Catching Up, our trip to Brussels - pg1 4-21-15

This is our first real trip out of Paris, and we decided to go to Brussels.  In earlier posts I mentioned how our ignorance led us into some questionable decisions; like going mid-week as opposed to a weekend.  Be that as it may, we had a wonderful time. 

Since it's only about 90 minutes from Paris by Thalys, the high-speed train from the Netherlands, we got to Brussels early afternoon and had several hours to begin looking around the town.   We were able to purchase a 72 hour Metro, Bus, and Tram pass for 18 euros each (cheap!) so our transport plans were solidly in place.  We had our hotel reservations at a place that looked quite central, and it was, the Hotel Agenda Louise.  We had a few minutes of disorientation upon getting out of the metro at the stop leading to our hotel, but soon figured out where we needed to go.  A two stop ride on the tram and we were a block away.   Our hotel room turned out to be large studio suite, with a separate sleeping area and a small kitchen, very clean.   Due to it's location it was however pretty noisy at night, but I brought earplugs so no problems there.  I would certainly book it again, if the opportunity arose.

The sight-seeing portion of the day was taken up with a trip to the central square with all of it's 16th and 17th century buildings.  It is eye dazzling due to all the ornate architecture and gilding applied to the decoration of the various guild halls.  The oldest building in the square is the townhall, built in the 16th century, which was the main target during one of the many wars fought in the low countries against Spain for independence.   Interestingly it was the only building that was NOT destroyed, so it's pristine.  The rest were rebuilt in 1695-96 after the siege was over.  So beautiful.





Knowing next to nothing about dining opportunities in Brussels we decided to go back to our neighborhood for dinner.  What a wonderful choice that turned out to be.   We looked at several restaurants and finally decided to try Sale Pepe Rosmarino.  There seems to be a number of Italian restaurants in the area, I suspect because of the Italian Consulate in the next  block.   But back to the one we picked, Sale Pepe Rosmarino.   Perhaps large enough to serve 30 people, but when we walked in all the tables had "reserved" signs on them.   It was 7:30 and a few tables were occupied so we asked the owner if perhaps there might be a table for us.   He gave a small smile and pointed us to a table with a reserved sign.  When we pointed out that it was reserved he replied, "I'm prescient, I knew you would need a table".  
So we sat down and within 45 minutes every seat in the house was filled and they were turning people away.   What a marvelous meal!  I ordered a Buffala Mozzarella with pine nuts as an entree and tagliatella with crimini mushrooms as a plat.  It was the best mozzarella I've ever eaten, it was drizzled in olive oil with pine nuts and parsley as garnish, almost melting in my mouth and so fresh.   The tagliatella plat was just delicious as well.  Deb had gambas in a fresh light tomato sauce, which was equally delicious.  All the pasta is made in house as was the mozzarella.  If you are ever in Brussels, try to make it here for dinner I don't think you'll be disappointed.