My Trip to Brussels, Belgium

My mom and I ventured out on our own for two days and visited Brussels, Belgium, which was only a 3 hour train ride. Getting to our hotel was the hard part-it took us nearly 2 hours to find our hotel...our hotel was only a mile away from the train station. I guess our sense of direction wasn't as great as we thought. But, it was definitely "an adventure" as my mom likes to say. I will say that the 2 hour, 1 mile walk was so worth it once we arrived to our hotel. 

We chose to stay at Meininger Hotel because of its vicinity to the city centre, and we were so glad we picked this hotel. It was super urban and was uniquely decorated (a chandelier made of wine bottles hung over the hotel lobby). And our room was even better! We had two full-sized beds, a couch to lounge on, small nook, and a huge bathroom (which had a sink decked out in iridescent tile). And the hotel didn't just amaze us on looks, Meininger Hotel offered a free walking tour around Brussels' most iconic areas. We were first on the sign up sheet!

We decided to stay in the night we arrived-we were still so jet lagged. We only left the hotel for a quick window shopping trip, drinks, and dinner. Walvis was a very hipster-vibe cafe that sat right across from La Belle Équipe, which is where we ate dinner. The restaurant offered a huge variety of classic pizzas-you can never go wrong with pizza right? But nothing beats a European pizza-I've been craving La Belle Équipe's pizza since we returned home. After our excellent dinner, we went back to the hotel to rest up for our walking tour the next morning.

My mom and I woke up super early for breakfast and we were first in line for the walking tour. I've been on several different walking tours, but this one in Brussels was the absolute best. Our tour guide was witty, fun, and extremely well-versed in Brussels history-especially since he's been living in Brussels for only five years. He took us to Grand Place, Manneken Pis, Palais Royal de Bruxelles, Mont des Arts Garden, and so much more. Grand Place was truly breathtaking and the buildings looked so unreal, you had to touch them to know they were really there and not imagined. 

Grand Place-No picture can do this square justice-it is perfection in person.

 Yes, these waffles were just as good as they look (drooling now).

My first (and only) Belgian beer from Scott's Bar.

Manneken Pis (even though Brooke and her husband warned us, we still weren't prepared for how small he was)

Mont des Arts Garden

After our tour, my mom and I went to get Belgian chocolate from Elisabeth (recommended by our awesome tour guide). All it took was a sample of Elisabeth chocolate, and we were hooked! This was the best chocolate I'd ever eaten. After stocking up on chocolate-saying my mom is obsessed with chocolate is an understatement-we went to Drug Opera for lunch (suggested by the wonderful worker at Elisabeth). Our service and meal was fantastic. I had a pesto pasta and mom had pizza again! We finished our lunch off with a Crème Brûlée. It was the best way to end our afternoon in Brussels. 

Our time in Brussels was awesome and we got to see so much of the city. We returned to spend the rest of our trip in Luxembourg later than evening. This was yet another amazing trip with my mom and it was so fun spending time with my friend Brooke and her family. Hope you guys enjoyed the photos from my trip!

Hope you were inspired to try something new! xo