Day 1: Brussels...check off that list!

We arrived in Amsterdam a full hour early, so we checked the train schedules.  We had tickets for an overnight train to Salzburg that left at 20:00, so we decided to spend the day in Belgium.  The day was cold and rainy, but hey, I get to add another country to my list and another spoon to my collection!

When we got to Brussells, we locked up our packs and went looking for 4 things: 1) Grand Place, 2) Belgian Waffles, 3) Mannequin Pis, and of course, 4) Belgian Chocolates.

Grand Place is exactly how it sounds:  a grand place!  It was beautiful with several forms of architecture, guilded buildings and cobblestone streets.  It started drizzling while we were there, so we didn't linger, but we went in search of #2 on our list.

  We passed many places that sold waffles, but Jim wanted to find a place he had been to on his last trip.  We didn't find it and ended up settling for a sub-standard waffle...at least I hope they're suppose to be better than that!  We saw several shops afterwards that had incredible-looking waffles and realized we made a poor decision.  Oh well, I've had a Belgian Waffle!

next on the list was the Mannequin Pis, the famous statue of the little boy peeing.  We got a couple of pictues, but the rain was really starting to fall , so we headed back toward the train station.  Thankfully, one of the hundreds of chocolatiers had caught our eyes on our way to the Mannequin Pis, and we already had #4 on our list!  We were able to get 1/2 kg box of chocolates that included 1 of every piece in the display case...and OH MY GOODNESS!  What a display and selection!

By the time we got to the station, we were soaked but satisfied in our accomplishments.  We even had gotten our first souvenirs!

Now off to Brugge...