First stop, Brussels

Our train from London took us through the chunnel, beneath the English channel. That part of the trip was pretty quick-- lasted for about 20 minutes max. But you can definitely feel a pressure change in the train car as you're going under.

Out of the chunnel the train either goes to Paris or Brussels. Paris? Boring. All the really cool people go to Brussels, so we were happy the train turned left.

Several things struck us immediately about Brussels. First, the drivers are incredibly polite. The moment you put your foot on the street, the cars stop for you. Compared to London, it's like some sort of strange pedestrian magic power.

Brussels is also uniquely international. There is the Belgian culture, but also French, German, and Dutch influence that is readily apparent. The city seems to be an intense intersection of different people, including what seemed like a strong Muslim community as well.

A third thing that struck us was how individual and creative so many of the shops are. Not so much in the more modern section of the city, but moreso as you walk down toward the central square. Our hotel was outside the older part of the city, so we would take a 30 minute walk into the older city each day. Little shop after little shop had items on display that you just wouldn't or couldn't find anywhere else. Each store seemed to have its own utterly personal touch.

We were not fully prepared for Brussels, as it is not in our "Rick Steve's Best of Europe" guide. Lacking scriptural direction, we relied on some helpful advice from Ryan, who had been there last year, and otherwise just launched out into the city.

As enjoyable as the city is in the winter, we thought it must be even moreso in the spring and summer, with all the fountains and gardens.

We saw some great art and the city cathedral (two thirds of our usual holy trinity of tourism: museum, cathedral, and castle). We also hit a grand slam of great Belgian eating and drinking: waffles (morning), frites with or without sauce (afternoon), beer (evening), chocolate (night). The chocolate and beer, in particular, were simply incomparable-- nothing we had before or later could challenge them.

A great start to the trip. From Brussels we took a train to Frankfurt, and then to Nuremburg, where we caught the train heading to Prague.