Brussels

Got into Brussels and was confusing to find where we were in the city (I guess we took the less used way out of the train station), but made it to our clean and "high IKEA" room. We did the Rick Steves Grand Place tour to get oriented with the city. It's so much bigger and more business-like than the other places we visited. The Grand Place is amazing. It's one of those things they say to see before you die. We just took it all in (and took many pictures) - just kind of surrounds you since everything is so tall and elaborate!

We did the chocolate tour starting with Godiva's, which started here, and then to Neuhaus, Gallers and others. With our sugar buzz we walked through Royales St. Hubert (first "shopping mall" you could say) and the cafe/restaurant lined Bouchers street. It was hard to capture that. You just have to go there...and also get hustled by the hosts to try to eat there.

From there we saw the art nouveau cafes surrounding the Bourse (Stock Exchange) and St. Nicholas Church with the shops built into the side of the church.

Of course, the Mannekin Pis statue that has been copied in every shop that sells garden-anything. Not terribly exciting.

We overslept (we all needed it) and it was raining when we woke up. So we skipped the gardens and went straight to the Atomium. Now, the stuff inside wasn't too inspiring, but the structure and going inside of it was. It was built in 1958 for the World's Fair and it's a giant (102m tall) Iron (ferrous) molecule. That was enough for us to go! They were still working on it, having started the update a year or so ago.

Left early afternoon for...Luxembourg!