First stop, Belgium! But first a quick layover in Copenhagen. The redeye flight across the Atlantic was more pleasant than expected – with a large selection of blockbuster movies, we indulged in the recent award season highlights like The Substance, Anora, Conclave, and the Apprentice. Other than the slimy zucchini and monochromatic chicken packaged as a “scandanvian traditional dish”, the flight was speedy and comfortable.  

Since Copenhagen is in the EU, we get one stamp entering the EU, one customs to enter, and only one passport memento of our four country trip ahead of us. Unfortunately, the gates to our flight didn’t appear until two hours ahead, leaving us stranded in a small waiting room in between customs and the rest of the airport. I napped on mom’s nap, a nice reminder that no matter how old I was, I would never outgrow seeking the comfort of my mother. No matter the discomfort, the situation, my mother would always provide what I needed over her own. 

After a big, juicy airport burger for dinner, we boarded the final flight to Belgium. Within the Brussels airport, there is a subway station, much like that of SFO and Bart. We were able  to easily find the correct  train line, pay for our ticket, and get on the train to Brussels. Immediately, the first thing I noticed about the train stations was how large and clean they were. Nothing like the congested, old, pee smelling, BART trains in the Bay. The trains in Europe were fashioned like Amtrak trains – large, spacious seats, large windows, double decker, present bathrooms, etc. For the low fares of the European metro, this was an incredible upgrade to the transportation we’d seen elsewhere. 

Our final day in Belgium, we were killing time in Brussels waiting for our overnight bus to France. As the capital of Belgium and the home of the UN, we had some important government buildings, palaces, foods to eat, and cute statues of naked children to see!

We started our day off with a lovely breakfast of fresh seafood caught from the North Sea. Unfortunately, mussels were out of season, but we were satisfied with some finger clams and a filet of swordfish. It was my first time having swordfish, and the sauce was delicious! Both dishes were cooked in a buttery, garlicky sauce. We ate them so fast, we even ordered a second order of clams and mackerel. (picture)

The Grand Palace of Brussels was most certainly an accurate name. It is the central market of Brussels, with a museum, town hall and King’s home with many restaurants at ground level. The square itself was empty, just tourists and school field trips taking pictures, eating lunch, and chatting. The baroque style of architecture was possibly my favorite style of architecture that I’d seen in our global travels.

In the evening while waiting for our overnight bus, we lingered on benchs around the square for at least two hours, just watching people and the sunset over the gold trim of the Grand Palace. 

During the day, we munched on Liege waffles, took pictures of Manneken Pis (small statues of a little boy and girl peeing into a fountain), saw the royal quarter, ate more Liege waffles, and returned to the Grand Palace for dinner. 

The royal quarter had a Palace – the king’s administrative workplace, not even residence! They even had the cartoon-ish guards in red uniforms walking around with guns. Unfortunately it was closed for renovation, but usually they accept visitors for a museum portion of the palace. Between Parliament at the end of the Royal Quarter is a garden/community park.

Dinner at the Grand Palace was so relaxing. We went to a restaurant in the wine cellar/basement of one of the baroque buildings that served horse steak! The steak was much tougher than beef, but otherwise the same flavor. I wished it was cooked with a bit more herbs and had a robust flavor, but that was unfortunately the general trend of food in Europe.

Of course we had to get second dinner, and couldn’t miss out on mussels in Brussels. We went to a touristy restaurant with a sales person outside trying to draw people in. I ordered some rabbit, and Mom got a big bowl of white wine mussels. The rabbit was unbelievably tender and pretty similar to dark chicken meat. I couldn’t get past the texture of the mussels so I only tried one, and Mom thought they were ok.