For the next two weeks or so, Ben has an exercise. He's more or less going to be in a bunker all day every day, working late, working weekends, perhaps sleeping there for several days. He'll be home to sleep and collect any food I've made for him and then he'll be gone again. Compared to exercises in AZ, in a "real" unit, it's really not so bad. I mean, he gets to come home, he's not going to be sleeping outside, he will come home substantially cleaner and less stinky. Oh, and he'll actually get to sleep every night. But, that said, it's still no fun.

We knew this exercise was coming, and we knew it was going to be no fun, so we decided to take advantage of last weekend and do something fun, relaxing and, most importantly, not in the Netherlands. We went to Brussels!

Brussels is only about an hour away, really not far, but we somehow had not made it there yet. So it seemed like a perfect candidate for a mini-vacation weekend. We only went for one night, and we stayed in a fancy shmancy hotel and made a plan to not do much of anything. No museums, no historic sites, just wandering around. And that is exactly what we did, and it was completely wonderful.

We did see a number of beautiful old churches, and we walked by some interesting museums. And Brussels has a ton of squares with daily markets that we fun to see and walk through. There are also many many chocolate boutiques, and antique shops, and more waffles and frites than you can possibly imagine. We only bought one box of chocolates (from Godiva - mmmm) and then resisted all the temptations of the greasy/fried/sugary/chocolatey/mayonnaise-covered delicacies that surrounded us. Ben commented that we were quite possibly the healthiest tourists in Brussels.

We did most of our exploring on Saturday because it was actually sort of sunny, and then on Sunday morning we opted for room service breakfast and the International Herald Tribune. A good choice, because Sunday morning the weather reverted back to the the typical gray, cold rain that we see EVERY SINGLE DAY. We even heard thunder at one point. Didn't bother us though, because we had hot coffee and tea and pastries and a comfy bed and a newspaper. We pretty much just lounged for a few hours and when we finished our paper, switched on CNN and watched some Larry King. Eventually we had to get up and and check out, but by that time it had stopped raining for a little bit.

We wandered a little more and grabbed lunch before heading home, feeling completely satisfied, relaxed and happy. We have plans to go back for another weekend getaway, perhaps with museums on the itinerary. Or maybe just more breakfast in bed.

Some pictures from the weekend:

The waffle vans were EVERYWHERE!


Us goofing off at the hotel

Those dogs really had they "stay" command down.

The famous Mannekin Pis

And all the tourists taking pictures of it


Breakfast!!!


And finally, us feeling very happy after chocolates, relaxation, and breakfast