Belgium - Bruges et Bruxelles

The weekend of March 10-11 (this post is a little late, I know) I went on a field trip to Belgium, spending the first day in Bruges and the late afternoon until the next evening in Brussels. My overall impressions:

• Bruges is really cute...too cute, if you ask me. Not really sure how it is a real city (town?) 
• WAFFLES
• CHOCOLATE
• Fries! And beer that doesn't taste like pee!
• I had no idea that Dutch (Flemish?) was so widely spoken in Belgium, I really thought their primary language was French (with an accent), but it seems to be fairly even. 
• The area we stayed in in Brussels reminded me of Wall Street area in New York - big, looming buildings, cobblestone streets, and complete abandonment on weekends/after dark (aka the entire time I was there)
• Unfortunately, I got sick while in Bruges with what felt like it had to be the Plague, so pictures and impressions from the second portion of the trip are somewhat limited (feeling better now though!)

BRUGES

It's a medieval walled city, and those elements are actually very well preserved. Surprisingly, it is filled with canals, which was a completely unexpected surprise.

Swan Lake?

The tulips were just starting to bloom 

That's definitely not my finger in the frame of this picture, and even if it was, it would be excusable because I was trying really hard to get an action shot of the horse-drawn carriages, and they were really fast.

Every self-respecting European city has a good cathedral:

The tour guide described this as Venice's Bridge of Sighs: Bruges Edition

The main square, with architectural styles from different centuries

They have a chocolate museum. It's true, Belgium takes chocolate seriously.

The most ridiculously cutesy coffee shop, but worth it for the hot chocolate, which was glorious

Kitty!

If you look closely, you can see an artist sketching the church (I promise this is not a picture of a street of parked cars)

Windmills!

Doggies!

View from the windmill, of what appears to be a really sunny day.

Underneath the windmill, a graffiti elephant 

houseboats!

Wild chickens? They were just hanging out.

Hey, I didn't know this is where the Mayflower ended up!

BRUSSELS:

The grand palais

An old tin advertisement for Cow-boy beer:

The best kind of Opera (?): 

Oh hey! Not exactly New York, but close enough for a reminder.

Vincent Van Gogh

The main attraction of Brussels, a statue of a little boy peeing, which is dressed up in different outfits. Apparently legend has it Brussels was once on fire and a boy put it out by peeing on it...right.

I will say, they had really cool graffiti, even to decorate their storefronts:

Waffle!

Honestly, the Wafels and Dinges cart in New York comes pretty close in my opinion.