Belgie / Belgique

Our trip through Belgium began on Christmas day in Waterloo. If you don't know, this is the site of a famous battle in 1815 in which an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington combined with a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher defeated Napolean, thus changing European history. 

Also, thanks to the 1974 Eurovision song contest, it's a metaphor for being destined to be with someone even if you want to avoid them at all costs.

While Belgium was once known as the battleground of Europe, it is now better known for its waffles... 

Mussels...

Chocolate...

And of course beer. We were in Brussels for 3 days where Josh tried the official 8th best beer in the world, Rochfort Trappistes 10. It was interesting in that it had several flavours, but he hated it.

While Yaz tried cherry beer, banana beer, cookie beer, raspberry beer, blueberry beer and the weirdest of all, cactus beer. (That's the green one)

Other things in Brussels include, a light show at the Grand Place...

 The Mannekin Pis, perhaps the lamest tourist site ever...

A super fun Ferris Wheel...

The atomium...

And a statue of Soccerates, the Greek philosopher who had a great head for football.

Then we went to Bruges (it's in Belgium). It's full of well preserved medieval buildings and it looks like a fairytale.

In Bruges is the Basilica of the Holy Blood where they have a phial of Jesus's blood. And with a small donation and a prayer this man will let you touch it. Do you trust this man?

Lastly, we went to Ghent which is also a city with medieval buildings.

And we went to a couple of museums, including an old insane asylum where we learned how to perform phrenological examinations and trepanning.

And to the chocolate museum where we saw a chocolate president. (That's not racist)

P.S. Did you know that swans have see-through noses?