My First Family Visitors!

This weekend I played semi-host to Scott and Becky, my cousin and his wife on my dad's side of the family. I say semi mostly because I really didn't do much in terms of leading them in the right directions (my only suggestions were where to eat 2 of the 3 nights...).  It was so comforting and nice to see two familiar faces for a whole weekend!

Friday night, they arrived in Brussels fairly late, so we were able to go out to dinner at one of the best known mussel restaurants in Brussels, Aux Armes de Bruxelles. It was absolutely delicious! The muscles were so good, I ate almost my whole pot of them, and let me tell you, the pots aren't small! We then headed down the street to Delirium, a local bar with the most Belgian beers on tap in Brussels. It was fun, we were able to catch up and share some stories. We also spotted some of my friends from the program on the way out. One of the boys, Peter, had had my Aunt Susan (Scott's mom) for a teacher in high school, and he was absolutely THRILLED to meet Scott. I'm not sure words can express the look of delight on his face. It was entertaining to me, to say the least.

Saturday, I slept in and worked on some things I needed to get done, while Scott and Becky headed to Bruges. I was able to relax a little bit, which was really, really nice. That night, we went out to a restaurant in the Ixelles area called "Les Brassins." It was a low key, fun place. The food was really great, too. 

I spent all day today touring around with Scott and Becky. I met them at their hotel around 10 this morning, and we headed out to explore a little bit of Brussels. First, we stopped and got some coffee (to wake us up!). Then, we headed to the Musee des Beaux-Arts, or the Fine Arts Museum. It had a lot of very cool paintings in it, done by Belgian artists. I was also able to see a couple of Matisse paintings, which I really enjoyed, since Matisse is my favorite artist. 

After this, we stopped for lunch at Le Pain Quotidien before heading to the Cathedral of Brussels. The Cathedral was absolutely beautiful, and had really stunning stain glass windows. They are currently excavating the floor below the church, and in one of the small areas where we were able to see down through to the bottom, there were leg bones sticking out...dead and buried a long time ago! Interesting and cool, yet very odd and slightly creepy. Soon after the Cathedral, we headed to the Museum of Natural Sciences, where we saw exhibits about dinosaurs, evolution and prehistory. It was a HUGE museum and really, really interesting. I had been wanting to go here for a while, so I was glad to get the chance.

Tomorrow morning, the six of us girls head off to Barcelona for our week long Spring Break! As soon as we return, I'll post pictures and write about our trip. Until then, to Barcelona!