When we began our planning for this trip we knew two things: 1. We were doing the 10k in London and 2. We were going to Rome. The biggest question we had to answer was how are we moving between countries and by which method. Seeing how we try to pack as much as we can in the short time abroad, we decided that it was an opportunity to hit another stop along the way so we took the Eurostar train from London to Brussels (through the Chunnel!) before flying to Rome.

Oddly enough, it’s almost 11 years to the day that I created this blog for my first European trip in grad school to Brussels. If you like, you can read more about that trip here so going back was a special thrill knowing that I could show Lauren around some of the spots that I had visited 11 years ago.

We’ve never visited a different country via train before and really didn’t know what to expect when leaving London. As it turns out, the process of traveling between countries via train isn’t too terribly different than that of an airport. Security, passport control and customs all occur and thanks to Brexit, we got to experience the subsequent chaos at the St Pancras train station where they were backed up 45 minutes but somehow we were able to make it through all of the above and arrive without much issue to the Brussels International Train Station.

I’d be lying if I said that I remember everything from my first stint in Brussels. As we were wandering through the city, I was reminded by the fact that I don’t remember a darn thing. In the end it doesn’t really matter, I was able to navigate the winding streets to (finally) show off places that I had been that Lauren hasn’t. Even though it was raining through our entire visit, it didn’t damper the grandiosity of the Grand Place or the disappointment of seeing how small Manikin Pis truly is. The city center itself isn’t all that interesting but it does contain two key vices that each of us enjoy – chocolate and beer.

I fully underestimated the influence of bringing a self proclaimed chocoholic to the chocolate capital of the world. To orient you, Brussels contains an unfathomable amount of dedicated chocolate shops. So much so that there lies a chocolate store at each corner of one of the entrances to the Grand Place. Even venturing outside of that area, you can walk a block without running into one. Suffice to say, they are everywhere. Each shop offers its own specialty from simple bars, to pralines to fruit centric confections and they all give out samples. I lost count, but we ended up visiting at least 20 different shops and got to the point where even Lauren was getting overwhelmed by the options. After that feeling dissipated after three or so seconds we were able to reign in several options to take home.

Our chocolate escapade continued through the evening as we took a formal chocolate making class with Aletta, a local chocolatier. We didn’t make the actual chocolate base however Aletta did walk us through the process of tempering chocolate and working with molds to create our very own pralines. Stuffed with chocolate ganache, caramel, and coffee infused chocolate, our pralines were done in about an hour and we had (even more) chocolate for us to munch on for the rest of the trip.

Brussels is also home to my favorite bar in the world. Delirium Village is a quick walk from the Grand Place and is home to over eight separate bars, but its main one, Delirium Cafe is home to over 2000 on tap beers from all over the world and its staffed by some of the most knowledge and fun people you’ll ever meet. A lot of the beers they have you can’t get in the US (including my personal favorite, Delirium Nocturum) so naturally this is a must stop for whenever I visit Brussels.

Travel/Post Details

• Post includes activities from February 26-27 (Brussels Section)
• Accommodation – NH Grand Place
• Featured Image – Brussels Town Hall located within the Grand Place
• I forwent the usual spiels about the historical places we visited, primarily because I’ve written about them before during my first visit to Brussels. For the history of those sites, feel free to follow the link above.
• We had Lunch at Snack St Katherine, which is a kebab place close to the hotel I stayed at during my first stay. While good, it did not live up to what I remember. I had the döner wrap and Lauren had a Bicky.
• Believe it or not, I did find a beer at Delirium that Lauren enjoyed: a Floris Flamboise from Huyghe Brewery (on tap).
• Since we were tired of walking and soaked due to the rain, we grabbed Burger King on the way back from Delirium.
• Chocolate class was booked through Chocolate Workshop, Belgium
• In addition to the chocolate, we also had a waffle topped with Biscoff butter and cookie crumbles and several hot chocolates. Unfortunately, no mussels.
• The morning of Feb 27, we had coffee at Corica. They had about twenty different espressos to choose from, from all around the world. This was a huge unplanned find and the coffee was incredible.