Brussels: The Manneken Pis, Waffles and a Pub Quiz

After our return from Prague Emily and I boarded a train at Paris Nord (train station) and headed off to Brussels.  It was to be our first stop in our Belgium tour, and we would spend a day there before heading off to Antwerp.  We happened to be staying with a friend there, and she actually works for the EU Parliament, which is headquartered (at least the political part) in Brussels.  So our meetup point was the Parliament building so that we could drop our stuff off before heading to do our sightseeing.  I wish we could have gone inside and taken a tour, but we weren't able to (sad day).  I at least know what the building looks like:

Front of the building

Right side

Left side

After lunch we made our way around Belgium, taking in all the sights it has to offer. Our first stop was the the Palais Royale, home of the Beglium royal family.

Our next stop was to see the famous Manneken Pis statue that is a major landmark in Belgium.  It's popularity within the country rivals the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. 

This much bigger replica of the statue was right around the corner next to a waffle place:

Waffles (or "gaufres" in French) are Beglium's "it" food, along with their at least twice fried French fries (aka Chips).  I don't think I can ever go back to eating an Eggo waffle after having a Belgian one.  It was the most delicious waffle I've ever tasted.  The following pictures will show all the different kinds of toppings that you can get on a waffle, but a plain one is just as tasty.  All I had on mine was some whip cream, and I probably could have even left that off. 

We were told that the Musical Instrument museum would have a pretty decent view of the city.  There is a cafe at the very top of the museum, and so that is where Emily and I headed once our legs and feet started to become tired. 

The Musical Instrument Museum.  I probably would have really liked the  actual museum part, but we decided not to visit it. Just gives me another reason to go back to Brussels!

View from our table

Zoomed in view from our table. 

After our afternoon of sightseeing we met back up with our friend to head to a bar to do what the Brits call a "pub quiz" (aka trivia).  It was a good time, up until we got to one of the rounds that was entitled "History of Ireland", and that's when all the Brits at the table used their famous "bloody hell" and "bullocks" expression.  The pub quiz seemed to go down hill from there, as all the Brits were irate that they were being quizzed on Irish history. LOL. 

Next stop on the Belgium map, Antwerp!