Our trip to the land of waffles, chocolates and Brussels sprouts

Bonjour amis (that is French for "Hello, friends")!  Last weekend, we packed up a backpack and traveled north to Brussels, Belgium.  Most of the Belgian people speak French, but some also speak Dutch.  Since I don't know much French and I certainly don't know Dutch, we spoke mostly English during our trip.  Our Belgian hosts were used to this since they see a lot of tourists come through their city all year round.  Also, as a general rule, many of the European countries teach English as a second language to kids starting as early as elementary school.  Can you imagine learning another language on top of all the math, science and reading lessons you go through right now?  Must be tough!

Here is a map that shows where we live (Siena) and where we went on our trip (Brussels).  Brussels is over 700 miles from Siena.

Our journey began early on Friday morning, around 6 AM.  We had to get up early so we could catch the train to the airport in Pisa (where the leaning tower of Pisa is).  Unfortunately, we didn't have time to sight-see in Pisa because as soon as we arrived, we had to get on the plane.  The plane trip seemed pretty short, probably because I fell asleep.  When I woke up, we were in Brussels and there was snow everywhere!  We don't get much snow in Siena so it was fun to see the city covered in a light, snowy blanket.  There was a bakery in the airport so we had to try some French pastries while we were waiting for the bus into the city.  They were delicious!  I was going to take a picture of them, but by the time I got the camera out, they were gone.  We had to wait out in the cold for a while before our bus came - good thing the driver had the heater on when he arrived!  It was late afternoon by the time we arrived downtown so we just walked around for a while before collapsing in the hotel room for the night.

Saturday morning was cold and snowy, but we braved the weather and toured the city on foot.  Brussels is a modern city with many old palaces and churches - some of which were originally built over 700 years ago!  We walked all over the place and saw lots of cool buildings, but best of all, we had some famous Belgian waffles.  They were yummy!  In Belgium, they don't put syrup on waffles like we do in the United States.  Instead, they top the waffles with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and fruit.  We tried one with raspberries and it was sooo good!

Here I am with Becky in front of one of the palaces in Grand Place, which is the main historic downtown area.  Hundreds of years ago, this was the main place for the people of Brussels to shop at the markets and visit with friends.  As you can see in this picture, Becky was really cold even though she was bundled up in her jacket hat and gloves!

In the afternoon, we decided to take the metro to a museum north of the city called the Atomium.  The Atomium is a huge, atom-shaped building that was built in the 1950's for the Brussels' World's Fair.  If it wasn't so snowy, we would have been able to see the entire city of Brussels!  We weren't able to see that far, but it still looked pretty with all of the snow.  Here I am posing by one of the windows at the top of the Atomium building.  You can also see what the Atomium looks like from the outside in the picture on the right.  Pretty cool, huh?

On Sunday, we did some more walking around the city and finally got our hands on some fine Belgian chocolates!  Of course, we had to have some more waffles too :)  As far as sight-seeing goes, it was a little warmer on Sunday than the previous days, so we were able to stay outside and take more pictures.  We found more palaces (like the Royal Palace in the picture below) and shops (especially chocolate shops - I'm sure Mrs. Pizzala could have spent all day in one of those!).

Monday was another early morning for us as we left snowy Belgium for rainy Italy.  We came home with lots of pictures and a box full of chocolates that we have since devoured (I think they only lasted 3 delicious days).  So I'll leave you all with one final picture of me guarding our stash of chocolates.  I wasn't much of a guard after all, was I?  Oh well, there will always be more adventures (and more sweets, too!) so until the next one, this is Flat Stanley saying, "Ciao amici"!