Brussels & Brugge, Belgium

Nat outside the EurostarOne of the many Chocolatiers...The Chocolate Festival in BruggeThese hats are made of chocolate!Creating Pinokkio out of chocolate!Ummmmmm candy....Rolling up candy in the candy store in BruggeSimon eating muscles in Brussels!Easter Sunday - so much Guylian chocolate!!!!!Our 1930's hotel in Brussels - so gorgeous!!!One of the fine Belgian beers :)


On Good Friday we caught the Eurostar to Brussels... such an easy way to travel and so much better than any airport in London.

After all the bad things we heard about Brussels, or should I say lack of good things we heard, we were surprisingly amazed! A very beautiful city with the best beer and chocolate in the world. You can't go wrong!!! I think I now understand why the English don't love it, it's because there weren't anywhere near as many Starbucks and chain restaurants as other places in Europe... more of the one-off quaint bars and restaurants. The less chain coffee shops for me, the better I say!

On the Saturday we caught a train to Brugge and was lucky enough to be there for the annual Chocolate festival. Four days of the year, Brugge opens up it's chocolate factory for visitors. Lots of sculptures, tasting and general chocolate. Even without a festival going on, every second shop is a gorgeous chocolatier and I even I got sick of eating too much... that is saying something!

Overall, Brussels was a lovely place to visit and relax.... definitely recommend to any of you others in London who are looking for a weekend of drinking and eating :)

Not quite sure why, but the city is famous for seafood, so we decided to get amongst it and try some of their muscles. Seriously, the size of the muscles they served us would have been illegal in NZ. You could hardly even tell they were muscles because they were so tiny! Delicious all the same, but I am looking forward to some green lip muscles from NZ even more now xox