M: I made Savanna get up at a decent time this morning for a free walking tour. By “made Savanna get up” I mean I had to wake her up, twice. But, correct me if I’m wrong, it was so worth it.

S: I agree with Meags wholeheartedly.

M: It was a brisk morning but we were bundled up, ready to spend the next three hours walking around outside. We started at the Grand Place, an old market square surrounded on all four sides with beautiful, beautiful buildings (both beautifuls required). By this point on our trip around Europe, we have seen our fair share of squares. It’s safe to say that this is one of the prettiest. Two sides had gothic-style buildings, while the other two were more Renaissance style. They all had gold accents, of course, because how else do they decorate anything in Europe? It was really something. We walked all around the historical area, seeing Manneken Pis and learning about beer, chocolate, Brussels and Belgium. I didn’t know much about the country at all and our guide did a great job of highlighting some very important and interesting facts.

S: Meags just set me up as if I’m supposed to talk about those facts… But I was going to talk about the guide. So here goes. The main point is that the king Leopold II (is that right?) killed a bunch of people while trying to get rich and his successor (Albert I – Meaghan had to tell me his name again) stopped the killing and rallied Belgium against Germany who wanted to use them as a road to get to France. Belgium was supposed to be a neutral country but they instead got a sense of national pride from all this, even though they had their asses handed to them. History lessons from Savanna.

The guide Maggie was amazing! She was so enthusiastic, but not in an annoying way. She was passionate about what she was saying, interested in making sure everyone got what they needed from the tour, and knowledgeable on a whole host of Belgian topics, from politics to waffles.

After the tour we decided to head over to a waffle place called Maison Davoy recommended by Maggie. It was so incredible! Just when you think you’ve had awesome waffles in Europe, you come to Belgium. Every single drop of homemade syrup is delicious. The plate? Lickable.

Next we went to a flea market that was rated quite highly in Belgium. Turns out it’s the invisible market… There was a huge empty square with not a soul, nor a piece of garbage to ever indicate there had been recent life there… Odd. We did however end up on the sketchy side of the city which led to a few fun adventures!

M: Right beside the invisible market we found a sign post with a whole bunch of names and arrows pointing in different directions. We chose one at random that I had mentioned might be cool to see, the Palais de Justice, and headed in that direction…kind of. We walked in the opposite direction for a little while before turning ourselves around. A hop, skip and a jump later, we came upon the very imposing and majestic Palais de Justice. We briefly watched the sunset from up here before spotting the tower in the Grand Place and heading back in that direction.

On our walk back, we stumbled on a beautiful antique shop. There was so much crammed in there and it was all so fun to look at. The armoires, chaise longues, chandeliers and everything in between had us enthralled for a good while. We particularly like the delicate little pill boxes and big old books. If we had any way of getting this stuff home, our bags would be a lot fuller and our bank accounts a lot emptier after this shop.

By this time we were starving. Turns out a muffin and a waffle don’t fill you up all that much! We found the ramen place we were hunting for yesterday and hungrily slurped it all down. With warm hands in our mittens and warm food in our bellies, we went to the Christmas market because it is the best.

S: We love wandering around the stalls. Chocolate in hand, we stared and ooh’d and ahh’d at everything, particularly some beautiful calligraphy artwork. We strolled home, imagining holding cups of hot wine while snow crunched under our feet. This place is certainly good for the Christmas spirit!

S&M