We slept like a rock! All the traveling from yesterday, put us into a deep coma. We woke up with the sun shining through our window. Finally, we feel that we have acclimate our bodies to the time change. After a light breakfast, we went to McDonalds to quickly post our blog about Paris. Once that was complete, we had to but the only remaining “French” thing on our list - a crepe. Mmmm. It was delicious. We went to a local café and ordered 2 crepes with nutella. Brilliant! Anything with nutella is good, but having it warmed and blanketed between a flattened and folded pancake was beyond words. A true taste of Paris. Wish everyone could try one. What a great morning. 
After we came back to earth, we went back to our B&B and packed up. We grabbed our heavy backpacks and made our way to the underground metro. We had a few hours before our train left for Brussels, and we had one important stop to make – the Sacre Couer (pronounced Say-cray Currrr). It’s a huge white church that sits on a hill a few miles from city. It’s like a miniature Taj Mahal. Very pretty… both in and out. Tourist crowded the 100s of steps elevating up to the church. With a service going on, we were able to enter the church free of charge (we are getting pretty good at this). It wasn’t nearly as big as Notre Dame, St. Pauls or Westmister Abbey, but it was just as magnificent. The altar laid below the enormous dome. Behind the alter was an vibrant picture of Jesus with his arms spread out and angels surrounding him. The painting was gigantic. It took up the whole wall/celling. Truly glorious! After the brief tour, we took a minute to check out the great view of the city below. It was the perfect time to point out all of our friends we met over the last 2.5 days. Most were easily visible and a great way to end our Paris trip. We took a deep breath, took in the view one last time and walked the 15 minutes to the train station.
On the way we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some lunch. We got a tiny sub, some chips, an orange, and a yard long baguette. Can’t beat 90 cents (in euros – which is only like a $1.40) for bread. The whole city feels the same way. We saw countless people walking with large baguettes throughout all hours of the day. We even saw a baguette vending machine. No joke. Paris was a delightful trip. Beautiful architecture, hundreds of cafes, and fascinating hot stops (ND, Eiffel, Sacre, Invalidles, Lourve, d’Orsay, Champs, Arc. However, we must move on, off to Brussells we go… with the sun still shining. 
Brussels Brussels Brussels… how we adore you. It’s a very diverse city that is much much smaller than NYC, London, or Paris. It was quite shocking, but yet comforting, to realize how close everything is. It wasn’t as glamorous or chic as the others, but their cultural and town center was loads of fun. They specialize in signature foods (fries, chocolate, waffles) and the fantastic beer.
Immediately after we arrived we raced to Cantillon Brewery (a brewery specializing in Lambics – funky sours). We paid our 6 euros to visit their brewery and free tasting at the end. Steven was blow away at their overall production. First off, the smell was unbearably amazing. It had the scent of a brewery but blended with a pleasantly must odor. Very unique. Secondly, the place reminded Steven of his father’s barn down on the farm. Cobwebs filled every crack. Fully rusted, old machines laid around. Even though it appeared to be unsanitized and a complete mess this was the key to producing the high quality Lamibics. So what is a limbic and why are these aspects necessary for the beer? Let’s start from the top. In order to make beer you need sugar and yeast. The sugar comes from the malted barley and the yeast is usually cultivated and pitched to the sugar water. The yeast ferments the beer to make CO2 and alcohol. 99% of the breweries in the world add the yeast to sugar water directly, but Lambics do not add the yeast directly. They allow the yeast (and some good bacteria) in the air to spontaneously activate on the yeast. Therefore, they need to maintain a highly “dirty” environment filled with viable yeast. This is a extremely hard to and risky process. Bad bacteria could easily run rapid and spoil the beer. The have a tank that is shaped like a cookie-sheet (but 1000 times bigger), and the sugar water is spread out to maximize connect with the air. Once the bugs are fully active (5-8 days), they are transferred into oak barrels to be aged 1,2, or 3 years. Somehow, Cantillon has been making the best limbics in the world for over 100 years. The next great thing about this brewery is that it has been family run through its history. They had pictures of there founder and his successors. The story was neat to hear. It was easier to appreciate the hardwork this family has done. We met the 3rd generation couple who currently runs operation. The 60 yr old lady, whose great great grandfather started the brewery, is filled with energy and still works the touring and selling merchandise. We met her husband, who married into the business, and runs the brewery process. Now onto the beer. After the brief tour we had some sample. Man o man. Superb lambics! Steven got the standard gueuze (which is when you blend a aged limbic with an newer one. The aroma was the typical stinky bard yard small, while the taste was very tart, fruity, and a bit acidic… perfect. Amanda had a raspberry limbic. It had similar qualities as the gueuze, but perfectly blended with raspberries. Up to this point things are going pretty darn good. But… things got even better. The prices of the bottles to take away were ridiculous. Now since this beer is THY HARDEST BREW TO BREW, it comes with a high price. In the USA, to by a bottle (wine bottle size) its going to cost you $15-25. I haven’t bought one because of that single fact. At the brewery, they were asking 4 euro. FOUR EUROS. That’s a steal. So, for less than 6 bucks, you can buy the best limbic. So we bought 2. Haha. Overall, what a great experience. People were great, we saw first hand the process, and got the beer at a bargain price. Best breweries experience we have been too.
After the brewery we made our way to the hostel. Up until now, we have slept alone, but not anymore. We were separated into separate 6-bed dorms. It was only for 2 nights, we didn’t mind.
Next we set out on foot to the towns square. We walked to the town’s square – Grand Place and were blown away at the buildings lining it. They were all build around year 1700 and each had immense detail to them. The gothic styles gave the squares a bold feel to it. It was a little intimidating.
We then roamed around a bit and the infamous Manekanan Pis – the little boy peeing. Not sure why it’s a tourist attraction, but it is.
Also, when we were at Cantillon Brewery we got a flyer for free “tapas” at a bar downtown. So naturally, we searched for the bar and got 2 Belgian strongs – one brown, one gold. Both were full of flavor with true Belgian characteristics. We then asked for our mysteries “tapas.” What we got was quite tasty. It was an assortment of meat on a dish with a yellow dipping sauce. Very tasty. We got 2 good deals on at our first 2 places in Brussels.
After we left that bar, we walked around for another couple hours. We found a tiny local place that made good subs and wraps and ate there for dinner. Then, it was off to our eventful night in the hostel. Steven had a symphony of snores in his dorm. One sleeper had a high pitched wheezing snore, while another one had a rumbling deep snore. The others added background noise with occasional snores.. Luckily, he had ear plugs and was very tired. What a night. Amanda’s sleep was okay. It reminded her of being at girls scout camp.
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