TheWrightsDoLux: Road Trip!

One of the things I think we're going to love about living in Lux is the ability to jump in the car, drive in any direction, and end up in a new country within a matter of minutes. That's what we did this past Saturday.

Thanks to a recommendation from the Su family, we drove to Bouillon in Southern Belgium to visit Chateau Fort, a medieval castle. We climbed I don't know how many stairs to take in the spectacular views of the surrounding countryside and the Semois river from the top of the castle. Then we headed way down to visit the armories, dungeons, and torture chambers (Jackson's favorite part, of course).

Outside the torture chamber

Sittin' in a turret

Heading to the dungeon

We were ravenous after hours of exploring and climbing (I was also sore for a couple of days...pathetic) so had a giant lunch in town of moules, entrecote avec champignons a la creme (so yum though Dan was not happy with me), omelette, and (at Sabina's request) chicken nuggets and fries, followed by a little shopping and paddleboating on the Semois.

We accidentally took the scenic route to Brussels (2-1/2 hours instead of 1-1/2...oops) so saw some of the Belgian countryside (cows galore) en route. In Brussels, we stayed near Grand Place which is the city's central square. What was orginally an open air market is now a beautiful square bordered by elegant, stately buildings including Town Hall, an impressive gothic structure from the 1400s and the equally impressive Maison du Roi, which houses the Museum of Brussels.

Tourists at Grand Place

We had a delicious dinner at La Roue D'Or, an old Brussels cafe serving French/Belgian food - more moules et frites, more entrecote, escargots, and stoemp (sausage with mashed potatoes and carrots; satisfied Sabina's request for hot dogs). Jackson ordered some amazing meatball concoction served in a beer gravy; we declared him the ordering "winner" of the night.

Then we goofed off for a while.

Outside the Royal Theatre

Walking/skipping back to our hotel

Please won't you open, candy shop?

Candy shop also sold this in case you're in need of one

On Sophia's agenda before leaving Sunday...eat waffles! We are pretty sure we ended up at a tourist trap (Maison Dandoy) for this meal. But it was still tasty.