Brussels

Since we were already across the pond but we didn't have any extra vacation days to use on this trip (wah! #firstworldproblems), we decided to go somewhere in Europe just for a weekend. It was a pretty easy decision because we were limited to Delta flight options and Marriott hotel locations. From there, we narrowed it down based on other locations we either hadn't been to yet and eliminating those where we wanted to spend any longer than a few days. All signs pointed to Belgium, and on top of that I love Belgian beer, so Brussels quickly became the winner!

Once I finished up the work week, we took a train through the chunnel. This was definitely a one-and-done item off our life list. Extremely underwhelming however very efficient and so much better than a plane. Plus, free wine!

We had quite a few bar suggestions from friends and that was the extent of our planning, so we wasted no time. We mapped out a little bar crawl for ourselves, and Delirium Cafe was by far our favorite. In 2004, they set the Guinness World Record for the most variety of beers commercially available (longest list of beers). We made a valiant effort to try them all but we didn't quite make it ;)

Delirium has three floors of never ending beer. Our first day there, we only knew about the main floor which we enjoyed enough on its own. They serve mostly draught beers and we were wondering where was all the world record variety?! And then we discovered the bottom floor, a beer drinker's heaven. We spent most of our second day here. Every beer is served with a matching glass, which reminded us of Brickstore, a local Atlanta favorite in Decatur. We also went upstairs to check out the top floor but it was pretty tame and only had a few beers on tap. 

Bo and I aren't big on shopping for many souvenirs, so we collect random things...mainly, beer bottle caps. We had so many new caps from this trip to add to our collection. We get the strangest reactions when we ask for them. Usually we have to repeat ourselves several times (and have attempted this in several languages now!), and waiters will often bring us the bottle and then take the cap off in front of us, like it's a bottle of wine. No...we just want to keep the cap. Really, it's pretty simple. Our favorite bartender at Delirium Cafe thought it was a fun collection, so he suggested beers to us purely based on the bottle cap - almost all of them were pretty tasty as well. Win, win.

We weren't too partial though, had to get some draft beers as well!

By total coincidence, our hotel was right across the street from the Brussels Stock Exchange, which at the time was owned by the company I work for, but has since been spun off. Seems I can never get away from work!!

We walked around Grand Place (the main square) that night where we found a cute little restaurant for dinner to watch the full moon. It was stunning!

We did watch a little of the World Cup, although Belgium didn't play until the following Tuesday. So just like in London, once again we barely missed watching a team while visiting their country.

Another common recommendation we received was Floris-Bar, which is an absinthe bar conveniently located right across the street from Delirium. This was my first time trying absinthe, and I did not like it at all. Bo says it's an acquired taste - no thanks. It was also quite a process to watch them prepare it, so it wasn't even worth all the anticipation. Back to beer for me, please.

A few of our favorite food items in Brussels:

• Delirium beer cheese. No brainer.
• Mussels. When in Brussels...!
• Chocolate. Always on obvious choice.
• French Fries. Supposedly invented in Belgium, not France.
• And of course, a Belgian waffle. Surprisingly incredible, even at a 1-Euro tourist stand.

We didn't do any sightseeing since there isn't really much to see, although we had to stop by the Manneken Pis. Which literally means peeing boy. It is a tiny little two-foot statue of a boy peeing into a water fountain. And it is the symbol on just about every souvenir you will find in the entire city, and more. Ridiculous.

 
Overall we really enjoyed Brussels. We have no real desire to go back, but it was a great place to go for about 36 hours - any longer is really unnecessary. The people were extremely attractive and friendly, prices were very reasonable, and everyone spoke English and at least two or three other languages. Most importantly we thought the food and drinks were amazing as that was the whole purpose of our weekend. Mission accomplished.