Belgium – Be Back Whenever

3/2026 – Road Trip Time

From Lisbon, Portugal, we flew to Amsterdam for a 2 week road trip after Easter weekend in Amsterdam and a visit to the famous Spring flower display at Keukenhof. The flowers are spectacular but the traffic (We took the bus.) was not fun. Easter Monday makes it even more crowded!

We watched lots of pictures being taken in and around the gardens so we took our obligatory pictures to prove we actually were there!

We picked up a car and started our driving trip to Belgium to see WWI sites, tour the Spa F1 track and meet a German friend for a few days before we headed out to find WWII sites from the Battle of the Bulge. Both of us had uncles who had to fight in that war.

We learned that trucks can’t drive in the left hand lane on autoroutes in the Netherlands (good) but they can in Belgium (not so good). We figured out how to buy gasoline in Belgium. The secret is that the CC controller is at the end of the gas island, not in the pump! We got one or two to accept our Google Pay credit card when they didn’t like our physical US credit cards. Who knows?? We will never complain about U.S. gas price either. A gallon in the Netherlands was roughly $8.00! Belgium is cheaper but not by much.

Market Square in Ypres. It was completely flattened during WWI and rebuilt.

The Menon Gate in Ypres. Last Post is played there every night.

St. Martin’s Church in Ypres. What are those lights/bulbs for?? We never found out.

Bastogne Bois Jacques – woods used in Band of Brothers with fox holes still from WWII.

2/2024 – Brussels

We took the Eurostar to Brussels – only 2 hours. We’ve been to Brussels several times; just spent the day walking around the city. Stopped at Mannekin Pis, 2 churches, renovated Bourse that houses the Beer World Museum (We skipped that.).

The obligatory visit to the Mannekin Pis. If you get to Brussels, find the city museum where all of his costumes are displayed. He wears various clothes to celebrate different holidays.

Waffles that look like frites decorated with candy. We did NOT try them.

The Corne beer was pretty good even if Susan wasn’t too sure how to drink from the glass.

La Villette has yummy food and beer to go with each one. They are beer experts rather than wine sommeliers.

There’s a proper glass to accompany every Belgian beer. This was the recommended beer for my filet.

We woke up to rain and more wind. After breakfast, we took an Uber to the Centraal Station to catch the train to Bruges.