A Full Day in Brussels

By Shelby Segura

LSU Ag Leadership Class XVIII

On our first full day in Brussels we started the day with a sightseeing bus tour. We drove around for about 2 hours seeing all the beautiful buildings, churches and statues in downtown Brussels. We stopped to see the Atomium, a stainless steel landmark. We also stopped to see the King’s Palace. Once the bus tour was over we took a 15-minute walking tour through all kinds of little alleyways with shops, cafes, and chocolate stores. We passed through the Grand Place which is like their town center the architecture of the old buildings in that square were so beautiful.  

We also visited Choco Story, a chocolate museum where we learned about the history of chocolate. It was fascinating seeing where chocolate started and how far it has advanced. It was a wonderful little museum with lots of rooms that showed the different varieties, ways to harvest the pods, and where they are grown. The end of the tour was probably everyone’s favorite part, we got to watch a chocolatier make pralines. These pralines were not the pecan treats we know in Louisiana. They were chocolate covered sweets like truffles. 

To end the day we went to the European Union’s Parliament museum. It was a very large museum that had all the history on how the EU was created and where it is now. It was a very informative museum with lots of different facts on each of the countries that are members of the EU. 

In all it was a great day in Brussels.