I hardly spent a few minutes in the hotel room. The sky is getting dark and I wanted to at least spend sometime getting to the centre of Brussels. So, I dropped my bags, had a quick clean-up and headed out immediately. I am so glad for this room because compared to the dump in Paris this is much comfortable. I got a good deal from Orbitz which is only USD$60 per night.
The Brussels downtown core is so compact. You could walk to most places of interest. I read a lot about the Grand Place which is a central market square. This is the most visited tourist site in Brussels. The square is surrounded on all sides by grand buildings. The Gothic style City Hall, below, is 600 years old.
UNESCO had declared the Grand Place as a World Heritage Site.
The City Museum, located right across from the City Hall, is dedicate to the history of Brussels. There is a room that contains all the costume of the Manneken Pis.
I can never figure out the Manneken Pis. For some reason, every tourist must go look for this little pissing statue. One would expect this to be bigger but it actually is very small. Every now and then, it is dressed up in costumes. There is even one costume in the Toronto Maple Leaf’s hockey gear.
On the way from my hotel there are quite a number of places that sells Belgian Waffle. I think these waffle places caters more to the tourists.
All of them have large mouthwatering waffles pictures and waffle samples on display. I was not hungry but could not resist stopping to get one to try for myself. It comes in so many different combinations of toppings. It was hard choosing what I wanted … I wanted all!
There are also simple, no-frill ones … just simple icing sugar or honey. I read somewhere that the locals do NOT go for the fancy multiple topping varieties — those were for tourists. The locals just have simple ones.
Who cares, I am a tourist and so I ordered the tourist special … the biggest that they have on the menu! This monster costs 5.50 Euros. It was so sinfully delicious. I can recall all the toppings are … I see lots of whipped cream, melted chocolate, strawberries, and banana.
Come to think of it, this is no longer a waffle! There are so much toppings that I could not even see the waffle or even remember tasting it.
I love it, esp. when the waffle is hot. Your ‘monster’ looks really lovely… Mmm…
oh.. waffle! one of my favorite food. Can I swap my roasted sweet potato snack with your ‘monster’?
How much time do you use to plan for a trip like this?
Seems it’s always raining in Belgium, or rather Brussels. It was raining too when we were there. Brussels is quite a confusing city to drive in. Good you took the train.
Time for chocolate, mussels and beer ? ;p
WHat I would give to try an authentic Belgian Waffle! Yum!
Now that is what I call a waffle! It’s not for breakfast anymore…
Hi Cocoa: I hardly planned for this trip — not as much as I wanted to. Right until I was about to leave London, I had not booked a hotel. I only had train tickets purchased up front and had a travel guide with me.
Hi Tigerfish: There … I had just posted on Mussels and Beer. Chocolates coming up one of these days.
Ahh yes, from the plain waffles, next to the ‘monsters’, I can see that these are, what we call the Luikse wafel, it’s a much denser waffle, with little chunks of sugar in it.
You are exactly right, Belgians don’t have this with the fancy topping, because the waffle on it’s own is quite rich. It is a good snack to take on the road, especially when hungry. That’s why you can find them at most train stations.
Anne