This must be Brussels!

We started the day with an English breakfast in London and ended it with Mussels in white wine -- one of Belgium's national dishes -- in Brussels!!  I love travel these days!!  We were able to take the Eurostar through the "chunnel" -- under the English Channel -- and thus we were in Brussels in time for lunch today!!

Arrived at our lovely little hotel -- The Welcome Hotel -- with its 16 lovely rooms each with the theme of a different country.  So for tonight we're staying in "Morocco" in the heart of Brussels.

A quick wash and a cup of coffee and we were ready to head out for some sights and tastes!  Our hostess, Anna, at the hotel was kind enough to draw some directions on the map for us and off we went.  First stop Cathedral of St. Catherine with it's 17th century towers ... then on to the Grand Place, the town center.  Along the way I found shop after shop of chocolates and vowed to return within the hour!!  After a tour around the Square, and a fascinating visit to a lacemaker, a tour of the Chocolate Museum really got me in the mood for some chocolate.

You know why Belgium is famous for it's chocolate?  Because it doesn't compromise on the cocoa butter.  Although international chocolate standards allow percentages of vegetable fats to be used in the making of chocolates, the Belgiques stick to the 100% cocoa butter rule.  That is why these pieces of heaven are sought throughout the world!  I have so much more to tell you about chocolate, but not today!

Following the Museum we stopped off at a stand for a Belgian Waffle -- another treat very specific to Belgium! -- and Howard happily munched on that as I began sampling my way through the chocolate shops!  One store brought me in because they had this magnificent display of tins, and I thought they were going to be full of candy ,... but I quickly realized that I was in a cookie store, not a candy store -- UNTIL ... the lovely young sales clerk asked if I would like a taste and pulled out a tin with these pink cookies -- OMG, they were filled with raspberry!!  No ordinary cookies these!!  So I had to fill a tin with a variety of fillings -- chocolate (of course), orange, fig, more chocolate, almond and I forget all the other flavors!

After popping in and out of another half dozen shops, I finally hit the "mother lode" of chocolate heaven in Leonides Chocolates!!  I now have a kilo of these magnificent pralines (as the bite-sized filled chocolates are called -- and not to be confused with my favorite southern confection!) and I'll probably share, but maybe with a bit of a grudge! lol!!

Tomorrow Amsterdam!