Welcome back! Since we live in Frankfurt, we can get to most places in Europe by car in a day. I take the time the GPS tells me that it will take to get somewhere as a personal challenge:) So we spent last weekend in Belgium! Years ago I visited Bruges while backpacking and absolutely loved it so I was excited to get to go back sans hostel and super heavy backpack:) Bruges is a medieval city that was once a large trade center but lost it's waterway to the sea. So now it's a largely pedestrian city with cute little streets and loads of canals. It's touristy but awesome. Foodwise Belgium is known for it's beer, chocolate, waffles, french fries with dressing, and sprouts. I'm happy to say we sampled all of the above except for the sprouts (maybe next time...yuck). 

 

Our next stop was Leuven, home of the Stella Artois factory. Not a whole lot going on here except for a lot of beer making so if that's not your thing I would skip this (my adorable fellow traveler LOVES beer so we had to check it out). Our next stop was Ghent, a largely university town and patriotically very Flemish. Like Bruges it has a canal running through it and it has a medieval feel it.   We are big walkers and love strolling around new places so this was a fantastic time- unlike Germany many places were open on Sundays so we were able to eat (phew!). 

Our last stop was Brussels- home of the Belgian royal family and tons of Art Nouveau architecture (they are serious about their wrought iron work). It was a much bigger city than we anticipated and my favorite part was the Atomium which is a large monument that looks like an atom with each level dedicated to a belgian scientist- my brother would love this.

So that's our trip in a nutshell- auf wiedersehen!!