📍Antwerp & Brussels, Belgium 🇧🇪

Amy and Richard were on their way back to the States (😩) and we were well on our way to a comfy hotel to rest, nap, and sleep until our next Kandel shipment came in. We didn’t know exactly what country or even city we were going to once my parents left, but we did know we were going to get the omelet one more time before leaving.

Day 1: We checked out of the hotel, and went to get our last breakfast in Amsterdam…as mentioned, the omelet (it does feel funny talking about eggs so much, but it was really was that good). At breakfast, we looked at different options of where to go and what to do until we met up with my brother, Jonathan (mostly referred to as Junie), and his fiancé, Audrey, in Brussels. While throwing out a few ideas, I had checked hotels in Antwerp because it was halfway to where we needed to be. Turns out, they were cheap, the train tickets were cheap, and I had remembered that a couple we met in Vietnam were also from there. We messaged them, they were free, and we were officially booked.

From breakfast, we went to the train station and immediately got on the train. Perfect timing. Some uppity lady sat by me and told me I probably didn’t have the right ticket. Little does she know, I learned my lesson with my ticket from Budapest and I was smooth sailing. Even better, when the ticket guy came around he informed HER that she was in the wrong seat. To be fair, we were also sitting in the wrong train car since we didn’t have first class tickets either. We quietly excused ourselves and went to the next car to greet the other peasants in second class (where we belong).

We got in around 5:30 pm, brought some food in, and chilled. Our bodies were very thankful.

Day 2: I don’t have too many pictures from Antwerp because I took my sleep very seriously here to recharge for the next visitors, but J took a few.

For dinner, we met up our Antwerp friends we met in Vietnam for a really good and authentic Belgium meal. The company was obviously very good because I forgot to take a picture of the meal! Tragic.

They kindly dropped us off at our hotel and we packed up for an early departure the next day.

Day 2: We took a train from Antwerp to Brussels to meet up with Junie and Audrey!!! We checked into the hotel, Latroupe Grand Place, and eagerly awaited for our visitors to arrive.

They had taken a red-eye and hadn’t slept but they were ready! Our first and most important stop was Pee Pee boy, more commonly referred to as Manneken Pis.

Seeing as we were in Belgium, the next stop was an obvious must: waffles. We went to The Waffle Factory, where you choose from a small list of toppings to make your own dream waffle. After waiting patiently—seemingly the waffle guy’s first day on the job and there were many tries to get the waffle right—we were finally right where we needed to be.

We made our way to the Grand Palace and Galary Royalle.

After one stop without food or a peeing statue, we quickly reverted to our “old ways.” Onto another pee pee statue.

We walked through the Mont De Arts and stopped at the Royal Palace. As we got there, we saw the guards start to march. We thought it was the changing of the guard, but they just marched out of their little hut, went AT MOST five feet, and backed it up right back into their hut. Great precision on the backing up and spatial awareness. Maybe a bit less exciting than someone peeing, but it was nice.

We tried going to the Palais De Justice for a view. We successfully made it into the building but did not successfully find the view point we were looking for. Can’t win ’em all.

The Chocolate Museum was closing soon so we made a game time decision to take a tour.

We checked into our hotel and found a place to have dinner. We eventually made it to La Zotte Mouche for some Belgium food and lovely wall décor. Now remember, Junie and Audrey hadn’t slept and have traveled overnight, so the fact that they were still vertical was impressive.

Because we only had one day in Belgium (we were on a wild 10 day, 5 country tour), we couldn’t stop until we saw the Christmas market. The problem was, I wanted to go to one market in particular but didn’t know what it was called and, apparently, there are a LOT of markets in Belgium during this time. All I knew was the one I wanted to go to had a Ferris wheel and the four other markets we stumbled upon did not. Getting lost paid off because we were able to see an amazing light show in the main square.

And then, after a few stops for snacks, we FINALLY made it to the market with the wheel! For the record, I didn’t even care to go on the wheel, I just knew that’s where the biggest market was.

After being up for A LOT of hours, it was time everyone got sleep for our busy next few days!

Day 4: Next stop: Paris (but not before a fat breakfast at Woodpecker in Brussels).

Bloopers: