Brussels

Day 1 - France to Belgium

For the second portion of our trip we were headed to Brussels, Belgium. We headed to the Gare du Nord train station in the morning, the busiest train station in Europe. It was only around 8 am but it was completely packed! Our train ride from Paris to Brussels was about 2 and a half hours and I really enjoyed reading and listening to music while the train coasted through the French countryside.

In the afternoon we disembarked the train in Brussels and headed to lunch at a cafe that holds bags for travelers. This is another convenient way to safely secure bags if your lodging is not ready when you arrive. We didn't want to be hauling our bags around the whole afternoon but our Airbnb was not ready for check in so we paid a couple euros to leave our bags at a cafe. Of course, not all cafes do this so it's important to check online in advance.

We finished up a nice lunch and were just getting ready to head off to explore the city when my dad realized our backpack was gone. I remembered seeing two men sit down behind us about 15 minutes prior and with sinking hearts we all realized they had stolen our bag, which contained my dads new phone and all of our passports. The next couple hours was a frenzy of retrieving security footage from the cafe, filing a police report, searching the area for our bag, and trying to figure out how we would get home now that we had no passports. Of course, our bags were stolen on a Saturday afternoon and the U.S. embassy was closed until Monday morning. So all we could do was sit and wait. But we were not about to waste our time in Belgium stressing, so we all agreed to continue on with our sightseeing plans and figure everything out on Monday.

The first area we headed to was Old Town Brussels, conveniently located right by the police station we had to file a report at. The square was absolutely amazing, surrounded on all sides by towering buildings complete with gold decorated spires and flags.

Next we explored the numerous chocolate shops and other stores that line the crisscrossing alleyways in the area. The chocolate here is cheap and decadent, and seeing as chocolate is one of my favorite foods I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the trip. I tried mousse filled chocolates, raspberry, dark chocolate, caramel, milk, and much more. There is also amazing gelato and macaroons in this area.

My favorite area was the Leonidas, an indoor-outdoor strip of chocolate, delicacy, and jewelry shops. The abundance of treats and people waiting in lines and tasting samples of the famous chocolate was such a special experience.

This area of Brussels was definitely my favorite - although touristy I loved the bustle and crowd of people enjoying live music, drinking beers at outdoor cafes, the children playing in the squares and running up and down the alleys, and of course everyone enjoying the delicious chocolate.

After enjoying Old Town for the afternoon we found our way back to the cafe where our bags were stored and took an Uber to our Airbnb. This was my favorite spot we stayed at during the trip, the owner has a passion for yoga and the place was filled with yoga books, mats, props, and of course a beautiful space where I enjoyed a few sessions of yoga during our stay.

The Airbnb was located on a quiet street and it was so lovely to open all the windows and let the breeze blow through while listening to the birds outside. If you are interested in this opporunity, you can find the listing on Airbnb here.

We had a long day and decided to take it easy and eat in. The Airbnb had a wonderful patio with a perfect view where we enjoyed dinner and wine from a local store.

Day 2 - The Atomium

On our second day in Brussels we woke up and after a quick breakfast took the metro to The Atomium, an impressive building which was originally created for the World Fair in 1958 and has since become an ever evolving museum full of different entertainments.

In this photo you can see all of the different rooms in the building which are encased in each silver sphere. From a distance the building looks more like a big sculpture, but you can actually go inside and take an escalator from one sphere to the next!

Inside the building each sphere showcases a different themed room, from a room covering the history of the building, to a showcase of art exploring a collaborative project of countries from around the world, to a light show. The exhibits are changed frequently but there is always something very interesting going on!

The image above was taken in my favorite exhibit in the museum. Hundreds of light bulbs and rods were arranged with a background narration while the lights flashed and changed colors in sync to the music. I watched the whole thing twice through I was so mesmerized.

We had lunch at the cafe outside the museum before taking the metro back towards downtown Belgium. My parents wanted to get an idea of where the U.S. embassy was located before we headed there the next day so we wouldn't lost any time getting inside and getting started on replacing our passports.

I was definitely feeling the stress from the whole ordeal so after we got back to our Airbnb I stayed in for the night and just enjoyed some time reading, cooking an easy dinner, and enjoying the view from the patio.

Day 3 - Replacing our passports

Monday morning rolled around and we all woke up early and dragged out bags downstairs before taking an Uber over to the U.S. embassy. Little did we know the entire day would turn into a waiting game just to get our passports replaced.

First we all had to wait in a line outside of the security gate. The U.S. embassy was by far the most secure on the whole street of embassies. After reaching the end of the first line the security guards notified us that we were not allowed to bring any computers inside, and lo and behold we had to laptops with nowhere to store them. The guards weren't allowed to hold them for us either so while my dad, brother and I were searched and our bags were gone through, my mom rushed to a nearby train station and rented a locker to store the laptops. Then we waited in another line to go through another security check before waiting in yet another line to get the forms to fill out to apply for a passport replacement. We all had to get headshots taken and spent half an hour filling out pages of documents before we sat in the lobby and waited several hours for our names to be called. My uncle works for the U.S. state department and luckily had a friend stationed at the Brussels U.S. embassy who came out and reassured us that we would get our replacements by the end of the day. So we all left and went to lunch in the park across the street.

This break was a much needed reprieve from the waiting room and we enjoyed some local food and drinks and strolled around enjoying the fountains and garden. One thing I loved about this trip was that all the parks we visited would have little stands selling snacks and drinks scattered around. It always made for the perfect relaxing stop in the shade, especially when we had been walking around in the sun all day.

After lunch my parents returned to the embassy to wait for our passports and my brother and I wandered around the neighborhood and stopped in at some cute coffee shops.

I loved all of the shops and restaurants in Brussels, especially the abundance of chocolate and coffee shops.

Finally our temporary passports were ready and we rushed to the train station to catch the next train to Germany. We wouldn't be able to make it to Hamburg that night so we bought tickets to spend the night in Cologne instead. I was just so relieved that we were going to be able to get home at the end of the trip!