Brussels and Bruges and Antwerp...Oh My!

Continuing along today with the April A-Z Blog Challenge and my travel adventures. 

If you popped by yesterday, you know that during this months challenge I'm revisiting my teen years. The years my family lived overseas in England. I want to write down the memories of all the traveling and living we did during those years. So here we go!

B is for Belgium

I was fortunate enough to  go to Belgium a few times while living overseas and was never disappointed. When we were overseas we had a revolving door of friends and families from the states coming to visit us. And on one of those occasions some close family friends hopped across the pond to pay us a visit. This was an exciting trip for me because their daughter was my best friend! And we had been devastated to have to part when I moved. So we jam packed a whole lot of fun into their visit. After tooling around England for the first half we put ourselves on a train to Belgium- specifically to Brussels. 

We spent our weekend in Brussels but scooted over to some other cities via train each day. Day one was exploring our home base, starting with The Grand Place. This is the city center of Brussels and it's teeming with businesses and restaurants. With its stunning architecture and long history it's also a tourist hot spot. While we often like to try and scout out the "local" spots while traveling, we always hit the hotspots too. They're popular for a reason right? 

 As I've grown up over the years, I look back and feel so blessed to have had all of these experiences. 

And while, at times, some of the history may have gone a bit over my head, the value of  time spent with my people did not. 

After our Brussles day it was time to head to Bruges. Now this trip was over 15 years ago so my memories aren't as detailed as I would like. But let me tell you, what I remember clear as could be is how beautiful Bruges was. There are canals that run all through the city which makes meandering down the streets the most pleasant of activities. 

We also did a boat tour, giving us some stunning views of the city. Could it have been a prettier day weather wise? I think not. 

The final stop of the weekend was Antwerp. Fun fact for you...Antwerp is the diamond capital of the world. So what did we do? Went to the diamond museum of course! 

And then there was some sightseeing at their beautiful city center, some churches that were displaying Paul Rubens (woah!) and the necessary stop to snack on some french fries (which are actually attributed to Belgium, not France). Living overseas is where I developed my love of dipping my fries in mayonnaise. But not just any mayo will do- you need the good stuff like what they serve at the Belgian restaurants. 

Antwerp wrapped up our trip and we headed back to England for a few more days before our guests had to depart. And that wraps up the letter B for us here. 

Stay tuned for the next adventures...we'll be headed to the middle east, more of Europe and one of the Wonders of the World.