Belgium!

Tyler did well selling Auto Owner's Insurance again this year so we were able to go on another amazing trip to Belgium and France! It was so much fun in every way.

We flew out of Salt Lake on a Monday morning and had a layover in New York City for about 4 hours. We flew through the night to Belgium and when we got there it was morning their time (8 hours difference) but it felt like the middle of the night to us. We got off the plane and buses came to pick us up. When we got to our hotel it felt like it was about 3 am to us and we took a 4 hour nap because we were exhausted! 

When we first got into our room (after being told it was another room and having to go down to be corrected and coming back up to our floor again), we crashed on our bed! Tyler wouldn't even open his eyes for a picture. I didn't blame him!

Our hotel was beautiful. There was an indoor courtyard with our rooms surrounding it.

When we woke up, our bags weren't in our room. Tyler's family came with us too, and they just put all of the bags in Lindsay and Katelin's room. We had a walking tour of Brussels to get to, so when I finally found my bags I rushed to get ready. Tyler and I both looked haggard...I didn't have time to do my hair or makeup, only a quick shower and clothes change!

 We walked around the city with Heather and Casey, and of course stopped to get a belgium waffle. They are unbelievable! They are nothing like the normal waffle that you would think of. They are made out of a dough with pearl sugar, or sugar chunks. Yum yum! They actually have some stores here in Utah, like the Awful Waffle, that sell real Belgium waffles. Everyone else got chocolate on their waffles, but I just got my plain because it is so sweet by itself!

There was a beautiful cathedral near our hotel that we walked through. The stained glass was so detailed.

We walked through a park with giant chocolate bars. Only fitting for the chocolate capitol of the world! Every other store was chocolate store and it was delicious.

After our tour and walking through Brussels, we went to the company dinner. My favorite part was all of the delicious desserts they served, including more Belgian waffles! After dinner we went straight to our room and fell asleep again. We woke up at 5:30 the next morning wide awake and watched the Olympics! After doing that for a couple hours we got ready and went to breakfast then got on the bus so we could go to Brugge. 

We took a tour around the city and it was very charming. Mostly retired people and those in the tourist industry live there now because it's very expensive. There was also a part of town where in past, only women lived. It was not a nunnery, because they could get married and move out if they wanted to, but it's where they could live together to take care of one another.

After our tour, Auto Owner's took us to a restaurant and we had a delicious lunch. It was chicken dish with bread and ice cream for dessert. Once we were finished eating, we walked around the city for a couple hours. We watched some candy making, then went and bought some chocolate. It was hard to choose where to buy some chocolate because there were so many stores to choose from!

That night, we had another Auto Owner's dinner then walked around the city, sampling macaroons and chocolate and Belgian waffles. Yum!

This is the Belgian waffle dough. 

The next morning we woke up, packed our bags so they could be taken to our next hotel in Paris, and walked around the city. We waited until 10 am when a chocolate factory opened and took a little tour, had some tastes of chocolate and watched while the owner molded some chocolate. By this time I was getting past my sweets limit and didn't want any more chocolate!

After our tour we went and hopped on some buses that took us to the high speed trains that would transport us to Paris!