Well 2016 has certainly been a year of change worldwide. Terror attacks, Brexit, turbulent politics in South Africa and now Trump’s election. They say you always remember where you are when you hear dramatic news, and probably I will always remember that I was in Brussels at a meeting when Trump was elected. Because of my meeting, my husband and I spent the weekend in Belgium. We’ve been to Brussels several times before and have also visited Bruges, Ghent, Blankenberg, Spa, Lieges and Leuven, so this time we decided to take a day trip to Antwerp. I’ll write about our trip in a separate post, but Belgium is full of things to enjoy, and so this week my weekly small pleasures were Belgian ones. Check out the weekly small pleasures of others here at a New Life Wandering.

Chocolate waffles. Unfortunately we only had one shared one! I planned to get another one during the course of the meeting, but the schedule was busy from morning till night so i didn’t get the opportunity.

Kriek and other Belgian beers. There are many styles of Belgian beers, all with interesting flavours. I like the fruity ones and the sour ones. I think my favourite is still kriek, made from cherries.

Chocolate. For me, Belgium wins the competition as the country with the best chocolate, with Switzerland being a close second. Apart from the delicious boxes of chocolates you can buy, the local Belgian chocolates you can buy in the supermarket such as Cote d’Or and Galler are also amazing.

I also managed to pick up some Ontbijtkoek – I love this stuff. It’s a spicy, soft cake eaten for breakfast (ontbijt).

Last but not least in the food department, I finally managed to find some of Delhaize’s Moroccan mint tea (last time I was in Brussels I checked three shops and they were all out of it). It’s a mixture of mint, “Sussholz” (I only know the German name for it), cinnamon, lemongrass and one other spice (whose English name I don’t know).

Another great thing is that we got to meet up with friends in Brussels and take a lovely walk in the forest. They told us about a green ring route for cycling around Brussels which goes through some of the parks and forest, that is definitely something to try in future!

It was also great to visit Antwerp. Overall the time in Belgium went way too quickly, and I hope we’ll be back again soon.

Upon coming back to Berlin I was happy to see that at least some of the autumn leaves still remain. The view of our balcony from the kitchen is still pretty and it’s a pleasure to look out in the mornings.

Have a lovely week!