Return to Brussels

Ah, the last day of a trip… When you are torn about having to leave the awesome place where you are but also are looking forward to a night in your own bed and a full sized bottle of shampoo in the shower.

We started our day with one last trip to the local bakery for breakfast before getting back in the car to drive back into Belgium on those well-travelled highways so no lovely winding roads for today.

Our first stop of the day was Grottes de Han, a walk through a cave system that ends with a light show! Our next stop was to be Grotte de Lorette but as we were buying our tickets for Han, we learned the second grotto wasn’t open on Tuesdays so we weren’t going to be able to visit it. I was a bit disappointed but Han was the more impressive of the two so at least there was that. Our trip into the grotto started with a little ride on a train, which was a charming start to the experience. Once up at the caves, we were divided into two groups for tours - neither of which were in English so we went into the group that didn’t have all the school children, a no-brainer of a decision. After waiting for a bit, we were led into the cave system. Unfortunately, the tour wasn’t in English and the information we had wasn’t really sufficient to give us the whole story but it was so cool to see the caves and all the rock formations. The end really did culminate in a light show, which was quite enjoyable!

After we emerged from the cave system, we headed off to get some lunch in town before getting back into the car to reach our final sight for the day and the trip - Chateau de Modave. We had audio guides for this tour and felt like we had the place to ourselves for most of it. The castle was quite beautiful and the heraldic ceiling in the main room was absolutely astounding. The views out over the valley from the balcony were nothing to sneeze at, either. We finished up our visit by wandering a bit outside in the lovely sunshine.

Then, it was into the car to head back to the airport, dropping off the rental car and taking a cab over to the final hotel where we quickly learned there was nothing within walking distance so we ordered in burgers (no more croquettes for me…) before I packed and repacked everything four thousand times. In the morning, we caught the shuttle back to the airport for the flight back to Toronto.

So now, we’re home again with a million pictures to sort through and a thousand boxes of chocolates and a hundred croquettes to think fondly of and one really amazing trip to think back on.