Europe 2016 ~ Day 7: Brussels, Belgium

Manneken Pis fountain in Brussels, Belgium

Tuesday, April 19, 2016. Day 7 Amsterdam – Brussels – Paris.

Today was a great day.

Breakfast for the second morning in a row at the Hampton Hotels continental breakfast lounge.

Selection was the same as yesterday with the exception of mini muffins instead of the mini donuts. Yum!

Amazing breakfast at Hampton Hotels continental breakfast lounge

There were a lot more people here today than yesterday.

I also got to try the waffle machine today and it tasted so great and crispy on the edges.

Making my own waffle! 😀

We left 15 minutes later than usual today so I got to enjoy breakfast with Snapchat too haha.

Just as we were in Amsterdam for two days, we drove to Brussels, Belgium instead.

After two hours in the bus (we all passed out), we arrived at a pit stop where the €50 cent ticket to the washroom again resulted in a voucher. I bought a waffle to try. 😀

This turned out to be super tasty — soft waffle that wasn’t too sweet

After that, about 40 mins, we arrived at one of Belgium’s tourist spots, the Atomium.

The Atomium in the distance

We really just looked at it from afar and took pictures. The Atomium contains nine separate capsules that you can enter.

We took some group jumping shots too. So fun haha 😀

Then we arrive at the city centre of Belgium and walked around.

Entering the Brussel city centre

The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert or Koninklijke Sint-Hubertusgalerijen is a glazed shopping arcade in Brussels.

Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert

Historic buildings

Horse carriage

Really hard to capture it all on photos

Haha, saw this huge waffle in front of a store :p

The tour guide showed us to Rudolf Braun where we tried some authentic Belgian chocolates. Yum!! Sooo good. I must have taken at least 10 haha.

Trying chocolate samples at Rudolf Braun

Chocolate bars for sale at Rudolf Braun

Rudolf Braun – Chocolaterie Manneken Pis at Eikstraat 2, 1000 Brussel, Belgium

Mmmm

We all bought chocolate since it was 8 boxes for €80 and two boxes of truffles for free. Yay.

Photo in front of Rudolf Braun

We saw Mannekin Pis, the peeing boy fountain/statue. The origin of the peeing boy statue is from here. I remember the first time I got introduced to this sculpture was when I went to the Window of the World in China. ^_^

Mannekin Pis in all its glory — no pun intended 😛

It gets dressed in different costumes but on our visit, it was bare-bottomed

A must-visit in Brussels!

Mannekin Pis souvenirs

Mannekin Pis and Belgian chocolates!

Hehehe 😛

Next up, we went for lunch. Belgium is well known for their mussels and fries combo, so we walked into an alley that was full of seafood restaurants and picked Le Calalou to try.

Alleyway of seafood restaurants in Brussels

Saw this in front of one of the restaurants

Cheers!

Click here to read the full review and experience of our lunch at Le Calalou.

We ate quickly and then met up at 3 p.m. to return back on the bus. Before that, I quickly dashed into the nearest cafe that sold waffles to get one for myself to try. How can I go to Belgium without trying their famous waffles?

Click here to read about the waffles I got from Ijsberg!

Next, we were on our way back to Paris (we didn’t even spend a full day in Belgium). The trip took about three hours but I didn’t sleep during the whole trip surprisingly.

Map during our pitstop back to Paris

After a pit stop where we bought some French snacks for friends and family, we arrived back in Paris.

Unfortunately, we were set to stay at the same hotel as we did on the first two nights. This time, I got the shorter end of the stick because our room only had one plug outlet, an incredibly tiny shower with a too-high shower head, and weak wifi signal. …sigh.

We settled in with our stuff and then walked out to find dinner. After considering two other restaurants on the street, we settled on a Japanese restaurant.

Walking out to find dinner

Yakitori at SushiRama

Click here to see what we ate at SushiRama for dinner.

Then home (aka the hotel)! I will have to make do with what I have at this hotel but showering was definitely inconvenient and the first time I’ve had to a cup to hold water to shower. XD

Tomorrow is our last official touring day in France. Time to finally see the Eiffel Tower and Versailles. Excited!! 🙂

View my posts from the other days of the trip: