To Brussels

Once we reached Calais we drove down to Brussels. We struggled a bit to find our way, thanks to the gps and the restricted car area. I am only mentioning this in case you have had a similar experience: you are not alone. The GPS, so useful for the past hours becomes as unreliable as a badly drunk flatmate. The struggle is real.

Brussels is lovely, even if the weather when we were there was a bit indecisive. It is relatively small compared to other cities, and maybe that's why some people find it a bit dull. For a short visit like ours though, it was just perfect. I much rather spend the weekend in a very interesting city packed with things than in a larger one where you have to waste precious time moving from one landmark to the other. 

We loved the architecture, from art nouveau style of the buildings, to the flemish town houses and all the little cute shops. It's definitely a very artistic city, and is also considered the European capital of the comic strip (the most loved one has to be Tintin). It's nice to see the city displaying here and there little artistic touches filled with sense of humour.

The smallest house in Brussels

Restaurant Goupil le Fol, not sure of what they had on the menu but I loved the foxes in the display and Edith Piaf blasting out of the place

Manneken Pis VS Manneken Peace

Tintin Boutique :)

The part that we enjoyed the most is the Grand Place, which may sound a bit obvious but after all, it is beautiful. My favourite building is the Brussel Town Hall as it comes with a spooky legend: it was built in the early 15th century by van Thienen, and it's majorly off-centered. If you are a little obsessed with things like that like I am, the building will make you cringe. The legend goes that once the architect found out about this error, he threw himself from the tower of the building.

La maison the Joseph et Anna - cute coincidence :) 

Brussels Town Hall (front): it is really hard to take a clear picture of the front, this is the best I could manage at that time. The off centered door is however very visible, despite peeps & birds. 

Wes Anderson fans won't be too pleased!

People in Brussels are really friendly, the waiters are happy to have a little chit chat even if the city is crowded with tourists. The food is also very good, we had mussels and fries in a place call Léon, and waffles. Because breakfast, in Brussels, means only waffles. We didn't try any of the chocolate as we are not big fans but is a big thing in Belgium and it's supposed to be delicious. We still enjoyed the displays very much.

Mussels from Brussels! Chez Leon

Le Comptoir de Mathilde

Another big Belgian thing is beer. We didn't go crazy as we have to drive every other day, and by we I mean Joey, as he was doing all the driving. I was just trying not to grow a beer belly before the wedding. We did have a small tasting though, and it tasted great!

From left to right are my favs, in order; 

from the right to the left are Joey's favs, in order;

These are few vinyl gems we found at The Collector,
a vinyl store just off the main square

Before leaving, we paid a quick visit to the Toone Theatre. This Little gem is an institution. Built around the 1830s from the older Toone (Antoine Genty) it has been run for 8 generations by the same family. It's a puppet theatre with shows aimed to adults, although children will enjoy it too. The language spoken is Bruxellois, Brussels' very own dialect.

So this was our little visit to Brussels, it went really well and I would suggested to anyone looking for a small break. 
Is one of those cities where you can be entertained without getting overly tired, though I guess it depends on how much belgian beer you want to sample!