Grand Place - Belgium

Continuing on from my last post, after the Atomium we headed for the Grand Place. We didn't make it there before we had to have lunch, we were all really hungry, so we stopped at a place that served many things including....Belgian waffles!!!! They were sooooooooooo yummy!!!

AJ enjoying his Belgian hot chocolate!!!!

All the boys with their hot chocolate anxiously awaiting their waffles!

Michael wasn't too sure about his. He got a little different kind then the normal Belgian waffles. His had sugar in the dough and it did taste a bit different, but I figured with all of the whipped cream on it, that it wouldn't matter :-)

All the different types of toppings for the Belgian waffles that you can choose from. I did just Belgian chocolate on mine for the first one, but I see many trips into the future for taste testing of more!!

My boys told me I had to have one of these, I can't say that I argued with them :-)

Diet assortment chocolates - I think I would rather just have the full fledge chocolate. After we had our lunch we headed to the Grand Place. It is just that, my jaw dropped when we walked around the corner. It is truly breathtaking. The Brussels City Hall was built on the south side of the square in stages between 1401 and 1455, and made the Grote Markt the seat of municipal power. It towers 96 meters (315 ft) high, and is capped by a 3 meter (12 ft) statue of Saint Michael slaying a demon.

T
o counter this symbol of municipal power, from 1504 to 1536, the Duke of Brabant built a large building across from the city hall as symbol of ducal power. It was built on the site of the first cloth and bread markets, which were no longer in use, and it became known as the King's House (Middle Dutch: 's Conincxhuys), although no king has ever lived there.

It is truly a breathtaking square with buildings on all four sides with gold and such detail in it.
 

I can't take credit for all of these pictures, some were taken by our friend Kellee who is a fantastic photographer!!!