Jetsetting

This past Monday was a bank holiday, so I wanted to get out of the city (preferably to someplace warm and sunny).   Unfortunately, everyone wanted to do that, so all sunny destination flights were a fortune.  On top of that, I found out that I had to go to a client meeting in the Netherlands on Monday.  So, not to be completely foiled, S and I headed to Brussels for the weekend.

I've been to Belgium before - we spent a night there on our way to Amsterdam when I studied abroad.  Brussels was a fun city for the first 30 hours or so.  We got in pretty late on Friday.  Direct quote when S asked the front desk for a dinner reservation around 10/10:30 - "You're looking to eat now?".  We wandered around near the hotel looking for food.  We found a place serving mussels and fries (mmm, mussels from Brussels) right on the Grand Place, which, by the way, was absolutely beautiful at night.  I didn't love the mussels at T. Kelderke, but the fries, and the waffle we had for dessert were pretty good.

On Saturday, we slept in and then walked around to get some food and Belgium chocolate.  The concierge sent us to a place called Le Cap.  The food was good and the service was friendly.  Maybe too friendly - our waiter left us his number.  We then headed up to Pierre Marcolini for some fantastic Belgian chocolate and macarons.  I am honestly obsessed with everything salted caramel.  It's just unreal.

Like proper tourists, we then got on a hop on, hop off bus around the city.  It was a great way to see lots of sights and to decide what was worth going back to.  Post tour and more walking, we went to dinner at a great place called Lola, which served more Belgian food.  We skipped dessert and went out to find some Belgian beer.   I went for the Tripel Karmeliet (which they also serve in NY, and in particular at Dylan Murphy's) and it was just as delicious as I remembered.  Some 23 year old Belgians tried to be our friends and gave us a few other bar recommendations.  Instead, full from all the food and chocolate, we got another beer - this time a Grimbergen - and then headed home.

Sunday was much of the same - went back to the high point in the city by the Palais de Justice, walked around, and then headed back to the Atomium.  This is a giant atom model that you can go inside of.  It had a great view from the top, unfortunately, it was of Brussels.  We headed back to the hotel for more suggestions of things to see and found out there weren't any.  As we had time to kill, we went for more fries and waffles and then headed back to London.  All in all, fun trip, but could have been 4-6 hours shorter.

Monday, I headed to the Dutch countryside.  My coworker gave me a great tour and we had coffee under a church tower in the college town, Utrecht.  Meeting went well.

This week looks to be pretty low key.  Dinner with a cousin tomorrow, party on Friday, and sight seeing on Saturday.