Brussels & Bourges, France

Hello,
Three blogs in 1 day... I can hardly believe it! Nick, is home to help with Em so I can actually focus on writing while the memories are still fresh! I last left off in Amsterdam, well getting out of Amsterdam was an adventure within itself! As you remember, we had parked the car on the outskirts of town. When checking out of our apartment we decided it would be best to pack everything up but leave it in the apartment, take the tram to the car, drive the car to the apartment to load up the mountain of stuff we had unloaded into the apartment, (travel cot, luggage, food, diaper bag, etc.) and leave the city from the apartment. We had given ourselves plenty of time and were on the tram to the parking garage... except it wasn't the correct tram and we got dropped off about 2 miles from where we needed to be. We managed to find our way, with no gps, and went to get the car.. At this point we were nearing the time we had to be back at the apartment to check out and we still had to drive through the city! We got to the garage, only to find out that the ticket to get out of the garage was in Nick's pant pocket back in the apartment, oops! With a hefty fee, they gave us a replacement ticket and we began the drive. At this point we were about 5 minutes late and hit stand still traffic, 15 minutes later we had moved only about 1 mile and were still a mile away. We decided that Nick would get out and run to the apartment, and I would drive the car and get there as soon as possible. About 2 blocks into our new plan, traffic cleared and I passed Nick running down the side of the road but was unable to stop to pick him up. Em and I arrived at the apartment 10 minutes before Nick but of course Nick had the keys so we were sitting outside the apartment waiting for him to finish the run. Luckily, we weren't charged extra for checking out over 30 minutes late and finally got on the road towards Brussels! A short 2 hour drive, and we arrived at our apartment. Our apartment was rented from AirBNB which is someone renting out their own home, meaning we got to stay in a more "local" area instead of the touristy areas. The first night we went to a French restaurant that was recommended by the apartment owners. It was delicious and such an experience because no English was spoken! The next morning we got up early and headed to the Grand Place and city center!

Seriously, the places this little girl has explored!

Grand Place

The buildings to the other side of Grand Place were equally beautiful! Can you spot Em?

We found the peeing boy statue, who was dressed up for the Easter holiday.

Em wasn't sure about the peeing boy!

After the city center we went to explore a highly recommended attraction on tripadvisor.com,
Musee David et Alice Van Buuren. It's located a bit out of the city center but really worth it. The museum is an Art Deco styled house that once belonged to art lovers David and Alice Van Buuren, and the way they built this house is totally unusual. They had the architect build everything as a function of the art pieces they already had: stairs made in function of a sculpture, colors of the walls chosen to match a painting...it is really like a hidden jewel in the city. The house was very interesting, but the gardens were outstanding! There was a maze and many open areas with amazing flowers. Emily loved exploring the gardens!

Always take time to smell the flowers!

Maze

Luckily Em knew the way!

Amazing gardens!

We had so many delicous beers in Belgium that we knew we needed to stock up before we left the country, so we did just that! We had to borrow a shopping cart to take the cases to the car parked a few blocks away, I can only imagine the looks from passerbys that witnessed this view!

Keeping it classy!

Nick's favorite beer is Hoegaarden, which is made in the town of Hoegaarden just 30 minutes outside of Brussels, so it was a must for us to go there, even though they don't do brewery tours anymore. We were able to tour the museum and most importantly just drink a Hoegaarden in Hoegaarden!

Handsome, happy husband!

Our last stop was Bourges, France which put us near the ferry port for the following morning. This was a beautiful French village that I am sad we couldn't explore more. It has been added to the list! 

Bourges, France

One of three gateways to enter the city.

French wine at less than $4 a bottle, had to stock up!

From Bourges, we boarded our ferry and drove home. We had such an amazing trip, and feel so thankful to be so close to all of these opportunities! Thanks for reading about our little holiday!