Breathtaking Piece of Folly: Brussels

This morning we caught our flight to Brussels, took a train into the city centre, and thankfully found our hostel quite easily as it was walking distance from the station. Melinda has never been in a hostel before and she's definitely spoiled by having this as her first experience – it's clean, spacious, and I booked us a private room with ensuite. We left our bags, grabbed a map of Brussels and circled some sites that interested us. We walked to the central plaza to ask for site-seeing advice at the tourism office and then spent the afternoon exploring.

The central square, Grand-Place Grote Markt.
(That's not a typo.)

Grand-Place Grote Markt.

Video circling around Grand-Place Grote Markt .

Manneken Pis... Little Boy Peeing.
He has a complete wardrobe, though I think it's a more amusing oddity when he's just naked.

Kathedraal.

Floor tiles in the cathedral.

Gate in the cathedral.

We both stopped and stared at the door. Pull, push, entrance, exit? We later found out that both words say "push"; on the left is French and on the right is Dutch.

We sat on the steps of the cathedral to take a look at the map and decide where to go next and Melinda noticed the sky streaked with lines from airplanes.

As we walked along the walkway around the side of the cathedral I noticed these eyeglass frames embedded in a concrete tile. Quirky and amusing.

After walking through town in the scorching heat we were both tired, sweaty, and our feet ached. Melinda suggested we stop in a park to rest for an hour so we went to Parc de Bruzelles and found a beautiful area with a huge fountain and benches to relax on.

In Brussels, I finally found the man I was meant to spend the rest of my life with. He was perfect for me. I have no idea where he's from, what language he speaks, what his name is, or if he's single. I don't even know if he's a Christian, and that's the most important trait to me. I never spoke to him, but he was perfect for me. Why? He spent about five minutes leaning over the fountain pond to shoot pictures of bubbles or who-knows-what and, in my eyes, there are few things more swoon-worthy.

One of the most swoon-worthy sights in Belgium.

Relaxing in the park.

Overlooking Brussels.

We visited a large art gallery and when we viewed the large, round sculpture in the lobby from a distance I mentioned to Melinda that the colour and the way it reflected light reminded me of a beetle.

We got up closer and were shocked to discover that the entire surface was covered in a variety of dead beetles.

The way tourists eat their waffles. We skipped the drama in favour of the cheaper, simpler sugar waffles... which, by the way, are to die for!

Chocolates in Belgium are as delicious as people say they are - the smoothest chocolate I've tasted.

After we returned to the hostel, Melinda had a shower and when she came out in her pajamas I flopped onto my bed and whined, “I want another waffle.” She laughed at me so I said, “No, I'm serious. Come on – throw on some shoes and let's go find waffles! I know you want one too... come on...” After plenty of whining and pleading from me, she grabbed a hoodie, threw on some flipflops, and we headed out on The Great Waffle Hunt. Everything closes ridiculously early over here and we spent over twenty minutes wandering the streets before we were finally successful.