Belgium

We just got back from a nice little weekend trip to Belgium!  We took the Eurostar from the new St.Pancras International station in London to Brussels, which took about 2 hours.  We stayed in Brussels for two nights and did a day trip to Brugge, a historic city about an hour away. Here are the photos!

This is a photo taken inside the new St Pancras International station in London.  The station was completed in November last year and is very nice.  It was great for us because it's only 3 tube stops away from our tube station and so easy to get to!  Much unlike the 45 minute to 1 hour train rides to the airports.  Anyway, it's much easier to get on the Eurostar and in about two hours we made it to Brussels!

There are chocolate shops everywhere in Brussels and Brugge because the Belgians do know how to make chocolate.  Here is a photo of the Dumon Chocolate Shop in Brugge where we picked up a few sweets!  They were pretty amazing!   

This is the Bell Tower in Brugge, which overlooks the Market Square.  The tower is 290 feet high and about 366 steps.  We decided to work off a little of the chocolate and make our way up to the top!

Here is a photo of some steps, which doesn't really do the trip up any justice!  Let's just say it got a little tight passing people going in the opposite direction.   There were a few stops along the way though and eventually we made it to the top!

View of Brugge from the top of the tower.

Market Square.

Can you see London in the distance?  Just kidding of course, but they did have an arrow pointing in its' direction!

Anyway, we did make it down from the tower and spent the rest of the day walking around the city and seeing the sites.  There are a bunch of canals and took a little boat cruise around the city.

This is Brug Square with more pretty architecture.

Chad in tour-on mode in the streets of Brugge!

So there isn't much to say about Brussels itself and I haven't included any photos from there! It's pretty big city with nothing too exciting but we stayed in a nice hotel and it was easy to get back on the Eurostar and head home.  I guess the thing we loved about the trip the most, was the incredible treats that the Belgians are famous for.  Not only is the chocolate good, they are known for their waffles (no duh!) and fries.  And I had to take pictures of course!

Our lunch with the famous fries, and yes, that is a pile of mayo on the top of Chad's plate!  This is how they eat them there, so when in Rome...

And here are our waffle treats with plenty of cream and strawberries and chocolate!  Yum!

So, that was the trip and needless to say, we're going to need to diet all week after eating all that junk!  It was worth it though!  So, we're back at it again at work this week and are looking forward to next weekend!  We're going to see the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Friday and then heading to the Royal Ascot horse race on Saturday!  It should be a fun time!  Hope that you are doing well and happy father's day to all the dads!  I gotta go call mine right now!

xoxox, Kari and Chad