Our last night in Brussels, as it turned out, wasn’t all that eventful. This isn’t unusual on our trips, as our last nights in places usually consist of packing up for the next day’s departure, while taking a break for dinner and maybe a little window shopping. This being the case, much of this last Belgium page is devoted to a brief retrospective of some of the wonders we found there. A word of warning, though: as noted earlier, Brussels is not a city for dieters. If you happen to be one of these unfortunate people, you might want to look away, or maybe think about baseball. Or skip this page altogether, and move directly on to Amsterdam.

To a certain class of people, the most important distinctions of the city of Brussels are as a meeting place for the European Parliament and as a center of international finance. The financial aspect of the city is centralized in its stock exchange (known in French as the Bourse de Bruxelles), first established by Napoleon in 1801 and now global in reach. The stock exchange is housed in a large 1873 building usually referred to simply as The Bourse.

This part of the city’s personality was pretty much lost on us. Our needs were simpler.

Waffles? Check.

Waffles in Store Window Med   Lrg

Manneken-Pis and a Waffle Med   Lrg   Xlg

Frites? Also check.

Belgian Frit 'N Toast Med   Lrg

Nella, Super Love Giant and Frites Med   Lrg

The regular meals also weren’t half bad, though they could be expensive.

Bob, Half-Chicken and Frites Med   Lrg

Nella Eating Mussels in Brussels Med   Lrg

More international cuisine could also be found.

Los Churros Med   Lrg

La Pizza Med   Lrg

On the Rue du Marche aux Herbes (parallel and to the north of the Grand Place) we came across a fascinating place called the Patisserie Orientale which specialized in Mediterranean pastries. We were able to try a few of them, but the variety was overwhelming. Everything was gorgeously displayed.

Mediterranean Pastries Med   Lrg	Almond Raspberry "Purses" Med   Lrg   Xlg
Vanilla Almond "Horns" Med   Lrg   Xlg	Pistachio Mabrumeh (Syrian) Med   Lrg   Xlg
Mediterranean Pastries Med   Lrg	Algerian Lemon Pastry Med   Lrg   Xlg
Almond Cinnamon "Pyramids" Med   Lrg   Xlg	Mediterranean Pastries Med   Lrg
Turkish Delight Med   Lrg	Turkish Delight Med   Lrg

All of this was wonderful, but to some people, Belgium is all about the chocolate.

Chocolate Fountain, Bruges Med   Lrg	Original Godiva Store Med   Lrg
Godiva Window Med   Lrg	Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries, Godiva Med   Lrg
Leonidas Chocolate Shop Med   Lrg	Smurf Display, Neuhaus Chocolate Shop Med   Lrg
Corné Port-Royal Chocolates Med   Lrg   Xlg	La Belgique Gourmande Med   Lrg   Xlg
Chocolates, La Belgique Gourmande Med   Lrg   Xlg	Chocolates, La Belgique Gourmande Med   Lrg   Xlg
Figure Made of Chocolate Med   Lrg	Chocolates Med   Lrg
Chocolate Thank-You Heart Med   Lrg	Belgium Hearts Med   Lrg

Which brings us to our last evening in Belgium. Though not too eventful, the evening wasn’t eventless either. Up to this point, we’d somehow managed to avoid sampling much in the way of Belgian chocolate, and it seemed that this would be our last chance to correct this glaring oversight. Earlier we’d seen several chocolate shops on the street leading to the Manneken-Pis, and we headed in that direction. Though all of the shops on this street (the Rue de l’Etuve) naturally catered to tourists, we went into a small one that seemed the least touristy. If I remember correctly, it was called Choco-holic (the Choco-holic website seems to imply that they’ve since moved to larger quarters elsewhere). Inside the somewhat cramped but fortunately uncrowded shop there was a glass case like those found in jewelry stores, crammed full of layers and piles of cocoa-infused calorie bomblets.

Display Case, Choco-holic Med   Lrg   Xlg

Display Case, Choco-holic Med   Lrg   Xlg

We agonized for a bit and eventually pointed out our selections to the patient storekeeper. She put our chocolates (I don’t recall exactly how many, but I think less than ten) into a little box, and we headed back toward the hotel. We somehow managed to not eat all of the chocolates at once, but we did stop to try one apiece. As I recall, mine was magnificent – it seemed to have a fragility to it which might have made transporting it a problem (if it had lasted long enough to require transporting), but which made eating it a wonderful experience. Nella and Connie seemed to be equally impressed with their choices.

Our route back to the hotel took us through the Grand Place, which looked quite different at night.

Grand Place Med   Lrg   Xlg

Maison du Roi Med   Lrg   Xlg

The square was also really crowded, which reminded us of another Belgian obsession held by many.

Belgian beer is revered by many throughout the world, and we’d stumbled across a weekend beer festival being held in the Grand Place. With Nella and I being basically non-drinkers, we hadn’t really thought about the beer, but there were clearly many who were deeply involved with it. This cleared up the mystery of the booths we’d seen people working on a couple of days earlier.

Beer Fest Booths Med   Lrg	Beer Fest Booths Med   Lrg
Beer Festival Crowd Med   Lrg	Beer Festival Crowd MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD
Beer Festival Crowd Med   Lrg   Xlg	Beer Festival Crowd Med   Lrg

I wish I could review the beer for you, but I didn’t drink any, and probably couldn’t have distinguished good from bad if I had. But the reactions of the youthful throngs seemed to indicate that they were enjoying the greatest beverage ever.

We made it the rest of the way back to the hotel without incident. It was actually rather quiet once we got through the square. We elevated up to our hotel room and finished our preparations for the next day’s adventure, a train ride to the Netherlands.