After spending the day wandering around Antwerp, Kevin called from his work venue with a proposition. “Let’s take the train to Brussels and have dinner at this amazing place I know there.” (How can you not love a man who knows a great place to eat in friggin Brussels, Belgium?) Instead of saying “Yeah!” I responded with my usual nonsense. “It will be late. The train ride is too long. We have to go right back to Brussels in the morning to catch a flight home.” Blah, blah, blah. Kevin would not take no for an answer and what followed may well be in the top five best evenings of my pitiful life. I’m ashamed that I almost missed it.
We made the 15 min walk to the train station in Antwerp. Just the sight of that beautiful building was worth the walk. We caught the train to Brussels and settled in for the 45 minute ride. We talked the whole way and Kevin didn’t fall asleep once (which is pretty awesome considering he had been up since 6AM and had been presenting all day.)
Once in Brussels, we made our way out of the train station through a series of dark nondescript roads until we emerged to see this.
I know, right? Are you kidding me? I was literally speechless. Friends, it ain’t easy to rob me of speech.
We wandered around until my eyes were tired of all that awesome. Also, we were starving so we headed to the ‘place’ that Kevin had mentioned. It was a small place. A disgruntled looking waitress shook her head at us as we walked in and pointed at the crowded dining room. She motioned for us to try upstairs. We headed to the secondary dining area feeling like we were being punished until we were seated at a table with this view. I thought the whole deal couldn’t get much better but I was wrong.
The food…Sweet Jesus. First we had cheese croquettes. Sounds like the Belgian version of mozzarella sticks, right? Nuh unh. These things were…well let me just say, if heaven is a place prepared for me, I will be eating those cheese croquets throughout eternity. I ate them so fast I forgot to take a picture. But it wouldn’t do them justice even if I had. We each had different entrees which were ten kinds of awesome respectively.
We waddled out of the place feeling fat and happy. We wandered around downtown Brussels window shopping and wishing our stomachs could hold a chocolate waffle ( a Belgian specialty).
Seeing Brussels would have been great in almost any situation but being able to share it with Kevin is what really made it special. We get so excited to spend any time alone together whether we are at Costco or a fancy pants eatery in Europe.
I cheese croquette love that man.
This is such a sweet and lovely post. I enjoyed reliving those moments spent with you awhile I was reading this post. The food was beyond fantastic. It was one of the best meals of my life, both because of the company and the quality of the meal.
But to be honest, the very best part was the moment we turned the corner when we then onto the open town square. You let out such an exquisite gasp of stunned awe followed by those moments of silence while you took it all in. I could tell just by your expression of.wonderment that your mind, at that very instance, was inprinting a memory that will last a lifetime.
The entire trip was worth it to share that experience with you, my love.
May it ever be my gift and my answered prayer to give such gifts to you.