Brussels Day One

Traveling on the Eurostar was a phenomenal experience. Even with a small child screaming for a portion of the way, I wasn’t phased. Leaving St. Pancras station in London and arriving only two and a half hours later in Brussels? Easy as can be.

(PS. We were delayed by a half hour waiting to go through the Eurotunnel, so normally the journey is only two hours. Two!)

Anyways, we eagerly got off the Eurostar and headed off in a whirlwind towards the Metro to get to our hotel. If you ever travel to Brussels for the first time, please know that finding the Metro in the train station is an extremely confusing ordeal. We walked around for nearly twenty minutes looking for where to go. Don’t worry, we did ask for directions, but were equally confused by those.

Finally we made our way underground and towards the hotel. We stayed in the NH Brussels City Centre hotel, basic but very nice for what we needed. After all, we planned on spending most of our time walking about the city, eating chocolate, drinking Belgium beer, the usual.

So we dropped our bags and we bundled up because Brussels was FREEZING. It was 28°F (-2°C). I hadn’t felt so cold in nearly an entire year, reminding me of when I was living back in the states.

Our first order of business was to find a famous Chocolatier shop called Mary, located along the Rue Royale. These are chocolates fit for a King, literally. The royals of Belgium had decreed Mary as the official chocolatier to the palace back in 1990 and 1994. Oh, and several US presidents happen to like these chocolates too.

I foolishly didn’t take any photos inside. I was a little too taken by all of the treats surrounding us. The woman working inside was great. We were served after their other customer left, and as the only ones in the shop at that point, we were given a bit of history and a few samples to try. We chose a few different bits to takeaway. One large dark chocolate bar, and a few odds and ends, including their famous pralines.

We visited their original store property, but there are various Mary shops that you can find throughout the city. I’d recommend a stop in.

Next we made our way towards the Grand Place, happening along the Botanical Gardens. We didn’t stop in the greenhouses, but we wandered through the gardens out front.

We were feeling the bitter cold.

Regrettably I left my hat in the hotel room. Oops!

These sculptures are throughout the gardens.

I would have loved to further explore here, but we were frozen. By the way, this statement ‘we were frozen’ is going to sum up the lack of photographing throughout the trip. And I’ll repeat it frequently. Hands were way too cold for photos. Bad blogger.

Eventually, we found ourselves at the Grand Place.

And the Museum of the City of Brussels.

All of these architectural wonders are located in a big square, known as the focal point and most memorable landmark in Brussels.

You can’t help but turn into an awestruck tourist.

After exhausting ourselves running about the square, we went to the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. These are galleries famous throughout Brussels.

These galleries play host to many shops and storefronts. It’s still technically still outside, but you’re covered from the elements. We passed through on our search for a drink. After all, it had been several hours in Belgium and we had yet to sample a beer.

We headed off towards the famed Delirum Café, and went inside a place that we for some reason thought was it. Now that I’ve looked back along my photos though, and done a bit more online research…I’m not actually sure where we were. I guess that’s the fun part of visiting a new city. You start out with goals to see the sights and end up somewhere completely different.

So here’s the mystery place that I was confident was the Delirum Café.

We ordered the Campus Premium which was a lighter pale beer. Typically I go for beers like this, but later on in our trip you’ll see me venture out of my drinking comfort zone (crazy, I know). 

A few rounds later, we headed back out into the chilly weather in search of a dinner spot. At this point, every place we went in was freezing cold. I wore my giant parka coat throughout drinks AND dinner. And didn’t take any photos.

But we did come to the impromptu decision to get up in the morning and catch the train to Bruges! So stay tuned, while day one in Brussels was amazing, despite the very cold temperatures, Bruges was an entirely new adventure…

Kelly xox