Brussels
www.brussels.org/
www.brussels.com/
http://www.brussels-online.com/index.php?langue=uk
Places
to Stay
HI
Generation
HI
Bruegel
Jacques
Brel
Hotel Van Belle
Things to Do
I am one
of those people who is not so fond of Brussels.. however if you like art, the Museés Royaux des
Beaux-Arts (museum of fine arts) there has some very important pieces.
Having said that, if you do go, don't go around lunch time, the different rooms
has some weird rotating closing schedule, so I didn't get the see a lot of
things
To save money, you can buy one of those 72
hour
museum/transport cards. They weren't
selling them when we were there
but I guess
you could pick one up at the local tourist
office - Brussels Card
The Grand
Place has some wonderful gothic
architecture and you can explore some of the
guild houses. Beer in the square is around €5 a piece but it is fun
just to sit there and watch the world go by. Whilst we were there they had
lots of stalls set up and stages for shows. I understand that there are
flower shows and other stuff going on too.
The biggest building in the
square is the Musée
de la Ville de Bruxelles which I found pretty
boring, but Steve loves those little scale
models of buildings and towns
so he was
in his element. The top floor of the building
is a good
place to take photos of the square.
I liked the room dedicated to the
costumes
of the Manneken Pis. He's a cute little fella.
The Musée du Cacao et du Chocolat is
teenie and kind of lame. They had some neat chocolate sulptures but that
was about it. Whilst we were there, the woman who does free samples
wandered off for a time so we gorged ourselves on free chocolate for a time.
The Domaine Royal is really worth a trip to see and more importantly is
free! The grounds are huge and you'll probably want
to dedicate at
least half a day to see it. I
regret not making time to see the
greenhouses
but we were on a tight schedule.
On our way to the Statue
of Léopold 1 we
found a field full of wild rabbits. I think I
enjoyed the rabbits more than the museums,
but that's just
me.
Check out the Pavillon Chinois & Tour Jananese - It's surprising
to see Asian architecture in a continent filled with Baroque and Gothic
buildings. It's filled with lots of golden stuff like pots and vases and
stuff and there's also a tower that you can climb and Japanese gardens to
explore.
The Atomium is really cool
and something for the guys here. It's a giant scale model of an atom and
you can go inside and
go to the top. There's a bunch of esculators
that take you up to the different "pods" that
have different science
exhibits in them. It
sounds lame but actually it's really neat.
The views from the top are great because
they're across the park and
Mini-Europe
next door but sadly the windows were quite
dirty so none of
our pictures came out. I
understand that it's subsequently been given
a face lift so hopefully it'll be nicer now.
Bruparck next door is a great way to chill
out and spend a few hours relaxing after the exhausting traul of all the museums
and galleries of the city.
There's a cinema, water park and of course
Mini-Europe.
It's basically all the monuments
in Europe seriously scalled down. We
took
tons of photos because it's so impressive.
They've also had
the initiative to leave
space for when the other EU companies join!
Where to Eat
Opposite the statue of Jeanneke Pis is a
really cool bar that serves nothing but beer and cheese and is much much cheaper
than in the Grand Place and they have huge varieties to choose from. It
has a sign with
a pink elephant outside. The chairs in there are
upside down
beer barrels and thre are hundreds of posters on the wall
advertising the different beers.
Rue des Bouchers is just off the
Grand Place and has tons of
places to eat. The displays are fantastic
to try to entice you in and it's worth walking down there just to have a
look. About half way down, I did start getting tired of every single store
owner trying to drag me in. "I've already eaten" is not an excuse
apparently.
We did make the mistake of eating in one of
them. The guy asked us which vegetables we would like and we assumed that
they were included - they wanted €8 per vegetable! That was not listed or
stated in the menu. No amount of arguing would convince the manager that
this was daylight robery and we weren't prepared to pay it. Don't say I
didn't warn you.
Chez Léon gets rave reviews in Lonely Planet, but I
thought it was just ok. I had the steak and frites, but it was nothing
special. Perhaps the writer had lower standards than me?
There's a
great little place on Charles Buls off the Grand Place (It's on the opposite
side of the square to Rue des Bouchers) which does a reasonably priced set
menu. The service is a little slow but the food is really good. Plus
if you tell the waiter that you can't manage pudding, he'll knock the cost off
the bill - this is the only tourist restaurant I know that does
that.
Generally supermarkets the easiest places in Belgium to buy
booze or after closing time night shops, but they are usually more
expensive.
5 litre kegs of Jupiler are an excellent value...
delicious too. Jupiler, Primus, Stella and one other are the most
widespread. It's been WAY too long since I enjoyed that much
Jupiler.
Supermarket is cheaper than corner store, natch. I don't
really know how much the kegs cost exactly, around €5.
A sixpack of
Jupiler (33cl cans) should cost about €3,10, 8 small (25cl) bottles about €3,90,
and a 75cl bottle about €1. I suppose Maes and Stella Artois cost the
same.
If you want to go really cheap and don't care about quality all
that much, go to Aldi and get some Karlsquelle (which is a lot more drinkable
than Amstel).
Treat yourself and go for some Duval when in
Belgium. It's about 9% alcohol, and really hits the spot. Cheers!
Day Trips
Brussels to Lux will take
about 3 hours by train.
Gare du Midi is the Eurostar station and
most of the regional trains stop there too so a day trip anywhere in the country
isn't unreasonable.
