The muscles from Brussels...

And I don't mean Jean Claude Van Damme. That is one muscular little boy peeing his way into Brussels stardom up there. If you haven't guessed it, that's Manneken Pis - yep, exactly what it sounds like. It's a statue/fountain of a little boy taking a wee. Sometimes they dress him up in little outfits.

It's been a week since Dan and I went to Brussels, Belgium to celebrate our one year anniversary, and I'm already itching to go back. We spent our 2 1/2 days in the city of beer and chocolate being amazed at the ornate and old architecture of Grand Place, drinking beer, eating moules and frites (mussels and french fries for us Americans), drinking beer, taking fun pictures with Manneken Pis, drinking beer, drooling over beer glassware, drinking beer, wandering old cobblestone streets, drinking beer, hitting up les puces, drinking beer, eating gaffre, and well, you get the idea. It was essentially our perfect anniversary weekend. Here's a few highlights from Day 1 wandering around Brussels (and yes, this is merely a highlight, I took over 300 pictures in 2 1/2 days!)...


[Have a coke and, uh, smile?]



Something I really enjoyed about Brussels (and that reminded me of Philly) were all of the murals in the city. The comic strip was born in Brussels (a la Tintin), so a lot of the murals pay homage to this legacy...


[Zorro!]




[Watch out! He almost got you!]





[Grand Place...]



[That one's from 1698!]




After getting a little sightseeing in with Grand Place and Manneken Pis, we decided it was time to find some holy ground - Delirium Cafe. The guide books say it's "just around the corner from Grand Place," but don't be fooled, it is a complete and utter maze back there. We got directions and after a right and about 57 left turns on tiny cobblestone alleyways, we saw it.


[Ta-dahhh!]


And then we went inside (cue angels singing).





[Happy place.]


After quenching our thirst a bit, we headed back through the swirly whirly restaurant lined back alleys of Brussels to make our way back to our hotel before our anniversary dinner.


And we came back to the hotel to find this awesome chair in the lobby!



Off to dinner we went next - because of course you have to have moules frites when you're in Brussels!



[Ohhh, yeahhhh.]






The dinner was fantastic, and it was such a cute little place I wanted to photograph everything in there. Turns out it's been around for about 128 years as well. And the tiramasu was the best I've ever had - we took that baby down in no-time (hence why there is no photographic evidence of said tiramasu). After dinner we were so full, we decided it'd be nice to take a bit of a walk, get a night-cap, and head back to the hotel.



We had a great first day in Brussels, but wait, there's more! Day 2 coming up next...

A la prochain friends...