Today is a bit of a slower day.
We started the day with a walk through a nearby neighbourhood to the Waffle Factory for breakfast, with a quick stop to see the Manneken Pis, today he is dressed in a red shirt, not sure what he is supporting today. He is still pissing, non stop, the eternal piss.
The waffles were good, filling and we then set off to see a few more of the sites, not following any guide, just picking some sites that we had not seen yet and wandering around the city. We first set our sites on the local fish market and the market at Ste. Gery but we could not go in as we were there before opening. Thinks open a little later here on a Saturday.
We then headed through the streets to Cathederal, this is where all the royal weddings and funerals are held. Its the center of the catholic church here in Belgium. The cathederal takes its looks from Notre Dame in Paris, with two towers on either side of the main entrance to the church. The church is build in the standard cross shape with a pulpit half way up the main section of the church. The thing I found very impressive here is all the stained glass, really well done, and very bright it really lit up the cathederal.
After a quick visit there we made our way over to the comic book museum. Belgium is well known for their comics, some that we knew and grew up with are TinTIn, Lucky Luke and of course the Smurfs, all created right here in Belgium. The museum took us not only through the artists of Belgium but also a history of the comic starting back with the Egyptians, and right through to how comics are produced digitally these days. There were also large sections dedicated to the new and old artists and their comics. I had to buy one of the TinTin comic books that we used to read when we were kids.
Time for lunch, we always check out the McDonalds because in many countries they have their own specialities on the menu, not so much here. So we headed across the street to Five Guys, another American chain, and got a burger and fries. Belgium doesn't really have a cuisine of their own, they borrow from other countries. They are best known for four items, Chocolate, Beer, Waffles and French Fries (French Fries / Frites / Chips) how every you order them they were invented here in Belgium.
Today we set some time aside to do a little shopping. There is a huge mall here, not far from the hotel and so we wandered around looking for a few items but really nothing jumped out as being unique except for a bit of Lego and one electronic piece that I wanted to replace, lost my power converter in Bruges, and wanted to replace it before heading home, they are just easier to find here in Europe.
We did stop for a bit of a snack and a drink mid way in our shopping excursion, nothing fancy just cheese, a beer and a coke. We just had to sit and rest our feet and my injury.
Back to the hotel to rest and figure out what we want for dinner, we're thinking sea food. We would both kill for a carrot, but we can't seem to find any real amount of vegetables on any of the menus here, except french fries, which really doesn't count.
Tomorrow we are planning a trip to Gent, which is about a 30 minute train ride from the city.