Belgium = Beauty and Beer — APG Adventures

Oct 13

Oct 13 Belgium = Beauty and Beer

Continuing our long weekend, we left Luxembourg City and drove into Belgium.

GHENT

We stopped for lunch and sightseeing in Ghent. What a charming city! We ate on the main square, just chose a random spot that ended up being delicious. We ate at Vaudeville Brasserie. http://vaudeville.gent/

There are a ton of options to choose from, we just chose the first place that looked good.

The beauty as you walk over bridge and into Ghent

After lunch, we walked around Ghent and checked out the sights. We saw St Bavo’s cathedral and just enjoyed walking around (despite the cold!). We saw the Castle of the Counts, but didn’t go inside. We only spent a few hours in Ghent as we wanted to continue onto Bruges where we were spending the night.

BRUGES

We stayed in an Air B&B in Bruges and it was a little further away than the main action, a little on the out skirts but still walkable everywhere. Bruges was even more charming than Ghent and I didn’t think that was even possible! We checked in and went out on the town to figure out dinner and drinks.

We stopped for a snack at this beautiful bakery called Aux Merveilleux, http://www.auxmerveilleux.com/home_en/- Shockingly they also have a location in New York City. The sugar bread and coffee were the perfect sweet snack to keep us going in the cold weather.

We walked through the main square and along the canals, did a little shopping (had to get that Belgian chocolate) and found a place for dinner. We ate at “The Olive Tree” –https://theolivetree-brugge.com/index.html we made a reservation when we walked by it, it was right off the main square and Mediterranean.

The food was out of this world. Walking through Bruges at night was such a different experience than during the day. The medieval magical feel of the city was really unique and cool.

One of our favorite bars was called “Le Trappiste” and it was underground. Definitely go here and get one of the Trappiste beers made my monks. The #1 beer in the world was the #24. It was expensive but 100% worth it. We also went to the “Monk” bar which was also great.

The next day we had a few hours in Bruges before headed to Brussels so we walked around the same route as the night before but during the day, the city is just beautiful. We went to the Belfort Tower, and all of the historic gothic buildings. We grabbed lunch at a little café called “Tearoom sandwicherie ‘t Eekhoetje” it was really great and cozy to get us out of the cold weather.

On our way out of town headed to Brussels we stopped at the brewery “De Halve Maan” and had a beer.

Arriving in Brussels we checked into our Air B&B, very close to the train station. This was helpful as we had an early flight out the next day so for ease to get to the airport the location made sense.

Prior to dinner, we did some sightseeing and went to the “Grand Place” which was magical and then to see the Manneken-Pis – the famous “little” statue of the little boy peeing into the fountain.

We met friends for dinner at Chez Vincent for the quintessential mussels and beer. The restaurant was located in an area with lots of other restaurants and bars. The restaurant was cool, we had a reservation and sat in a carved out boat. https://restaurantvincent.be/en