Day 1 - Bruxelles (Brussels)

Day 1 - Bruxelles (Brussels):
Arrived in Amsterdam at 7am. Had a pleasant train transfer to Bruxelles. This is where the pleasant journey ended and the “adventure” began. Natalie had called the hotel prior to our arrival to get directions from the train station. They told us to take Tram 81 from the Centraal Station. Guess what – there are no trams at that station! A very unpleasant guy at the information desk (seriously, this is their job), told us to take 2 different trams to get to Louise. We didn't trust him since he didn't know where our hotel was, and after asking a nice local lady we decided to go to the station that Tram 81 departed from. Tram 81 driver had no clue where we were going, so we went back to the other station. After asking approximately 4 more people, we ended up walking down Louise with our luggage (and we're girls, we over pack). I finally remembered that we had a GPS, but it didn't like all the one-way streets so that was fun. It kept telling us to make u-turns. Then it died. We asked a few passersby, but they had never heard of our hotel or street (or tried to send us back to Centraal). After an eternity of walking up and back Louise, we finally found our hotel. A 30ish minute journey took nearly 2.5 hours. When we told the hotel guy, he said “yeah, that's not right”and was smug. Needless to say, people didn't get much better in Bruxelles. It was also along that adventure that I sprained my foot. I would like to put a curse on that hotel.

On to the real reason we went to Bruxelles...the food! After we got settled, we went to the Grand Place and had traditional Frites. Twice-fried french fries (but don't call them that!). Fun fact: They were the inventors of fries, but because they spoke French, there was confusion during WWII, and thus they became French Fries instead of Belgian Fries (or frites). This was a little bit of heaven! Next came the chocolate! I couldn't tell you how many chocolate shops we went into. Some even gave free samples! Those were my favorite places ;) We followed our lunch of frites with a delicious Belgian waffle. They are unlike anything in the US! They are definitely sweeter, and so so tasty! The food would be the only reason to ever go back. (Can you tell that the people left a bad taste in my mouth? Good thing the food left a good taste!). The waffle place we went to was located next to Mannekin Pis, a local icon. It's a statue of a naked little boy peeing. On special occasions they dress him up in little outfits. He was naked when we saw him, which was a disappointment.

We had dinner at an Asian restaurant, which we thought was a risk because we couldn't read the menu, but they gave us English menus. The waitress was nice and we ate outdoors in a garden. A cat was on the ledge and Natalie got to watch him pee above my head. Thankfully, away from me. This was only the first of our animal adventures.