Belgium, the land of beer and chocolate, was our next stop after Germany, and we started in the capital, Brussels. One thing they are not shy of there is giving out free samples in the many chocolate shops around the city. You could make yourself sick of the stuff if you wanted to just by visiting each shop and having one of the free samples they thrust in your face the moment you walk in the door. Free Belgian beer was also provided when walking through a random celebration in a little backstreet. While Brussels was mostly about the chocolate and beer (let's be honest) it wasn't without its other charms, with all of this set in stylish streets and a few unexpectedly impressive buildings.

We also got out of the capital and headed towards the famous town of Bruges, with a stopover in Ghent beforehand. Ghent was a place we must admit we had not heard about before arriving in Brussels and put no time into finding out about it before visiting. We strolled into the centre of Ghent from the train station, which up to that point had been fine but rather unremarkable, to be greeted with a gorgeous old town centre that totally took us by surprise.

Onwards to Bruges, which we were expecting to be a bit of a tourist trap, we were again taken by surprise at how nice the place was. After enjoying Ghent so much we really thought it would be the highlight but Bruges took it a step further. Compared to places like Paris and Venice, Bruge didn't seem like a tourist trap to us at all, there were many little back streets to escape the crowds in and the whole place was absolutely beautiful.

We had a fantastic time in Belgium and highly recommend a quick visit for people in the area.