Belgium, Day 4

     When we finished breakfast, we  went back up to our rooms to retrieve everything as we would be leaving the Netherlands.  When I just got onto the elevator., I realized my retainer was still sitting on the breakfast table.  I ran through the closing doors and darted through the room.  In the process, I scraped up my shin (I tripped over a chair), but thankfully, disaster was averted... for now.
     We had a long bus ride to Brussels, Belgium. (3 or so hours, but none of us were complaining since the plane ride was eight and a half.  Driving through the country side, the only windmills we saw were the big electric ones.  Isn't Holland famous for the traditional windmills?
     Coming into Belgium, Brussels (or Bruxxels in french) looked miserable & very, very wet.  It seemed to read our minds for the moment we got out of the coach, the sun came out and warmed everything up.
     We ate at a funny little restaurant that looked like a top-hat shop.  We had more meatballs and chips. And by chips, I mean steak fries, and boy they were good.  I think they know how to make them better than we do!  To top everything off, we had a cup of Belgium's favorite, chocolate mousse with whipped cream on top.
     In Belgium, anything is possible.  While we were walking to Planéte Chocolate, a chocolate shop, we happened to see a police escort.  Coincidentally, the person being escorted happened to be the French president, pretty crazy, isn't it?  Finally getting to the shop, they had some pretty cool chocolate sculptures in the front.  A chef gave us a demonstration & explanation of the making of chocolate.  Basically, for everything, the chocolate pods are picked, the seeds are removed, dried, ground up, made into chocolate chips, and sent to various chocolate shops.  At the shops, they heat them back up, put them into molds, chilled for thirty minutes, and then they are "Ready to eat, throw to the crowd..." (the chef said that...)  Belgium chocolate is as good as they claim.

     We finished up there, and ate at a quirky little restaurant at the hotel.  It had a theater theme so there were lots of masks, most of them were quite creepy.   They served us some sort of mystery meat, deer most likely, chips, and a strange cheesecake desert thingy with cherries on it.