We checked into out hotel in the evening and wandered around. There were 3 Indian restaurants in a 5 minute radius of our hotel! We had a fridge in our room so we bought milk and bananas and called it a day.
Next morning we left for a day in Bruges - The city is a World Heritage Site and sometimes referred to the Venice of the North. It was an hours train ride and we could use our Eurostar ticket to travel! :) This small town had nearly 80 attractions on its must-see list!!
We passed several sweet streets, restaurants, statues and came to the main City Square or GROTE MARKT square. It was lined with the City hall, 13th century Belfry Tower, the best looking tourist office ever and the Provincial Court.
We then walked to the Burg which has the gothic town hall. There was a huge stage constructed right in the enter with disco lights!!! This really spoilt the feel of the place.
I had read that there are windmills at the outskirts of the city and I HAD to see them so we walked through canals, ancient house-lined streets, sme very ancient churches and finally reached the windmills!
Here is K looking very happy with his Bruges beer.. :)
The streets with the canals were just beautiful.
We then walked through the Gruuthuse Museum to the Church of Our Lady which boasts of the only Michelangelo sculpture out of Italy of the Madonna and Child. We were lucky to get in as the church was closing. In our past weeks we have seen many churches but this was by far the best. It had a hue in the air, a musty smell, a choir singing in the background - you were taken into a different era.
We then walked though a serene Convent and ate a very expenisve meal before leaving for Brussels. We simply loved this small town!
The next day we started walking around Brussels. Just outside the Central station we came across this beautiful Cathedral.
We then walked to the Grand-Place. It was mind-blowing!!!
We had always heard of the small little guy that pees sculpture and were very excited to finally see it (Mannekin Pis).... but..... but... we nearly missed it coz it was in one corner of a crowded steer and soooo small.....
anyways... we walked around and saw the Egmont Palace, the Notre Dame de la Chapelle Church and many other great sights.
We finally reached the Royal Palace and took a free tour. Needless to say, it was GRAND!
We stopped to eat the Belgian specialty - waffles and fries. We didn't know but fries come from Belgium and we should have guessed. EVERY nook and corner there were these small shops 'frietkots' selling fries. All of our meals had fries with an option of many toppings. We chose curry ketchup, ketchup and mayonnaise. (I love mayo!) Even at the entrance of the palace (cameras not allowed) they had a sign which said "fries not allowed" . Another piece of information - My magnet too has fries on them :)
We had quite some time on our hands and had checked out the main sites so we decided (on my whim) to go check out mini-Europe! It has replicas of all places in Europe. There we also saw the 'atomium.'
Beware -Cheesy pictures ahead...
The Radcliffe Camera (The word camera translates from 
