Last day in Brussels
11.11.2011 - 11.11.2011
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Our last day in Brussels was pretty low key. Brussels was on bank holiday so there was a lot of stuff that was not open. We tried to find some new things that we hadn't found yet and ended up in the high end shopping district. I highly recommend going to this area - it is the Louise/Louiza metro stop. It had all types of beautiful stores like Gucci, Armani, Louis Vuitton, etc. And it had a Tiffany & Co. I was absolutely crushed that it wasn't open due to the bank holiday, there is not a Tiffany's near me at home so it would have been so nice to have been able to go to it here in Brussels. Anyway, near this shopping district was a gigantic building built for Leopold I. It looked like a building that had possibly been used for court proceedings. It was absolutely gorgeous but you could tell that it had not been used in a little while. They were doing some work on the one side of the building so hopefully they are going to restore it for use again. After that, we took the Metro to another area (St. Catherine metro stop) which was supposed to have a flea market type thing. But, I guess because of the bank holiday, it wasn't open. So,we headed to the Grand Place area. I don't know whether it was because it was holiday or because it was Friday but there were people everywhere. I had not seen this many people in this area the entire week that I had been here. We ate lunch at a really cool bar/restaurant. That was the best sandwich I've had in a while. Then we walked around a bit (thank goodness we had done most of our gift shopping on Wednesday because the shops were mobbed with people). We ended up back at the Mannekin Pis and this time he was dressed up in a chef's hat, shirt and apron. Apparently they dress him up in costumes from time to time so I am glad that we got to see that. We finished our shopping and then headed back to the hotel to start packing up so we didn't have to do it all in the morning. Then we went to dinner at an authentic Belgian restaurant right in the Grand Place - food was freakin' fantastic and we had such an amazing view while we ate. Then we headed to Little Delirium for a beer. Not only was there the ginormous bar Delirium but there was also Little Delirium which was a lot more quaint and also had pink elephants everywhere - seriously they make the best beer ever! After our beers, we went to our favorite waffle stand and had our last waffle. Mine was with whip cream, caramel and pecans - again YUM. Boy am I going to miss eating those!! We rode the Metro back to the hotel, had one more beer and then went up to finish packing. So, it was a good last day. I still feel like there was so much more for me to see but I definitely plan on going back! Til I depart back to Raleigh...
Posted by pjcarroll 12.11.2011 10:51 Archived in Belgium
