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| Celebrations the next day (before the bus) |
The day of the double proposal!
12th August 2015
As much as we both wanted to explore Belgium, it hadn't made our final list of countries. However, although we are keen to travel via land, we decided we didn't really fancy travelling overland between Amsterdam and Paris in one sitting. We were thrilled to choose Brussels as a stopover.
So Brussels went from a place we weren't even visiting to the place we got engaged! (More on that whole thing later.)
We were greeted in Brussels by European Commission buildings and pretzels. After settling into our Airbnb apartment we set out to explore. Knowing you can only get a small glimpse of a place in one day we had previously decided to focus on two of our loves: Chocolate and Beer. (Well, I don't love beer but I love Rob...and Rob loves beer!)
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| European Commission building |
Before we got to the beer or the chocolate we sat down for a lovely lunch outside and Rob had an opportunity to try out his French with the waitress. We then walked to the Grand Place, an impressive town square with a town hall (Hotel de Ville) that looks like a grand gothic church. They were setting up for a flower show the next day and we took a quick preview.
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| Hotel de Ville |
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| Grand Place |
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| Previous Mayor of the city: Charles Buls and his dog |
Soon our self-made chocolate and beer tour began! I will let the visuals do the talking as I can't possibly convey the tastes:
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| Chocolate town! |
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| Hard to make out my delightful little dragon chocolate lollypop! |
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| One of everything please! |
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| Mmm chocolate dream |
Naturally, I found it pretty exciting being in the chocolate capital of the world! Apparently, Brussels is home to more chocolate factories than any other city on earth. The only thing that stopped me eating my weight in chocolate was that we only spent a day there!
We got a delectable box of chocolates from Leonidas that we savoured for at least a few days! There was a huge variety and I wish Leonidas had a shop in Australia. (They seem to be pretty much everywhere else in the world.)
In the search for some Trappiste beet, we hunted down Au Bon Vieux Temps in a little alleyway for Rob to enjoy a Rochefort Trappiste, the place was deserted so we experienced the place, just the two of us, even the woman at the bar left for a while. They had what looked like old church pews for benches, which I am surprised they could get up the alleyway, and beautiful stained glass windows featuring a number of families coats-of-arms along with that of Bruxelles.
We did deviate from the chocolate and beer route momentarily to do a walking tour of Brussels comic murals. They were pretty amazing even if I didn't know all the comics & bande-desinsées. We also found some other really powerful street art.
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| The well-known "Tintin" - Hergé |
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| Perhaps a not-stricly authorised mural |
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| "Yoko Tsuno" - Roger LeLoup |
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| "XIII" - Jean van Hamme |
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| "Monsieur Jean" - Chalres Berberian |
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| "Broussaille" - Frank Pé |
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| Some more thought-provoking and action-inspiring art |
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| "Victor Sackville" - Francis Carin |
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| Gay pride |
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| The damage of labels |
We enjoyed a tasty dinner, again sitting outside for the summer weather and people watching. Rob had an amusing encounter with one of the staff when he went to use the bathroom. The man asked if was a customer and despite Rob confirming he was, he accused him of lying and said he couldn't use the bathroom!! Luckily our waitress came in and left the other staff member very red faced. It was understandable and we ended up feeling sorry for the guy who was thenceforth keen to avoid Rob.
Deciding to be even further cliched on our one day in Brussels we located a waffle shop for dessert before heading back to our apartment. Once there Rob virtually pushed me into the shower so he would have the opportunity to lay out
the last clue of a grand treasure hunt.
For me, this treasure hunt had begun all the way back in Kampot, Cambodia where I received my first mysterious letter. Since then I had (very) randomly been getting letters and rhymes all along our trip through Vietnam, China, Japan, Mongolia, Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands.
Finding the last clue, I rushed to locate the previous clues. Putting them all together I had the proposal right there! And luckily I had the answer all ready in the form of an engraved ring. On the outside it read
The answer lies withinin
and inside had my answer.
You see, I had somewhat anticipated such a question and had my own sort of proposal ready to go. I did not, however, think it was coming that particular night so the ring that I had "prepared earlier" was across the room in a secret hiding place. I couldn't very well leave Rob waiting for me to rummage through my things so the ring had to wait a few minutes!
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| Rob's ring |
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| Treasure clues! |
What a way to cap off a lovely day in Brussels! We are both very excited and happy and looking forward to celebrating with family and friends on our return.
The next day we left lovely Brussels on a bus to Paris. We were quite amused when the bus driver took our tickets and said, "The city of love, you never know, you two might get engaged there."
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| Celebrations the next day (before the bus) |
