Belgium is famous for chocolate and beer. I love both of
these creations, so I was quite happy to spend the end of our Europe 2011
adventure in Brussels. I only wish that I had more chocolate while we were
there. I love beer, but I have never been a fan of the Belgian yeast strains.
They add too much floral and spice qualities to the beer for my personal taste.
Needless to say I had more chocolate than beer..
We got a tip from a pleasant Belgian we chatted up over
lunch who directed us to
Pierre Marcolini for chocolate. Apparently this is the
finest in Belgian chocolate. We obviously deserve the finest, so away we went
in search of Marcolini. After handing over a small fortune we were in chocolate
heaven. I won’t assert that this shop is indeed the best in Belgium, how could
I possibly? I will assure you that the treats were decadently delightful. I
wish I had pictures of all their delectable morsels, but they frowned on
photography.
In general I bet Brussels is a great place to live and work.
The city was littered with little green spaces and parks filled with people
enjoying their lunch break. We stumbled into a few really cool gardens with
greenery carefully crafted into geometric shapes and color carefully
incorporated into the setting. These little gardens were great. The large
swings in elevation also provided some great views of the city from the
hilltops. There was clearly some careful thought put into the use of public
space and a concerted effort to make the city livable and inviting.
We also had some of the best meals of the entire trip in
Brussels. I had an amazing traditional Belgian rabbit dish. It was rabbit braised
in gueuze, which is a sweet/sour Lambic, or fruit beer. The deep sweet richness
of the reduction sauce complemented the rabbit leg beautify. Erin enjoyed a
similarly prepared braised beef dish, though not braised in gueuze. I expected
Paris to deliver the best meal of the trip, but Brussels delivered. (Though to
be fair Brussels is basically half French influenced and half Dutch influenced
so in a way I supposed it could be considered French cooking?)
All of this is nice and well, but from a tourist perspective
I would not recommend it. If you want to go to Belgium for the chocolate, or
beer, Brussels isn’t a bad place to spend some time. Outside of that I don’t
see a huge reason to visit. To be fair we didn’t spend that much time in the
city. We only experienced a limited amount of Brussels. There may be some magic we missed, it’s just that I didn’t
feel excitement from a purely touristic perspective.
Perhaps if I knew more of the history it would seem more magical? The Grand
Place, or Grand Square, was pretty amazing after all.
We got a tip from a pleasant Belgian we chatted up over
lunch who directed us to Pierre Marcolini for chocolate. Apparently this is the
finest in Belgian chocolate. We obviously deserve the finest, so away we went
in search of Marcolini. After handing over a small fortune we were in chocolate
heaven. I won’t assert that this shop is indeed the best in Belgium, how could
I possibly? I will assure you that the treats were decadently delightful. I
wish I had pictures of all their delectable morsels, but they frowned on
photography. 
In general I bet Brussels is a great place to live and work.
The city was littered with little green spaces and parks filled with people
enjoying their lunch break. We stumbled into a few really cool gardens with
greenery carefully crafted into geometric shapes and color carefully
incorporated into the setting. These little gardens were great. The large
swings in elevation also provided some great views of the city from the
hilltops. There was clearly some careful thought put into the use of public
space and a concerted effort to make the city livable and inviting. 
We also had some of the best meals of the entire trip in
Brussels. I had an amazing traditional Belgian rabbit dish. It was rabbit braised
in gueuze, which is a sweet/sour Lambic, or fruit beer. The deep sweet richness
of the reduction sauce complemented the rabbit leg beautify. Erin enjoyed a
similarly prepared braised beef dish, though not braised in gueuze. I expected
Paris to deliver the best meal of the trip, but Brussels delivered. (Though to
be fair Brussels is basically half French influenced and half Dutch influenced
so in a way I supposed it could be considered French cooking?)
All of this is nice and well, but from a tourist perspective
I would not recommend it. If you want to go to Belgium for the chocolate, or
beer, Brussels isn’t a bad place to spend some time. Outside of that I don’t
see a huge reason to visit. To be fair we didn’t spend that much time in the
city. We only experienced a limited amount of Brussels. There may be some magic we missed, it’s just that I didn’t
feel excitement from a purely touristic perspective.
Perhaps if I knew more of the history it would seem more magical? The Grand
Place, or Grand Square, was pretty amazing after all.
