chocolate.
Brussels is also home to NATO and one of the three homes to the EU. We took a fascinating self-guided FREE tour of the EU Parlimentaruim. From an educational perspective, this offered one of the most complete and easy to understand explanations of a working government that I have ever seen. And as I mentioned, it is free.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos on this page ©Rhonda Albom 2012.
While we heard the best chocolate in Belgium is in Bruges, we visited Brussels first and had our fill.
Joyce
Belgium was once our Memphis in May honored country, so I’m actually familiar with her.