Waffles, beer, and chocolate

Brussels or Bruxelles, as it is spelled locally.

Our stay here came and went pretty fast but it was enough time to get the point.  Waffles, chocolate, craft beer and beautiful buildings.  Brussels is one of those places where half the fun is eating the food...which I didn't mind in the least.  I'm a huge chocolate fan...well fan would be downplaying it, I'm a huge chocolate lover.  I can never resist a really good piece of chocolate.  And Belgian chocolate happens to be the best in the world.  In fact, one of my favorite chocolate stores in America, Godiva, is Belgian.
Fortunately, I got the chance to go the Chocolate Museum in Brussels.  What a delicious experience.

Nicest, cutest old chocolatier...his father and his grandfather were also chocolatiers!

Free chocolate samples...yes please!

Belgian is also famous for its craft beer.  The boys in our group were extremely excited about this.  In the mere 24 hours we were in Brussels, we went to the craft beer pub Delerium twice.  Delerium won the Guinness World Record for largest beer selection in 2004 with 2,004 types of beer from all over the world. Their house brew, Delerium Tremens, also wins contests around the world for Best Beer.  With a 2000+ beer selection the menu for this place looks like a magazine.  Frustrated with so many choices, I went up to the bartender and asked for a pale ale.  He poured me one they had on tap and it instantly became my new favorite beer.  The second time we came I got the St. Bernardus, pictured below (also phenomenal).  The bartenders are very knowledgeable and seem to produce great tasting beers out of thin air.  I also loved the music they played...a bunch of known covers by people I had never heard before...mostly American music.  We all sat around huge barrels and the walls were covered with beer advertisement posters from around the world.  Anyway, point being, we all questioned why we don't have a place like this in Southern California.

Brussels is a smaller city in comparison to the powerhouse cities of Europe but has so much to offer.  Although, I couldn't picture being there for more than a few days its definitely a city that's worth the visit.