Arrived Brussels

10/12/12
It was a nice short drive from Bruges to Brussels today, & Dave's doing a great job of driving even in the crowded cities.  The hotel was easy to find.  It's one of a chain, the Ibis, & right on the Grand Place Market & Galleria.  I'm happy to tell you we'll have stand up showers here!  The Bruges small hotel was really nice & quaint with delicious breakfast buffets, & the Ibis is modern, as Rick Steves puts it, "utilitarian, clean & very convenient." The room is really tiny but adequate for our purposes.  Breakfast is not included; neither is parking, but like in Bruges, we parked the car to stay put until we leave.  To turn on the lights in this hotel  room, we must insert the key card into a slot by the door.  I haven't seen that since we were in Spain a few years ago.  

The Grand Place is the place to be, or so it feels.  It's huge & bustling with all kinds of shops, eateries & museums.  Here are some pictures:

This gleaming gold statue is atop one of the buildings on the square:

Here's the area called the Galleria:

There seem to be more chocolate shops per block here than in Bruges.  We saw one with these chocolate squirrels in the window:

And more food, like this bread shop.  Notice the big pile of waffles which can be topped with whipped cream, bananas, ice cream, chocolate sauce or powdered sugar.

We went into the Beer Museum this afternoon, saw a film, looked around & had a glass of beer afterwards. We learned that a long time ago, the peak number of breweries in Belgium was 3223; mergers & economics have lowered the number considerably, but they didn't say how many there are today.  There are 6 Trappist breweries in the country, & we've discovered one we like--Westmalle.   Here's Dave by one of the many huge stainless steel vats in the Brewery Museum.

I have noticed fewer smokers on the streets of Belgium than in Germany, & every hotel, including the one in Berlin, has been completely smoke free.  That's encouraging!

Another observation---unlike restaurants in the US, you don't get a glass of water automatically.  In fact, every time we've asked for water, the server asks sparkling or still, & either one you order comes in a bottle for which we've been charged.  Here's last night's sparkling water at the pub where we had a light dinner.  It was 2 liters & cost about 4 euros.  Dana, if you're reading this, I want you to know that I got one of those salads like you made, the lettuce on one side, & sections of various veggies on the other side, each separate from the others.  I guess you can vary the choices, because one portion was corn.

We found the tourist office on the plaza & learned about the city bus tour which we'll try tomorrow.  It's an on & off bus that runs all day, & since rain is predicted, it could be a good option.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Teeny tiny indoor private space is enough with a wide open plaza right outside my door.