If you are headed to Ghent, Gravensteen Castle is a must-see!

For the last of our four days in Belgium, we opted to visit the city of Ghent in northwestern Belgium, about halfway between Bruges and Brussels. At the top of our list was visiting Ghent’s own medieval castle, Gravensteen Castle. It is fortunate that Gravensteen was at the top of our list, because it ended up being the only thing we got to explore fully. It’s a real shame, because it turns out there are a lot of fun things to do with children in Ghent! Pro-tip: if you are going to Ghent, budget more than four hours. Or bring your own cutlery … but we’ll get to that later.

Psst. For more on Ghent, check out a fellow blogger Vicki’s post on Bruges vs. Ghent. 

Anyway, having spent the morning getting everyone up, packed and dragging our luggage down the terror stairs at our apartment — not to mention grabbing a few last-day pain au chocolat — we still managed to drive into Ghent only about half hour later than we wanted to, 9:30. But while I’d set our Google Maps to direct us toward Gravensteen Castle, I was beginning to get nervous as we allegedly crept closer and closer to our target. 1 kilometer … 750 meters … 500 meters … WHY CAN’T I SEE A CASTLE YET?? Immediately I was imagining that somehow I’d steered us wrong, or perhaps the castle was going to be smaller and WAY LESS COOL than I’d built it up to be.

And then we turned a corner.

BAM! Yes, that will do! 

Suffice it to say, we were impressed even from the outside. It was quite a lot different from the stunning “fancy” castles we saw on our Loire Valley trip, which dated from at least a few hundred years later and were much more decorative than defensive. But this castle was exactly what you’d imagine a medieval castle would look like, and reminded me a lot of the Tower of London, though on a smaller scale.

From this side, it looks like it is plopped right in the middle of a canal. 

Stranger still, it was popped right in the center of Ghent — a medieval castle in the center of a town I can best describe as having a trendy, hipster sort of vibe.

We paid 10 euro each for the adults to get into Gravensteen Castle, while the kids were free. Aside from a pair of school groups, we had the place almost entirely to ourselves for our visit. This is a benefit of off-peak travel! And by “off-peak travel,” I mean “travel when it is freaking FREEZING.”

This castle was apparently used as a set for the filming of part of the The White Queen, an amazing series I highly recommend. Though it takes place in England a several hundred years after than this castle was built. 

So, we set off wandering. I do think it might have been cool to have a tour to tell us some of the history of Gravensteen Castle, but there was a lot to look at and most of the signage was in English, French and Dutch. But here’s a bit of background: Gravensteen apparently means “Castle of the Counts.” It was built in 1180 by Philip of Alsace and  modeled after castles that Philip had seen while on the Second Crusade. It was the seat of the Counts of Flanders for a few centuries, until it later took on a rather less glamorous role as a prison. This is no doubt the reason you can see medieval torture devices in places throughout the castle, though if that turns your stomach (like it does mine!) they are easy to avoid. The kids didn’t notice any thing.

Ok, except this one. 

Pretty good sword, no? Chris is 6’1″ and the sword appears to be about the same. 

Despite the cold, walking on the top-most part of the castle was our favorite part. The views were incredible!

You can see St. Michael’s Bridge and the Belfry of Ghent in this one. 

After visiting Gravensteen Castle, we had pretty grand aspirations for the rest of the day. However, the cold and two tired kids somewhat conspired against us. We did stop for hot chocolate at a shop directly across from Gravensteen Castle called IN Choc, which was FANTASTIC. I had a hot chocolate with shots of espresso and it was fabulous.

From there our goal was to walk through the city’s Graffiti Alley to check out some of the famous Ghent street art en route to Gruut Brewery, where we intended to have lunch before taking in the sights of Ghent’s canals and several gorgeous historic monuments: St. Bavo’s Cathedral, St. Nicolas’ Church and the Belfry of Ghent (the famed ‘three towers’ of Ghent’s medieval skyline). We did manage to walk past several of these, but managed to miss the Graffiti Alley and, with two kids whining about being cold and tired, we decided it was best to press on for sustenance. This is, of course, the counter-argument against off-peak travel.

St. Nicholas Church in Ghent. 

The Gruut Brewery was a place I’d read about and was pumped to visit — I’d even already decided what I was going to eat while there. Except that once we got there, it proved they did not have food (perhaps only for dinner?). Naturally we didn’t realize this until we ordered a flight of beers, which we’d intended to share over a meal. Damned Dutch menu.

The place itself was very cool though, super trendy. I would imaging visiting it at a busier time, rather than when it was awkwardly empty, would have been awesome. And at any rate, the beer was very tasty.

So, from here things got a bit rocky. After Chris and I gulped our beers, we still had to find food for the kids and ourselves before we could get in the car and drive to the Charleroi airport for our flights home. We walked into a restaurant and inquired whether an hour would be sufficient and were assured that it would be fine. In Italy, I wouldn’t believe someone if they told me this, but we’d had surprisingly quick service most places in Belgium, so we went with it. Big mistake. At about the 45 minute mark, we were asking them to just have it packed up and we’d eat in the car. At 55 minutes were were dancing around near the entrance to make it clear we had to leave. At 60 minutes, Chris was telling them we’d pay for it regardless but we need to leave NOW. At 62 minutes, the food arrived and we headed out the door with the intent of eating in the car.

Naturally, there was no cutlery. I ended up breaking up the kids’ chicken breast (they  forgotten the french fries, the only thing that would have been easy to eat in the car!) and Chris’s shrimp-stuffed chicken to feed to them by hand as we drove.

I’d ordered a chicken stew.

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If you are interested in World War II, a visit to Bastogne — in particular the Bastogne War Museum and Mardasson Memorial — is a must! Nearby Orval Abbey is also stunning and makes a great stop on a day trip to the Bastogne area. This was our favorite day of our Belgium trip! 

As I mentioned in this post, for our quick trip to Belgium we opted to base ourselves in one apartment and spent our time taking day trips from Brussels. We loved this approach because it gave us a “home” of sorts while we were away (albeit one with insane stairs) and because Belgium is small enough and Brussels is central enough that almost everywhere can be a day trip from Brussels. For day three of our trip, Chris took the wheel and planned probably our best day trip of all: a visit to Bastogne and Orval Abbey. So, three cheers to Chris!

Stop one: the Bastogne War Museum and Mardasson Memorial

If you haven’t watched Band of Brothers lately, here’s a quick refresher on the significance of Bastogne. December 1944: a flailing German army is launching its last major offensive of the war on the Western front. The German army — intent on seizing Antwerp and cutting the Allied supply lines — advances through the Ardennes region in eastern Belgium, a heavily forested area. The Allied line is thin and supplies are hard to come by, and the weather is brutally cold. Still, even badly outnumbered the American troops in the region put up fierce resistance that slows the German advance. This allows the 101st Airborne Division to reach the town of Bastogne by December 19. Still, within the two days the city of Bastogne is completely surrounded, and poor weather conditions prevent air drops to resupply the city with ammunition, food and medical supplies.  The Allies, however, hold the perimeter … and get a little cheeky in the bargain.

Presented with a Nazi demand for surrender, Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, acting commander of the 101st Airborne — gives his one-word response: “NUTS.”

For real. This is what they sent. 

The tide starts to turn for Germany on Dec. 23 as the weather clears, allowing for resupply. On Dec. 26, Patton’s Third Army arrives in Bastogne to break the siege. By Jan. 7, Hilter orders the withdrawal of his forces from Ardennes, but the bitter fighting continues for three more weeks until the last German units withdraw on Jan. 25.

The offensive, known to history as the Battle of the Bulge, is described by Winston Churchill as “undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war.” Victory comes at a high price, however. In the wake of the battle an estimated 76,890 Allies soldiers are dead, wounded or missing. On the German side, there are an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 casualties.

I’ll get to the Bastogne War Museum in a moment, as it was one of the absolute best museums Chris and I have ever been to. But first I wanted to mention that in Bastogne you will also find a monument honoring the American soldiers who helped liberate Belgium.

We found the Mardasson Memorial deeply moving. 

Construction began on the Mardasson Memorial on July 4, 1946.

The Mardasson Memorial tells the story of the Battle of the Bulge in 10 panels, entirely in English. It lists the names of each U.S. state as well.

The Latin inscription translates to “The Belgian people remember their American liberators.”

The Mardasson Memorial is right next to the Bastogne War Museum, which as I mentioned above, was one of the best museums we’ve been to. Like a lot of museums, it offers audio guides. The difference, however, is that this audio guide is automatically triggered by your approach to various parts of the museum. Even more interesting is that the story of the war is told to you in a more narrative style through the voices of four people: an American soldier from Georgia, a young German soldier, a school teacher/member of the Belgian resistance, and a 13-year-old boy living in Bastogne.

The museum has the usual exhibits of soldiers’ uniforms, photos, weapons and step-by-step descriptions of the lead up to World War II. As you’d guess, it focuses heavily on the Battle of the Bulge and siege of Bastogne. But punctuating these exhibits are video-type shows that further the story of the battle and of our four characters. I don’t know how to explain it quite right — it was mostly video, but included moving sets and some other visual effects at various points. It was an incredible way of telling the story.

This set up is the from the final video. This floor raised to reveal an entirely different level, the cellar. 

Note the newspaper headlines in the back.

I can’t stress enough that if you have the chance, the Bastogne War Museum is absolutely worth the trip from Brussels, which took about an hour and 45 minutes. I’ve never been to a museum that told a story in quite this way, and it was extremely effective in keeping us and even the kids very engaged in the story.

Stop two: Orval Abbey

We had a quick lunch in the cute town of Bastogne (though regrettably we didn’t have time to go the restaurant called ‘Le Nuts!’), then drove about 45 minutes to Orval Abbey.

Orval Abbey is a Cistercian monastery founded in 1132, which we visited in no small part because of its reputation for the production of Trappist beer and cheese. Also, it is absolutely gorgeous. The original abbey was pillaged and burned in 1637, rebuilt, and then destroyed 1793 during the French Revolution. It was reconstructed about 200 years later, and today remains an active abbey.

You can tour the ruins of the old abbey, but not the new one.

The new abbey, which you can’t tour. 

The ruins. But I think maybe you could have figured that out. Still gorgeous, no? 

The spring for water for the beer. 

Afterward, we went to Orval Abbey’s on-site restaurant for a couple of beers and a cheese platter. 

We actually found this beer at our local grocery after returning home from Belgium. Go figure. 

Brussels was about a two-hour drive home from Orval, which put it at about the maximum distance that we like to drive, one way, for a day trip. Still, despite it being a long day I absolutely can’t recommend it highly enough as a day trip from Brussels. (Though I should note that despite the extremely long day with lots of walking, naturally Fiona was still hyper-wound up when we returned to our apartment. Because you know what she says to the suggestion she is sleepy, ever? ‘NUTS.’)

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Beautiful Bruges: our visit to Belgium’s prettiest city

Headed to Belgium with the family? Bruges with kids is about as good as it gets. From canal rides to breweries to a french fry museum, there’s something for everyone here in Belgium’s most beautiful city.

Our visit to Bruges with kids

With only three-and-a-half days in Belgium with the kids, we had to be selective about our itinerary. However, there was no doubt that Bruges was always going to make the cut! The only question was how much time: originally I figured we’d go in the morning and maybe get back to Brussels in time to do whatever activity we missed the first day. Later, I considered splitting Wednesday between Bruges and Ghent. Once we got there, however, we knew we needed a whole day in Bruges with kids. And even then, we didn’t see everything — if we were to go again, I’d want to make sure we had at least a full 24 hours in Bruges!

Where is Bruges: Bruges is located in the northwest part of Belgium, in West Flanders. It took us a little more than an hour to get there from Brussels by car, and was an easy drive once we escaped the traffic in Brussels. Our friends who went to Belgium sans car took the train from Brussels to Bruges and said it cost 14 euro each.

Where to park in Bruges: We originally intended to park in the Biekorf car park, which is beneath the city’s municipal library and located only 50 meters from the Markt. However, by the time we arrived (around 11) it was already full. We went looking for another garage, but quickly found ample street parking available and opted to do that. One thing to know about street parking in Bruges is that you can only do it four hours at a time (costs about 9 euro), so Chris had to run back to feed the meter once while we were there. Luckily, Bruges is quite a compact town.

What we did in Bruges with kids: Upon arriving, our first step (after securing some pain au chocolat from a nearby bakery) was to head immediately for the Markt. The Markt is basically the heart of this UNESCO World Heritage town, and it is surrounded by the town’s iconic 12th century Belfry and the Cloth Hall. In the middle are statues of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, a butcher and weaver respectively, who led an uprising against King Philip “the Fair” of France, in 1302. They are seen symbols of Flemish patriotism.

When we arrived, there actually was a farmer’s market going on in the Markt. Toward the end of the day we picked up some strawberries and what Chris described as inexplicably the best orange he’d ever had in his life. We are completely surrounded by oranges here in Sicily, but he has to go to frosty Bruges for the best? Go figure. Bruges with kids.

For lunch, we broke one of our own money-saving rules and ate at a restaurant right on the popular square. Did we probably overpay because of the touristy location? Yeah. But our meal at Le Panier d’Or was tasty, so no real regrets.

As discussed in several other posts, Plus Plus blocks continue to be our secret weapon for compliant kids! These things will keep them both occupied for an impressively long time. At the suggestion of the genius friend who gifted us to them, we try to only let the kids play with them when we are on trips so they don’t get tired of them. 

Our big priority for this trip wasn’t going inside any of the buildings in Bruges, but more walking around the city itself. In particular, I was adamant that I wanted to do a canal ride and it did end up being my favorite part of the day. When we first arrived in Bruges, I was afraid that it was too cold to be on a boat but honestly, we weren’t any colder than we were while walking around

The views from the boat were awesome! It was our favorite way of seeing the city.

The canal ride was about half an hour long and cost about 6 euro per adult.

After that, it was time for a chocolate refuel at a shop called Pralinette, where we had the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had in my life. Insanely rich. This shouldn’t be too surprising though, as it proved to be just a big chunk of chocolate tossed into steamed milk to melt. Nom nom.

Well, hey there, chocolates. 

While there were a couple stops we considered in the afternoon, we ultimately decided to make a kid-centric stop at the Freitmuseum since, after all, we’d come to Bruges with kids. The Museum of Fries! It was obviously not like, high culture, but it was fun and quirky and the kids enjoyed themselves. And they sold excellent fries in the basement.

Just your standard educational potato art! 

The museum included a play area where kids can pretend to make their own fries in a frite truck! The kids spent ages here. The adults sat at the table and were served the fries.

I defy you to find a cuter pair of fry cooks anywhere in the universe. 

SPEAKING OF FRIES …

The search for the frite truck. It happened. But does not have an especially satisfying resolution.

So, as I talk about in THIS POST, my parents took me and my three younger siblings backpacking in Europe when I was 13. One of our stops was Bruges, where my parents had visited in 1985 and discovered a frite truck they thought was amazing. To their surprise, it was still there in 2001! We ate there like four times in two days.

SO. A major goal of ours (ok, mine) was to find this frite truck, if it still existed (note: I didn’t know where it actually was). So when we got to the Markt, I pretty quickly found a pair of frite trucks hanging out there that seemed like they … could have been them? I wasn’t quite sure. I resolved to look around a little more to try to figure it out, but we got distracted and had lunch. Afterward, I ended up deciding to just ask the guy working at one of them whether the truck had been there since 1985. After spending some time teasing me, he informed me that while he had been working there for just a few years, these trucks had been operating since the 1890s. I wasn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t pulling my leg, but he whipped out a phone and showed me a picture of it that supposedly was from the 50s. Ok then, I was fairly convinced. But at this point, we’d already eaten lunch and were super full, so we resolved to stop back on the way out.

… and then we had a canal ride and chocolate and walking all over the city and the Freitmuseum. And consequently had two extremely whiny children who were claiming they couldn’t walk and needed to be hauled back to the car.

And WE FORGOT.

I’m literally still kicking myself as I write this, and it was like a week and a half ago. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Mom, Dad, Mike, Torie and Jay: I’M SORRY!

But seriously, go to Bruges. Go to Bruges alone. Go to Bruges with adults. Go to Bruges with kids. Any way you go, it is lovely.

PS. I even found a picture of the frite truck in the museum!

PPS. If you are going, you might also consider a visit to the De Halve Maan brewery. We opted not to go this time, but Chris and his friend were there in October and said the tour was “awesome.” My beer-snob husband said the beers he sampled were “alright, kind of meh” but notes he didn’t try them all. I assume that means I’d like them, as tragically I haven’t yet achieved his level of beer snobbery.

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Heading to Brussels with kids? This cosmopolitan city has plenty of choices to keep every member of the family happy. We spent just one of our four days in Belgium in Brussels, but I’d recommend spending two days there if you can manage it. Brussels also makes a great jumping off point for day trips: we spent the rest of our time in Bruges, Bastogne and Ghent! 

As we planned our trip to Belgium with the kids, our chief interests were located outside the city we’d planned to stay in. We had settled on staying in an apartment in Brussels because it was so centrally-located and we knew eating all the chocolate the city could offer was a priority, but other than that we were much more focused on day trips to Bruges, Bastogne and Ghent. To my surprise, however, I found myself really wishing we had more to explore Brussels after all. While certainly I think two adults could see a lot more of the city in a day than we did being in Brussels with kids, I’d still say you need at least two days to really take in the city.

That said, even if you only have one day in Brussels you can still get a good feel for the city.

Must-see Brussels with kids

• chocolate shops (hey, we have our priorities straight!)
• eating fries and waffles and drinking Belgian beer (see above re: priorities)
• see Mannekin Pis
• visit the Grand Place (day and night!)
• Les Galleries Royale Saint-Hubert
• AutoWorld

What we missed when in Brussels with kids

While we saw a few of the city’s iconic cartoon murals, I wish we’d taken the time to see more of them! They are playful and fun and see like a perfect activity for seeing Brussels with kids. For more information, you can check out my blogging friend Sophie’s post about the cartoon walk in Les Marolles.

One item that was also very high on our list was Coudenberg Underground Palace, which I really wanted to see but regrettably ran out of time to do.  The palace was built in the 11th century, but was destroyed by fire in 1731 and ultimately Royal Square was built on top of the ruins. Since then, the ruins have been excavated and now you can tour the “underground palace.” As a friend of mine who I trust highly recommended this, I’d suggest you consider visiting if you have the chance! It will be a priority if we get back to Brussels some day.

If we’d had an extra day, we would also have hit Brussel’s iconic Atomium, once called “Europe’s most bizarre building.”  (It’s in the top image on this post!). It was originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, and is meant to be an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. It’s now a museum.

Our visit in Brussels with kids

We got a bit of a late start on Tuesday because of our after-midnight arrival Monday (or rather, Chris and Fi did. Owen was up early and I never sleep well on vacation so we went and got pain au chocolat and croissants together). Our first order of business once everyone was up, however, was setting off for the Grand Place.

We got a bit distracted along the way, of course …

Note: this were actually really hard to eat with that tiny fork, which was not an effective tool for cutting the waffle. Nevertheless, we persisted. 

Waffles! Sadly I didn’t note the name of this waffle shop, but fellow blogger Cedric has some great advice on the best waffles in Brussels.

So, La Grand-Place. (Which I spent most of the trip continuing to refer to as the Grand Palace by accident, despite knowing it was Place). This is basically the central market square in Brussels, where the city’s Town Hall, King’s House (contains a museum now) and opulent guild halls and private homes came together. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and considered to be one of the most beautiful squares in Europe. Naturally, we opted to go into none of them because #priorities.

The purple thing is a scale model of Brussels’ Atomium, a bizarre building elsewhere in Brussels that was originally built for the 1958 World’s Fair. The building behind it is Brussels Town Hall. 

We visited during the day and then in the evening after dinner as well! It was prettiest in the evening, in my humble opinion.

It was decorated for Chinese New Year. Brussels with kids!

From there, it was straight off to some chocolate shops! I can’t remember if I mentioned before, but Chris spent time in Belgium in October with a friend. Consequently, he was well-prepped on where we were to go. First stop: Chocopolis.

Out front, a “chocolate” statue of an elephant. We were all pretty amused.

If you are headed to Brussels with kids, prepare for them to acquire a taste for expensive chocolate. 

We bought our fair share of chocolate, then gobbled it approximately five steps outside the shop. From there, it was off to Les Galleries Royale Saint-Hubert, a famous shopping arcade stuffed full of chocolate shops and jewelry shops. So you know, the basics.

Our destination was Meert, for exotic chocolates that included ingredients I hadn’t even heard of. Regardless, everything we jammed into our mouths was amazing. We also visited the tea room for coffee and what felt like the most expensive lemonade ever, which the kids refused to drink. Obviously.

If you go to Brussels, absolutely grab the mini waffles. They are basically like thin cookies with filling in the middle. We had cinnamon and they were unbelievable.

Pretty chocolate window in Les Galleries

We had intended next to hit the chocolate shop of Pierre Marcolini, another chocolatier who Chris loved from his last visit. At this point, however, it occurred to us that we needed to feed the children some actual food after a morning that included pain au chocolat, waffles and chocolates. Luckily, we were in Belgium so “real food” was deemed to be fries. (We also made the kids eat chicken, we aren’t absolutely the worst). We headed to Chez Papy, a place where Chris had eaten in October.

French fry robot, created by Owen. 

From there, it was a quick hop over to Mannekin Pis (“Little man pee” in Dutch), the symbol of cheeky Belgium. It is a tiny little statue — the many copies of it we saw in plastic/chocolate/whatever tended to be larger than the real thing!

Fiona wasn’t what you would call impressed. Brussels with kids.

By this point, it was decision time for the day. We were interested in two sights: Coudenberg Palace and AutoWorld. As you know, we went with the latter. No regrets! We opted to take an Uber to get there; while Brussels is an extremely walkable city, this particular exhibit was further than we were willing to hike.

The kids had a great time looking at cars and motorcycles, young and old. It was fun to see the progression of how the vehicles evolved over time, starting with their earliest days. I was especially impressed with how enormous the old vehicles were.

Ok, these two aren’t exactly great examples of the huge vehicles. But look at them! 

And there we are. This is a 1928 Packard Eight, Model 443, Series 4. This was my favorite even before I saw the sign describing it as the”favorite car of crowned heads and billionaires.”

Near the race car exhibit. Chris lost, can you tell? “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” -Ricky Bobby, Talladega Nights.

It seems a good time to mention that by the time we finished looking at cars, we had been marching the kids — who’d been up until at least 1 a.m. — across Belgium all day long. Naturally, Fiona was still wound up (HOW????) but Owen tried very hard to fall asleep on chairs at the small cafe inside AutoWorld where Chris and I had our first Belgian beers of the trip. Plans to try to hop back over to Coudenberg were abandoned, and we ended up Uber-ing back to our hotel instead for a bit of rest. After the four flights of stairs to our apartment, obviously. All of us were pretty thrilled about that.

So, not to get off topic too much here but one of the things we love about Sicily is the food. One of the things we don’t love about Sicily is the lack of diversity in the food. So, when we are in big cities we tend to seek out Indian, Thai, etc. to get our fix when we can. For what turned out to be out only meal out in Brussels, we opted to hit an Indian restaurant recommended by a friend who visited the weekend before us — Namaste Indian Restaurant.

It was excellent. I had naan, chicken samosa (didn’t even know this was a thing?) and vindaloo curry for dinner and it could not have been happier.

What was less awesome was Owen knocking over the world’s flimsiest glass cup and somehow managing to cut his finger in the process. Given he was incredibly overtired and blood is scary, the freak out that ensued was pretty understandable. The owners could not have been nicer, however. The one in perhaps her 20s asked him to come to her (amazingly he did?) so that she could take him for a surprise treat, and next thing you know she was carrying his gigantic 5-year-old self across the street to her family’s small shop to let him pick something. I ended up following along with Fiona because she didn’t want to be left out. It really reminded me of that Sicilian friendliness, though Chris is of the opinion that they were just hoping we didn’t sue. Cynic! All in all though, an excellent first day in Brussels.

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We’re back after a fabulous, action-packed four days in Belgium with the kids! Our itinerary was pretty full, but we felt like we got to see a lot of Belgium in a very short amount of time. And enjoyed lots of chocolate, fries and Belgian beer, of course! Our first trip of the year was a bit of an impulse decision, booked when I randomly saw $41 flights to Brussels’ Charleroi airport for a week where Chris already had Monday and Friday off. As usual, I wish we’d had time to cram more into our itinerary — in particular I wish we’d had one more day in Brussels and at least four more hours in Ghent — but it was a lovely short-and-sweet trip. I’m going to do a day-by-day recap of our Belgium itinerary in the next few days, but here’s an overview of our four-day itinerary … and a bit of a story about our flight to Belgium at the end. It was an interesting? flight.

Our Four-Day Belgium Itinerary

Four days in Belgium, Day 0: Arrived late, late, late

-Drove 50 minutes from Charleroi Airport to our apartment in downtown Brussels, then straight to bed after midnight.

Four days in Belgium, Day 1: Brussels

See here for more on our day in Brussels with kids. 

-Self-guided tour of various chocolate shops
-Fries at Chez Pappy
-Grand Place
-Mannekin Pis
-Autoworld to see hundreds of vintage cars
-Dinner at Namaste Indian restaurant
-Back to Grand Place to see it all lit up at night (and have an epic meltdown over a balloon)

Four days in Belgium, Day 2: Bruges

For more about our visit to Bruges, click here.

-Visit to the Markt Square to look around, seek the famous frites truck
-Canal ride
-Visit to the Freitmuseum (Museum of fries!)
-Lunch at Le Panier d’Or
-More chocolate!

Four days in Belgium, Day 3: Bastogne and Orval Abbey

For more on our day trip to Bastogne and Orval Abbey, click here.

-Bastogne War Museum (incredible!)
-Mardasson Memorial
-Orval Abbey — touring the grounds and sampling their beer and cheese

Four days in Belgium, Day 4: Ghent

For more on our visit to Ghent, click here.

-Gravensteen Castle (loved it!)
-Gruut Brewery (there’s a story here)
-IN Choc chocolate shop
-Andddddd … we ran out of time and had to drive to the airport.

Where we stayed: Appartbrussels, an apart-hotel about a 15-minute walk from the Grand Place. I picked this one specifically because the location looked good and it was, ahem, only 8,000 Chase points per night on a day I was feeling cheap. Shortly before we left, Chris noticed that it appeared to be located directly above a sex shop. This actually ended up being a non-issue (I didn’t even notice if it was there?), but the four flights of terrifying spiral stairs we had to climb proved to be somewhat daunting. OK, a lot daunting. The owner, Amir, was very nice though — extremely responsive and hauled our suitcases up the insane stairs for us at 12:30 a.m.

How we got around: We rented a car from Avis (not the cheapest option, but it was the only one open until 11:30 p.m.) at the Charleroi Airport. We street-parked it near our hotel for two nights we got back to town late because parking was free between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., and the other two days we stashed it at a Q-Park very near our hotel. Driving in Brussels was a bit of a pain in the ass — there are a bunch of tunnels that confused Google Maps and us — but outside the city it was perfectly pleasant.

Our flight: We flew from Comiso Airport, about an hour and 20 minutes to the south of us. What is it like to fly out of Comiso? It is … interesting. The thing to know is that Comiso was a former military base, first during WWII and then it was rebuilt during the Cold War to house nuclear-armed cruise missiles. The U.S. Air Force had a presence there throughout the 1980s until 1991, when the base finally closed as a result of the signing of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Force Treaty in 1987. The base housing there was used briefly after that to house 5,000 Kosovar refugees, but since then it has been vacant.

The result of this is that the airport seems kind of creepy? It is in the middle of nowhere, and as you are driving in you pass all this overgrown former base housing where the land is clearly taking back what was hers. Inside it is fine, but tiny — probably the smallest airport I’ve been to since Fiji in 2007. You just walk out the door onto the runway, and about 100 feet from there you hop aboard your plane. You’d think that since ours seemed to be the only flight leaving at that time it would be pretty organized, but … not so much. Pretty much mob-style of lining up.  At any rate, however, the flights were insanely cheap and on the way there the drive wasn’t terrible, so it wasn’t a bad option by any means.

If you are going to Comiso airport, you should know that parking is extremely easy and right next to the terminal. On the way out, however, know that the machine where you pay for the parking is INSIDE THE TERMINAL, not outside in the parking lot. Also, this machine ONLY ACCEPTS CASH. Yes, I’m shouting. It will save you half an hour of aggravation at Comiso airport when you just want to get the hell home.

And finally … the flight itself.

Weirdest one I’ve been on. Not the plane itself — standard RyanAir situation — but the actual flight. You know in the movies when they ask if there is a doctor in the house on the plane? That actually happened! Except no one seemed to be a doctor. A young woman on the plane got sick in some way, and they ended up  stretching her out in the back near the bathrooms. They made an announcement to tell people that they really, really weren’t joking about that no smoking thing because they were giving oxygen to the woman in the back. Do people really take the ‘no smoking on planes’ thing as a suggestion? Eeeeeek.

Anyway, this flight was already a bit odder than most we’ve been on. People were letting their kids stand and jump on the seats while we were in the air (what about the turbulence?!) and some dude near us turned on Indiana Jones on his laptop in French and was blasting it at full volume, no headphones. But after the “doctor in the house” question, things kind of broke down more. People were standing in the aisles talking as if it were a bar instead of a plane, while others were not at all subtly craning their necks to get a glimpse of the person stretched out in the back. Meanwhile, the flight attendants not dealing with the woman in the back resumed their walks down the aisle trying to sell people snacks or perfume (?) incessantly, as if it were just any other flight. People got out of the way just while they were passing through, but apparently weren’t told to sit the hell down. It was just … weird.

For our part, Chris and I spent a lot of time marveling at our fellow passengers and hoping that if we got diverted, that it would be somewhere good. Our kids, meanwhile, sat quietly playing with toys and watching movies on the the iPad. Owen fell asleep, but since Fiona is some kind of mythical creature who doesn’t need sleep she obviously just stayed awake.

Oh, and if you are wondering I’m guessing the sick person in question is probably OK — they had three ambulances waiting when we landed, but she was able to walk down the stairs and over to them with someone supporting her.

The post Four days in Belgium with kids: Our Itinerary first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Four days in Belgium with kids: Our Itinerary appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.