Our Brussels-Bruges-Heidelberg Trip

I told you all about how we booked our fall euro-vacation, but now I want to sit down and share some specifics and some of why we picked the trip we did.

Belgium has been on our travel bucketlist for at least seven years. Being huge craft beer nerds and in love with sours, as soon as we had Cantillon for the first time, we pretty much put a brewery visit on our list. So when we decided to book a trip this fall and to take our son with, we decided we wanted somewhere new (Belgium) and something with easy flights (traveling with a 14 month old. I'm going to do a separate post about travel tips with a toddler). Denver has VERY limited options for direct flight destinations in Europe, especially with the limitation of wanting to use certain airlines (to utilize our miles) and not having been somewhere we've already been (which scratched Paris and London). 

Frankfurt to Brussels was just an hour flight, so we figured once we made it through a long flight, even if the hour connecting flight was miserable, it would be quick. Departing Europe, it made sense to us to have one direct flight back to Denver at the end of travel. Originally we were going to stay in Frankfurt, but after researching some, we decided Heidelberg could be a more charming old-world European city option.

Here are some highlights and details from each city we stayed in. This was definitely not our normal style of travel; we barely had an agenda and didn't do a ton of research on highlights/attractions (I blame being exhausted from first trimester). However, traveling with a baby, we wanted to keep our expectations low and in the end we had a great, laid back trip because of this!

Brussels, Belgium

We had no issues taking the train from the airport to city center. Our Airbnb was about a half mile walk from the station. Although our Airbnb was on the third floor (and we took a stroller), I would highly recommend it for its size, cleanliness, and location; just a few blocks from Grand Place, the large shopping/tourist/restaurant area of Brussels. I highly recommend walking here during the day and night; it's beautiful.

Grand Place by night

Grand Place by day

Our Airbnb

Cantillon Brewery was our top priority for Brussels and it didn't disappoint. It's a family run lambic brewery which makes some of the world's best and most sought after sour beers. It was so good (yes, I had a beer here, I had to) that we went twice. Mainly once to bring the stroller and use it to haul beer home and the second without the stroller to take the tour. If you have any inkling of liking sour beer, or even if you don't, you need to go here when in town.

Cantillon Family picture

Other beer highlights for Brussels were Moeder Lambic (beer bar with apps, on several World's Top 10 Bar lists; right around the corner from our apartment), Brussels Beer Project (dare I say, a nice break from sour beers), and although now they have several locations across Europe, BrewDog (For us, I think it's a nostalgia thing. We went to Brewdog Camden (London) our first Europe trip and then Brewdog Rome and Florence. BrewDog Brussels had an awesome non-alocholic sour for me and also delicious burgers (and high chairs)).

Brussels Beer Project

In addition to beer, Belgium is known for chocolates, waffles and fries. Our favorite chocolate in Brussels was Elisabeth (although there are tons to choose from; their bark was so melt in your mouth good). The best waffle was at Maison Dandoy at the Galerias location. It's a charming corner cafe with tables in the corridor of shops. We waited in line for frites (fries) at Friterie Tabora based on reviews. To be honest, it was a little underwhelming. Their famous for their 30+ dipping sauces, but we're fairly boring (and Ben is really boring, he doesn't even eat ketchup), that I'm not sure it was worth the hype or wait to us.

Maison Dandoy

One thing I wish we would have done more planning for was restaurants. Often times we just popped into whatever was nearby that didn't have a wait because we were all starving.  However, breakfast is my favorite meal, so I do highly recommend the breakfast spots we visited: Peck47 (worth the wait!), Kaffabar (coffee shop with great pour overs and food), and Mokafe (also located in the Galerias near Maison Dandoy; large traditional type breakfast menu).

Overall I liked Brussels more than I expected to given that it has such a large array of reviews (good and bad) and suggested amount of time to visit. It was nice that although we hadn't been here, it felt like a familiar large European city and was easy to navigate (acknowledging we mainly stayed in tourist areas; but outside of Grand Place, it wasn't overly charming or interesting and rather blah). We were in Brussels three days and three nights which was a good amount of time, giving us the first night and first full day to recoup from jetlag. If this isn't your origination city in Europe, I would give it only two days.

Bruges, Belgium

Bruges is everything Brussels is not. It's charming, it's old world, it's magical.  The train from Brussels to Bruges is one-hour direct. Our Airbnb in Bruges was about half a mile from the train station so we also walked there. My jaw was on the ground the entire walk. I felt like I was walking in a fairy tale. It's an absolute must visit!

We stayed at an airbnb on the south side of town. Even though it was only a half mile from the main tourist areas, it felt like quite a distance and was our least favorite located airbnb. It was also the smallest but still very comfortable.

Once our first day, we dropped our bags and went to De Halve Mann Brewery for lunch. I can't speak to the beer (other than a sip) but the food was great! So good that we went back a second lunch another day! We also had a great bagel sandwich lunch one day at Sanseveria Bagelsalon, which was the quaintest old school bagel shop. We had a great nicer dinner at The Belgian Pigeon House, although sadly we both were too nervous to try the house delicacy of (you guessed it) pigeon. Even though it was a nice restaurant, they were very accommodating to Grayson (high chair, kids menus, his meal served first) and we were also able to make reservations online. Our last night in Bruges we had pizza at Otomat, which we would also highly recommend!

As for activities, as I mentioned above, Bruges has such great architecture and charm that we had a lot of fun walking around and talking it all in. A boat canal tour is a must and it really affordable; most were 8EU cash per person. We all enjoyed the Kids Playground at K Astridpark located in the middle of the town. One afternoon we also walked north to Hof de Jonge Park. While there wasn't a playground here, there are sheep! Grayson loved watching them and they came over to us (there's a fence) to say hi. During our walk back, we stumbled across a playground at Sincfal Park.

A tourist-must is to climb Belfort Tower in the square. There's a fee to get in and I know 366 spiral stairs doesn't sound enjoyable (remember, it was 13 weeks pregnant!) but there are stop offs that break up the climb. The panoramic views from the top are well worth it!

View from atop the tower

Overall, I'm SO glad we added Bruges to our itinerary. Having been there now, we both consider Bruges a must-see for Belgium. We had approximately two and a half days and three nights there, which was ample time. I think two nights would be sufficient but I wouldn't go shorter than that to take it all in and have time to relax and enjoy.

Last but not least...

Heidelberg, Germany
Originally we thought it made the most sense to visit Frankfurt since we had a direct flight back to Denver from there. But, the more I looked and talked to people, the more it seemed that Frankfurt would be a large business city and not have a quaint European feel. Heidelberg is an hour from FRA airport by train, so easy to get to.

Originally I booked an airbnb by the main train station; but talking to my sister (who'd been for work), we decided to cancel and book a place in Old Town area. This was KEY to a great visit. I'm really glad we made this choice. Heidelberg has a university and city feel to it; but Old Town area is the quaint classic European feel we wanted. Our apartment was on the third floor and very spacious, which was great for the pack and play they provided. We also had views of the square as well as a private patio with castle views. I highly recommend staying here!

Apartment deck views

Our absolute favorite food/brewery in Heidelberg was Vetters, and really that's because of the cheese spaetzle (a german egg noodle). It's so good, I think we went there two or three times in three days for it. Their beer menu had classic German beers. We also enjoyed  Zum Seppl for lunch, another brewery in a hotel and the beautiful former ballroom turned restaurant. Palmbrau Gasse is another great spot for classic German food and Hans IM Gluck (we realized is a chain), was a great spot for a sit-down burger lunch. We had no issues finding high chairs or kids menus in Heidelberg restaurants, which was a nice relief.

As far as activities, the big draw is Heidelberg Castle. A castle which was originally constructed before the 1200s and has seen a numonber of additions and renovations since. It was worth the hike up the hill to get there (there's also a funicular which you can ride up, but we wanted the exercise). We found two great children's playgrounds; the first was right in Old Town - Spielplatz. The only reason we found this was that we went to a classic German bakery, Backerei Grimm, and as we walked out we heard kids laughing. We walked towards the laughter and found this great playground! The second playground we sought out after Ben did some research, Playground by the Neckar. It was a walk to get there, but it was right on the river and a beautiful sunny day.

City views from castle grounds

Our highlight activity of Heidelberg took us back to our Colorado roots; a hike. Several websites mentioned the top tourist activity was viewing of Thingstatte, an amphitheater built by the Nazis during World War II. We plugged this into Google maps and were able to follow the walking directions to get there, which took us on a variety of trails (primarily Philosopher's Way), total probably 3-4 miles and 2 hours there and back. The German forest was beautiful with fall colors and we were initially the only people at the ruins. This was such a nice break from roaming the streets and their hustle and bustle.

Along Philosopher's Way trail

Thingstatte

Overall 
Two things we would have done differently (and nothing to do with traveling with a toddler): First, we bought a TON of beer a Cantillon; close to two dozen bottles. Rather than ship the beer home, we came prepared with an extra suitcase. When I packed, I managed to fit the majority of items for Grayson and I in a carry-on sized suitcase. Traveling to Brussels, we packed the carry-on suitcase inside of the full size so that we only had one bag to check/lug around. However, because Brussels was our first stop and we filled our extra suitcase with beer, this meant we were traveling around Europe (we counted over 10 trains we took this extra 60 lb suitcase on). In hindsight, it would have been smarter to use this travel technique had Brussels been our last stop and we were going directly to the airport when leaving the city.

Note, I learned back in college when a friend went to Italy, diapers are a GREAT way to package alcohol/glass bottles when travelling or shipping. They help protect the bottle from breaking and can absorb liquid should the bottle break. We bought diapers while in Europe and knowing ahead of time what our plan was, we brought a box of extra large ziplock bags with us on the trip.

Beer, diaper and ziplock stash; no broken bottles!

The second thing we should have done was book our train travel from Bruges to Heidelberg in advance. I'm not sure why I didn't, given that it was about 5.5 hours of travel and had limited options, but it cost us. Booking in advance would have saved a lot of money. Day-of travel tickets cost double, if not more depending on the route, than booking in advance. Lesson learned!

In recap, this trip was very different for us, having a 14-month old Grayson with us; but at the same time, we were able to maintain our go-go style of travel but in a more laid back fashion. Grayson did a great job going with the flow and falling asleep in either the stroller or Ergo 360 carrier whenever he needed a nap.  If given the choice again, I'm not sure Ben would take Grayson, but I would without a doubt. Travel has been a big part of our lives up until now, and while it has and will continue to change (I'm not sure when I'll be ready to take two kids to Europe or any farther international than Canada or Mexico), I think it's important that we continue to travel and show our kids the world.