Brussels

What can I say about Brussels....... It was the first european stop on our destination and the first time we walked down the street to the grand place I was in love!  the food, aritechure and culture is beautiful and amazing.  Our first day was spent with Fabs cousin Andrew showing us around the grand place and describing the history to us.  On particulare building was built as a gift to the King.  Upon its completion the building was not symetrical resulting in the builder to climb to the top and comitte suicide!  the King decided to keep the building and today the detail of it still stands as I would imagine the day it was built.

Around the square there is also an statue of a little boy pissing, which is a famous part of Belgium history.  The story goes that Brussels experienced once of the worst fires of all time and a father went to find his son who had disappeared.  He eventually found his son standing over a small fire trying to pee on it to stop the fire from spreading and so the statue was born.  We were also told that there are variations of this story however took many to recount.

Another part of belgium which they are famous for and one which Fabs love is beer.  the country has produced over 300 beers and our attpts of trying every one of them is a very difficult challenge let alone pin point which is our favourite beer.  One pub that we went to had a huge menu to choose from and every beer is poored into a differnt size glass which is just as intricate as the next.  A couple on the table next to us order one beer which was served in the biggest glass I have ever seen.  by the time we were ready to order it we were well on our way on being tipsy that we decided against ordering it.   It is also worth mentioning that the strength of these beers are mostly around 10%!

We also took a day trip to Waterloo where a museum and large man made hill was erected on the battle ground to commemorate the battle and fall of napolean.  The history and detail was great.

We have been very fortunate with the weather in belgium with some days the heat rasing to 30 degrees and it hasnt rained once.  We have also had the pleasure and comapny of elena and paul who came to spend some time with us from london and we have share some great laughs and crazy dance moves which the evidence recorded on camera!

We are now preparing for our 15 day turkey tour....... kebabs here we come!