Brussels, Belgium

We began our Northern Europe Tour (Kyle likes to call it) with an overnight train to Koln, Germany and then onto Brussels, Belgium. This is the first time we stayed in a 6-cabin sleeper car. It was am interesting experience and we were fortunate enough to only have one other person join us in our car, but it was still really cramped! We were supposed to arrive in Koln, Germany at 5:45 AM but thankfully we were about an hour late. Once we got to the train station, we headed over to Starbucks to get our caffeine fix and then we hopped on another train to Brussels. We went straight to the information desk and found out where our hostel was and where we could buy our next train tickets. After we got all the necessary tickets and maps, we jumped on the metro and to our hostel. We dropped off our luggage and started exploring.

We left the list of things to do in the luggage back at the hostel, so we just sort of winged it. We ended up sampling an official Belgium waffle, eating twice-fried French fries , and drinking Dr. Pepper for lunch,

seeing a famous statue of a boy peeing (urinating),

shopping at a flea market, visiting the Grand Place, and listening to some Belgium singers at a local festival held down town in front of a church.

After all of this we headed back to the hostel to shower and get ready for dinner. Before dinner we headed to the outskirts of Belgium to see the Atomium structure. It is shaped like a giant cluster of atoms and it was built for the World Fair.

Then we headed to Chi Chi’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant, and ordered fajitas, and burritos/enchiladas. It wasn’t as good as official Tex-Mex, but they tried. Monday we visited the Royal Palace, but couldn’t go in because it is still in use. Then we strolled through the King’s Garden located next to the palace.

We spent a lot of our time this day just exploring various grocery stores, souvenir shops, and the city. Comic strips are extremely popular and numerous in Brussels. This is where the Smurfs (little blue cartoon characters) were invented and also the TinTin comics. Throughout the city there were random comics on the side of buildings and we tried to locate as many as we could.

We got up the next morning and took a train to Amsterdam.