Brussels was amazing. It is so clean that I dreaded coming back to Paris.
The day started early at 7:15 with a cab ride to Gare Nord. Taking the metro is no way to start a day. I thought that since I was leaving the country that I would need my passport, so I tried to rush Narges the best I could. Well, she showed up 10 minutes before the train took off, while I stood and walked around outside of the train station trying to find something to eat. I didn't mind that she was late because as I have discovered when taking a train within the Schengen Zone you don't really need a passport. I will admit that I was upset that I wouldn't get a stamp because I've never been to Belgium before. I ended up with a petit baguette huddled in front of a tall stand heater with 5 other people. It was in the 40s and the wind kept blowing through the station.
When Narges showed up, after her cab driver took her to the wrong station, we got on the train. How civilized to hop on a train and end up in another country in 2 hours or less. On the train I attempted to nap, but that wasn't going to happen once N found out that I had brought the 16 pages of terms we were supposed to learn by Wednesday (tomorrow). She began reading them as we took off. I should have been listening but I was distracted by the beauty of the country side. AND the cuisine terms were mixed into the terms as well, so I was trying to avoid the slip ups when she started reading a term that suddenly turned meaty (yuck).
We spent the train ride making up ways to remember the terms on the list. N said that once we go to E we would stop and go back to the beginning. We didn't even make it to the end of C before the train pulled into the station. We were both exhausted but so excited for our adventure. We got off the train and it was COLD, in the high 30s, but the sun was out and the sky was clear for miles. It was 10 in the morning, so I wasn't sure how I would start eating chocolate, but that wasn't too much of a problem.
We turned up in Brussels without a plan, but neither of us were worried. We looked for an information booth, passing the small kiosk many times. I suggested we take a cab to the chocolate museum, how far could it be, the city isn't that big. Before we did so, I made a pit stop at the restrooms. Here is how clean Brussels is, you have to pay to use the bathroom. At the train station it was .50 Euros. As N joked, "peeing is a privilege, not a right". I can second that, because in one of the restaurants we went for lunch, I had to pay .30 Euro to pee.
We hopped in a cab and asked to be dropped at the chocolate museum. Six minutes and one crazy drive later we arrived, the driver told us it was ahead on the left. We walked into a main square with beautifully grand buildings surrounding us. On one side of the courtyard was a bank and restaurant, to its right, a museum of some sort, at 6 o'clock another statuesque building and finally a church. There was a bride standing in the square with her wedding party. As we walked around the square and backed up to take pictures, we spotted another bride standing on a balcony.
We were lost looking for the museum so we walked into an information station. N and I were freezing. I was wearing jeans, 3 tops, a sweater and a coat, a scarf and a hat. As we entered we saw 5 young girls lined up at the desk asking for information, each wearing shorts, some with tights under. I was baffled. I still don't get it. I wear shorts when it's warm, not just because the sun is out. After getting wrong information from two different places we decided to walk down the street and find it ourselves. It was so small that we walked by it twice, both times missing it until I looked at my phone and read the address. We entered the little museum to find samples of chocolate chips. I was in heaven. I tried a few of each, white chocolate, milk, dark and darker and gosh were they good. It was unlike any chocolate I had eaten before (at that point). Good thing there was a dispenser upstairs because I was not ready to stop eating it.
We climbed the flights of stairs up to the third floor of the old, creaking house to start the self guided tour. It started with a board showing the history of chocolate which N read to me as I sat my sleepy butt down. On the same floor they had different tea cups that they served chocolate in.
On the second floor there was a video that showed the process of taking the pods off the trees and taking the seeds (?) out of the shells. When they take the chocolate pods (I will say) out of their shell they look really gross like slimy, nude colored ovals (I can't describe it using a pleasant image). That doesn't matter, because minutes later some guy who was also watching the video said "fair trade my ass". I got a little chuckle out of that then got up and looked at the old chocolate boxes.
We finally made our way downstairs to watch a chocolate demo. The guy was pretty boring so I ended up playing peek-a-boo with a little baby who was being held in front of me. That could have been the best part of the museum. The old man had a small vat of chocolate kept warm electronically not with a Bain Marie (one of the words in our vocabulary), a warm water bath underneath a vessel to keep it warm, or melt chocolate. He was showing the process of pouring chocolate into molds and letting them set and making those chocolate turkeys that Barbie used to get for Thanksgiving.
We left the museum and decided to walk around to find food. N had the idea of going back to the square where we saw Neuhaus and Godiva and eat there. I think she wanted to be as close to Nauhaus as possible, although they were all over. We started our journey back to the square that the cab had sped past. We ran into an outdoor "stuff" market where I saw the cutest little bunnies that I fell in love with. One of the stores I passed along my journey.
We walked up the hill to where a relatively modern museum stood next to a well manicured garden area. One of the museums had an exhibit on Brazil and was playing music outside. N and I stopped for a minute to enjoy the highly motivating dance music. We kept walking and ended up in front of a waffle van. N and I decided to split one.
Our hike took us to the grand palace and town hall.
We kept climbing up hill to the tallest point in Brussels where there is a WWI memorial. I didn't take a picture of the memorial, but as N and I sat looking out at the view, I snapped a shot at the elevator that takes you to the bottom of the hill.
N lead us down the hill, past the Jewish Museum of Brussels. We landed at a restaurant/pub-ish place in the small square.
We drank our beers outside in the sun until it was hidden and then we moved inside as to avoid frostbite.
We both decided to go healthy because we wanted to to get fries. They were so crispy and delicious.
After lunch we went across the street to Godiva. I didn't care for it in the States so I didn't want to waste my tummy space with it. Next door was Nuehaus, a chocolate store that N had been RAVING about the entire day.
She ordered a small box of chocolates and she offered a bit to me. I took a bite of the chocolate. It was vanilla cream in the middle, lined with nougat and covered in chocolate. I went numb. It might sound crazy, as N did describing the first time she had tried Nuehaus, but it is by far the best chocolate I have ever had. I ended up with a bag of my own. I ate the tiramisu one on the train, other than that, they are sitting on the counter behind me.
Side note: I just googled Nuehaus and they don't exist in LA (maybe the beverly center at one point) but the do have it in SF (at the airport) and DC and NYC (Sasha, if you read this, go to the store on Lexington... you will die, its better than a boyfriend) (D, I'm sure they have a store in your next vacation destination, make me proud and go try some). You must go try it if you live in any of these places.
After our amazing experience there, we moved on to Wittamer. (There are better words to describe this experince, but my dad reads this blog).They have a chocolate shop next to their beautifully composed patisserie with the most perfect looking desserts. I decided to try their samples before buying anything. The whole trip I would walk into places looking for samples, if they didn't have any, the chances of me walking out were high. In Wittamer, I was less than thrilled with the selection, (everything has praline in it), so I walked to the counter to look around and saw samples.
I ended up eating the loaf looking one on the right that had strawberry cream in it (Yuck), so N tried one and we left.
N and I resisted temptation to try something in their patisserie, but she did say she wanted to eat all of them, or something like that. The shop was exactly what I imagine N's to look like.
We walked up the street into another chocolate shop. It was small and stuffy and the guy behind the counter kind of scared me. There was one sample left so we walked out. I didn't want to be the one to eat it. We came across another chocolate shop by the name of Laurent Gerbaud. It was a large, modern looking place with good chocolates. I ended up getting some chocolate covered ginger and choco. orange for my mom, but ended up eating one of the gingers while looking for my chocolate covered pear (oops).
N and I were so exhausted so we decided to get on the Sightseeing Brussels tour bus. It took us about an hour and 40 minutes to see the city. Although it was freezing on the top deck, it was well worth it.
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| This reminded me of the tombs in Egypt |
Upon our return to the start of the tour, we found a little bazaar to walk down while we searched for a metro to go back to the train station. We had our last waffle with banana. It was so light and crispy, it seemed like they had filled the machine the minimum amount, only to make a skeleton waffle. I was not pleased. However as I looked around in the tourist trap restaurant I saw people with their own waffles with fruit, chocolate, whipped cream and other nonsense piled high on it, with hot chocolate. EEKK.
We ended our trip with three consecutive chocolate stores.
Corne was not great. We shared a chocolate with praline. It was so dense and too milky for me.
The next one was Mary which looked really good so I got three pieces. The only one that was good was a chocolate coated biscuit with a vanilla cream on top.
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| Out of focus, but this was the best so I had to show it |
The third will remain nameless. I didn't end up getting anything. By that point I just wanted something that had marshmallow or honeycomb in the middle. However, N found this. MIFFY!!!!! She was very excited when she got it.
We arrived at the train station after hoping we got on the right metro. I decided to check out the Carrefour because I wanted to know what kinds of chocolate they had in there. We found Dolfin chocolate bars for relatively cheap so we both loaded up. I also bought some cottage cheese to end my night off with something not sweet.
The train was and arrived 30 minutes late, but it was well worth it because I got to experience train sex!!!
Witness it for yourself
The trip was really exciting and filling. I could not have asked for a better, more willing travel partner (aside from my mom and FA). Thank you N for making the trip so great!!!
When my sister comes in November, I know where I'm taking her. I just might need a few more layers by then.
Bisous
