Natalie and Jane's Visit

This past weekend, my cousin Natalie and her friend Jane came through Belgium on their 2 week tour of Europe. I was so excited to get out of the house and have someone my own age to spend some time with, and I definitely enjoyed their visit.

After arriving late Friday night, our first trip was to Brugge on Saturday. The day was chilly and rainy, but we were still able to enjoy our delicious waffles with nutella and strawberries:


After lunch we decided to burn off those extra calories by climbing the 366 stairs in the Belfry:


It was a tough climb with very narrow stairs and a lot of people trying to come up and down at the same time, but the view from the top was great!


All summer I've been going to Gent on Sunday evenings for church, so we decided to go around lunch time for some sightseeing before going to church. It started a little rainy, but by the time we finished lunch it was beautiful outside - perfect for walking around town all day. We were able to see a lot of beautiful churches, a couple of castles, canals and of course, climbed the Belfry.


Monday and Tuesday afternoons were spent in Brussels where we met up with Natalie's boyfriend Andy and his friend Aaron. Monday began with a nice breakfast of waffles, nutella and strawberries and hot chocolate. It was very delicious, and the sugar gave us the energy needed to walk around town until lunchtime. The museums were all closed, so we just spent the morning looking around town at all the old churches and government buildings.


For lunch we went to a local grocery store and bought sandwiches and took it to the Grand Platz where we spent the rest of the day. Following lunch we looked at a nearby church before shopping for some Belgian chocolates. From there we found a local cafe where we ate our chocolates and coffee,


and then made our way to a brewery just off the Grand Platz. When Andy and Aaron had had enough beer, we found a restaurant serving mussels and frits (an authentic Belgian meal) for our dinner. Basically all the calories burned walking around for the previous 2 days were consumed with our day of eating and drinking, but it was a fun and relaxing day.

Tuesday we made our way back to Brussels to visit the Museum of Musical Instruments. Andy and Aaron are band directors, and I think they were in heaven for those two hours that we were in the museum!

We were able to go into a couple of the churches we had found while walking around on Monday and walk through a beautiful park before it was time for the four of them to head off to Amsterdam.


Their visit was the most activity I've had in the past two months and it wore me out, but I definitely enjoyed having them here!