Day 2: Brussels

We ended Day 1 in the hotel room watching Belgian TV perusing trip advisor to plan our activities for Day 2.  We found a few options and after looking at our map, we settled on Cinquantenaire Park and Autoworld.  Conveniently, these two were located right next to each other.  We woke up and went in search for breakfast.  We had passed several cafes on our walk to the Grand Place, so we wandered over in that direction.  We found one that was open and sat down.  We ordered croissants, cafe au lait, and orange juice.  How European of us!

The first of many croissants.  Also jam with croissant is amazing.  How have I not stumbled upon this myself?!?

Look at this teeny tiny cup of coffee

One metro ride later, we found ourselves here.

Who doesn't love a good jumping picture?

How many takes did this picture take to get?  Did you guess 4?  If you did, then you are right.  I could not for the life of me time the jump.  Always too early.  The hubster, on the other hand, nailed it.  EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  It's a pretty big park.  Kinda sparse, but nice and green with a lot of benches and DOGS.

Can you spot the hubster?

That tour bus arrived right as I was setting up the mini tripod

How mature!  (tee hee, it was my idea for the picture though)

After we walked under the arches, Autoworld was right there!  Yay to minimizing walking.  Even though we had been there for a mere 24 hours, we were tired of walking already.  We did a lot of it the previous night.

Happy hubster!

There were a lot of cars in this place.  The hubster was very happy and was snapping pictures left and right.  I was too, but not of the same things.

Example 1

I think there is another picture with me with a disco ball helmet floating around somewhere.  Maybe on the hubster's phone.

The hubster's most favorite car in the museum.  I said it looks like he's driving it.  He says he looks like a really tiny man.  Whatever!

Me in a tire.

Me inside of a Formula 1 car

The hubster still thinks that this car was on display only and that I should not have gotten in.  I say if they wanted people not to get into it, then they shouldn't have put a rope around it or put up some signs like the rest of the museum had.

We left Autoworld and decided to keep walking around the park.  This fountain was near the end and we decided to sit a bit and enjoy the scenery.  You can't tell from these pictures put just to the left of the fountain, there was a photo shoot going on.  There was a blonde model in a crop bra top and tight pants.  She was definitely working something.  During the shoot, the fountain turned off. I was let out a cry of dismay and immediately after, you could hear the photographer do the same!  Everyone loves fountains!

The clouds don't look very promising, but it did not rain while we were in Belgium.  Thank goodness.

Arches from the other side of the park

This shot took two attempts.  The hubster did not feel like marking two spots, so he was in the right place in line with the right arch while I was trying to gauge where I was supposed to stand.

Under the arches

Panoramic View

After the park, we decided to go shopping on Avenue Louise.  This was originally the part of town we were supposed to stay, but either their prices went up or they were booked or maybe I had a change of heart.  Anyway, this street was lined with high end stores: Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Prada.  You name it, they got it.

But first lunch!  We were starving by the time we got off the metro.  Right as we exited was a Quick Burger.  I figured that it was ok to get some fast food as long as it was European fast food.  We later learned that Quick Burger was France's response to McDonald's.  The menu was similar.  It had burgers, chicken sandwiches, fish sandwiches, and pomme frites.  Since the hubster does not like any kind of vegetable or condiment except for ketchup and mustard, it was very important that he be able to order his bacon cheeseburger plain.  Everyone else spoke English fairly well everywhere we've been so far, we figured they would speak it at a fast food joint in a very touristy area.  We thought we had gotten our message across, but his burger still ended up with gobs of mayonaisse and my normal, non-specialty burger took 10 minutes to arrive!  The hubster thinks the cashier was too impatient to wait for his special order burger and just gave him the first one that came out.  Another thing, they charge for ketchup packets!  What!?!?!  30 cents a piece!  It's like McDonald's charging for extra dipping sauce, but at least the first one is free.  Once, we finished lunch, we hit the shops!

I've been saving all of my lacrosse money for this trip.   So I was prepared to make an extravagant purchase, but in the back of my mind was a nagging feeling that I could get it cheaper in the US, both because of the exchange rate and because of base cost as well.  I really wanted a truly European souvenir.  I had done some research on European only goods and decided to be a truly luxurious gift: a cashmere sweater.  Eric Bompard was highly rated and recommended.  It wasn't as extravagant as say a Hermes scarf or new Burberry trench coat, but it was still very nice.  I chose a thin 2 ply v-neck sweater in Navy.  I love it and it'll remind me of Europe whenever I wear it.  It was a good thing I bought it because nearing the end of our Paris stay it got very chilly and I got to wear it even before heading back to the States.

Funny thing with the bag is that if you don't look close enough, that goat on it, looks like a smudge mark.  I was wondering to myself why would I get a dirty bag when I'm dropping some serious money on a sweater.  Don't worry.  It's a goat.

After buying my sweater, we headed back to the hotel to rest up and find a place to eat.  We ended up walking down this alley of nothing but restaurants.  Obviously a tourist trap, but my opportunity to get some mussels!  We picked Chez Leon which I vaguely remember seeing on Trip Advisor.  Can't beat €15 for free beer, mussels, and pomme frites.

Yum!

The hubster ordered a steak, his first of many.  It tasted different.  I attributed it to it not being an American cow.  We later learned that they import all of their beef from Argentina.  Maybe Argentinian cows aren't as fatty as our cows.  We finished our dinner, walked around the Grand Place a bit more (we really walked around that place 5-6 times) and then headed back to the hotel.  I needed to pack up because we were headed to Germany the next morning.

Next up, our first experience with trains!