Bottomless Waffles, fries, and chocolate in belgium
We spent five days in Belgium to relax and recharge before our two big road trips through France and Portugal. The length of this blog post is indicative of just how much recharging we did!
We stayed at our first Marriott Bonvoy hotel since February and we were super excited to have no plans and nowhere to be. Our goal was to catch up on some travel planning, blog posts, and sleep… but ultimately we pretty much only accomplished the last goal. It was just what we needed! We slept in, watched movies, and were lazy for the better part of the five days.
While we did spend a lot of time relaxing, we still made time to get out and explore. Our big activity was renting a car for a day and going on a little road trip to Antwerp, Bruges, and Ghent! To anyone reading this who has been to Belgium… yes, we did breeze through these cities… and yes, we could have spent more time there, but we were too excited to be in a comfy hotel that we kept it to a quick visit.
One takeaway from our day of exploration was that it felt like all the Belgian cities were competing for the most beautiful square. From one city to the next, each square we visited was breathtaking, with beautiful architecture and plenty of history.
A second takeaway… the Belgian roads may have been some of the craziest roads we have driven. Not only was the traffic pretty intense, but there were so many twists, turns, tunnels, exit ramps, and pedestrians along the way that required both of us to be on high alert. Navigating was a two person job.
While we had fun exploring the three cities, the highlight of our adventure was definitely the chocolatier we visited at the end of the day. 🤪 Britt found an outlet store for one of the larger Belgian chocolatiers, Neuhaus, outside of Brussels where they offer unlimited free samples. And, if you’ve been following along our adventure for even a short amount of time, you know we (mostly Justin) loves free things… ESPECIALLY when they’re unlimited. There were around 25 free samples of their chocolates, and we ate so many that we brought ourselves to the brink of a stomach ache. Given the prices of chocolate in Belgium, we estimate that we consumed around $50 worth… and did we mention it was free? Definitely a hack we discovered and would recommend it to anyone who is looking to sample many types of Belgian chocolates without the price tag.
Overall, we really enjoyed our quick trip. Our diet consisted of A LOT of fries, waffles, and chocolate, and we loved every second. Belgium was exactly what we needed at exactly the right time. Good food, beautiful cities, and a comfy bed.
