30 Hours in Brussels
May 10, 2010 6 Comments
Atomium
Friday and Saturday I went to Brussels with my friend and our kids, aged 10, 11, 12, and 13. It’s only 3 hours by train for us, but I’d never been there before.
We almost missed the train because our internet enquiries had suggested platform 4, but the train left from platform 5! A friendly conductor held the train for us after we’d ran via the stairs to the other platform at the very last minute.
The sights:
Not quite “It’s Friday, so this must be Brussels”, but a lot was seen in a small amount of time. We saw a lot of Brussels on the top of an open-top tourist bus (brr, a little c..c..cold! But worth it), which took us around Brussels in 1.5 hours.
Manneken Pis
We also went to the Scientastic Museum, which was a great hit with the kids (about 1-2 hours of experiments, mainly optical and olfactory), to the Chocolate Museum, where we saw a chocolate-making demonstration. As real tourists, we also visited the obligatory Manneken Piss (Little Man Piss) and its female counterpart, Jeanneke Pis.
Some Goodies I brought back from Brussels
Waterstones was a great favorite of my friend and me, and we stocked up on English books (well, it was Mother’s Day the next day, did we deserve a present or what?). We bought chocolates. We awed at the Grand Place, the market place with houses from the 1690s, gold-rimmed and impressive.
Grand Place, Brussels
Royal Palace, Brussels
Shiny building
Walking around the town, we noticed the funny comic pictures on the walls of houses. There are quite a few, all over town:
Comics on the walls
- Comics on the Walls
Comics on the walls
Brussels is great for a few days out and I certainly will come back. I especially would like to properly visit the Atomium and the area around it in the summer. There is a lovely park, a palace, a Japanese Tower and a Chinese Pavilion. From the open-top bus they all looked worth a visit.
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That sounds awesome! I’ve never been out of the US and I know that seeing an old city would be simply amazing! Everything here is practically new compared to there.
Well, even though I live in the Netherlands, where we have plenty of old buildings, I can never get enough of those 17th century buildings like in Brussels or Antwerp (and older buildings too, of course!). In the US you have the most amazing countryside to make up for it! 😉
Sounds like you had a great 30hrs! I went to Brussels for my birthday in the last weekend of February. Unfortunately we had some rainy weather. But it was fun anayway! I brought home an iPhone 😉
We visited the Atomium on our way back and I can really recommend it. BTW if you like geocaching… there are caches next to Manneken Pis and Atomium!
An iPhone, that’s even better booty than my books from Waterstone’s! 🙂
I love the TinTin illustrations to be found around Brussels! Brings back memories of reading Captain Haddocks unusual exclamations!
Doesn’t it just? The illustrations make the town look friendly and modern. I loved it.