Hoags in Europe - Brussels

After a day (night in Brussels time) of travel, Matt and I landed in Brussels, Belgium. After shuffling through customs like half asleep zombies, we were greeted by our good friend Brian (read his blog here and check out his fun t-shirt company here).

In an attempt to fight off jet lag, we opted to take the walking tour of Brussels led by our gracious hosts, Brian and Jen. The tour was chalk full of fun facts and trivia about Brussels, much of which I sadly forgot already. But we walked and walked and walked, which was perfect in fighting off thoughts of sleeping, but did earn the tour the nickname, The Death March of Brussels.

This conversation probably went like this:
Brian: (rattling off some fact)
Jen: That's a new one! Where did you learn that?
Brian: Rick Steve
Jen: Really? When did you read Rick Steve?
The back story: Literally right before we walked out the door for the tour, Brian was reading Rick Steve's walking tour of Brussels. And proof that he is quite smart, just like that, he worked new facts from good old Rick into our tour of the city.

No big deal, just a typical street in Europe with an impressive historic building in the background.

Yep, that's my husband, the dancing queen. <3

Can you say GOOFball?

Work it Matt, work it.

Pretty impressive city backdrop.

With Brian and Jen.
Proof that we (Matt) can smile nice for the camera.

Clearly we are having fun on our first day in Europe!

Stay tuned for more about our time in Brussels. But before I sign off, I have to prove that I did absorb a little bit of the knowledge Brian shared with us during our tour. Did you know that some people believe that the hoof placement in a statue with a man on a horse indicates how that person died and/or survived battle? I fact checked this, where else but trusty Wikipedia and learned that there isn't much evidence to support this theory and its mostly held true of American history. But interesting nonetheless, right?

Here's what Wikipedia says about the hoof placement symbolism:

A popular belief in the United States is that if the horse is rampant (both front legs in the air), the rider died in battle; one front leg up means the rider was wounded in battle or died of battle wounds; and if all four hooves are on the ground, the rider died outside battle. However, there is little evidence to support this belief.