Brussels, Waffles, Beer, and Chocolate

Although we were still a bit tired, we really enjoyed our first full day in Belgium.  We got up, got ready, and then headed about 5 minutes away from our hotel to take a morning tour of the city.  The tour was nice, we saw the big sights to see (see pics below), but it was in four languages.  I speak English and a little bit of Spanish (I am NOT fluent) so I am amazed anytime someone knows multiple languages.  The only thing with a tour in four languages is after they do a bit in your language, you have to wait a while for them to get through three other languages before they say anything else in your language.  So the tour ran a little longer than it was supposed to, but we didn't have plans until 3:00 so it wasn't a big deal.  There was a bit of walking and then the tour continued on a bus.  After the tour, we went back to the hotel to drop of my jacket--it was warm, use the facilities, and then we had lunch at a sandwich place.  More exciting than the lunch was the dessert.  I finally got a Belgian waffle in Belgium with some delicious strawberry ice-cream.  Their ice-cream is different from our ice-cream, but it's GOOD.  We wandered around a bit, then headed to a chocolate store where we were supposed to begin our beer and chocolate tour.   I like chocolate and the hubs likes beer (to be fair, he does like chocolate too) so this seemed like a good tour to book.  It may have been our favorite part of Brussels.  There were about 10 people in our group.  The tour begins with a few pieces of chocolate (we enjoyed it so much that we went back two days later and bought some) and then you stroll through various neighborhoods of Brussels learning some history and seeing some historical/famous spots as you head to three more chocolate spots. I tried a variety of chocolate.  One that was quite interesting was the basil chocolate, it reminded me of pizza.  It was like eating chocolate and pizza all in one.  I wasn't a big fan of the spicy chocolate.  There were also various fruity type chocolates (i.e. raspberry) and more traditional type flavors too.  After visiting the four chocolate spots, and trying likeva dozen pieces of chocolate, it's on to three bars, where you have two beers at each bar.  I liked one of the beers (yes, only one, but that was no surprise as I don't like beer much anyway).  The second to last bar included snacks and the last bar included one last piece of chocolate. By the time the tour was over, we were full and happy.  However, we stopped for french fries on the way back to the hotel because um, they looked delicious and I wasn't going to Belgium and not having fries. I couldn't finish them--huge portion, but I enjoyed them anyway.