lunch in brussels

After a really busy morning of walking around and exploring Brussels, we were hungry for some lunch.  We stopped at a cafe we found randomly on our walk.  We got a nice booth in a corner to ourselves right in front of the dessert case.

I couldn't help myself but order something because the desserts looked so tasty.  My peach meringue pie was really good.

Someone was trying to sample it while I was busy taking pictures.

We continued exploring Brussels by going to the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert (French) or Koninklijke Sint-Hubertusgalerijen (Dutch).  It is a glazed shopping arcade in Brussels that preceded other famous 19th-century shopping arcades such as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan and The Passage in St Petersburg. 

The small shops inside the mall carried items such as clothing, food, electronics, shoes and so on. 

 And, there were a lot of chocolate shops.  We stopped at Mary's.  Founded in 1919, Mary is the grande dame of Belgian chocolate.  For 90 years it has been a short walk from the palace of the Belgian royal family, and it had been the holder of a Royal Warrant since 1942.

Mary's chocolates are still made to their original recipes with no artificial colors or preservations.  The beans come from as far as Papua New Guinea and Peru.  They make their chocolates using only cocoa butter instead of the cheaper alternative of cocoa powder.  They also make yummy gummy fruit.  

Outside of the mall the weather was getting better.  The rain has passed and we decided to walk to the best place in town to get an authentic Belgian waffle.

We read from multiple sources the best waffles were served at The Dandoy Tea Room.  They make them fresh per order. 

There are two types of waffle here.  The Bruxelles (Brussels) which is rectangular and flaky.  And, the Liege which is rounded and baked with sticky sugar.  We ordered the Liege with chocolate sauce as a topping.  

 The Dandoy has been open since 1829 and serves more than just waffles.

Our Liege waffle was deliciously warm and sweet.  It was very sticky but tasted more like a pancake batter than a dry waffle batter we are used to back home.  It was moist and gooey.  I will never look at waffles the same.

Once we finished our waffle it was time to head back.  I was snapping some pictures on the way to the car of the cafes and the sights.  

Bennett loves the fountains.

We just had one more stop to make before heading to the hotel, the Atomium.

You could tell right away when we drove out into the more modern part of the city.  The old style architecture was replaced with modern buildings and sculptures.

Bennett fell asleep on the drive to the Atomium.

We didn't get a chance to get up close because we had to stay by the car.  But, we did get a chance to snap some nice pictures.

The Atomium is a building in Brussels originally constructed for Expo 58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair.  It stands 102 meters (335 ft) tall. It's nine 18 meters (59 ft) diameter stainless steel clad spheres are connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.  Tubes connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre. They enclose escalators and a lift to allow access to the five habitable spheres which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere provides a panoramic view of Brussels. CNN named it Europe's most bizarre building.

Maybe next time we will get a chance to see the panoramic views.   

We got stuck in traffic on the way to the hotel.  It took us two hours to drive a distance that should have taken a half hour.  We got to the hotel late and went off to bed right away.  Tomorrow we have another long day ahead of us in Bruges.