A small pause on pandas/my May 2024 trip to China while I post some European city break content!
Despite having been to Belgium a few times before, I have never done anything in Brussels apart from fly into/out of the airport. So when I rebooked my Pairi Daiza trip for October 2022 I added in some time for experiencing Brussels! On this trip I travelled with my mum, so made sure to drag her around the whole city!
We arrived late on a Monday evening, so no time to do anything apart from get to our hotel and check in (we stayed at the Dansaert Hotel) then started fresh the next day. Being a mid-week in October, the city was relatively quiet and there weren’t very many other tourists. We started off our Tuesday with breakfast at the hotel then left to walk to the Grand Place with it’s beautiful architecture. It was pretty quiet with just a couple of tourist groups and the cafes mostly still setting up their tables and chairs. The Hôtel De Ville is of course the most impressive building in this square, but of course, can’t forget one of the fanciest looking Starbucks’ that I’ve ever seen! From here we also stopped off at the Côte d’Or shop (on one street leading to/from the Grand Place) – this is one of our favourite Belgian chocolate makers and you can’t get it in too many places in the UK so we had to make a stop here and pick up a few boxes. They have some very nice tins which make for a great gift or souvenir of the trip. We wandered through the streets enjoying the architecture, and of course stopping at the famous Manneken Pis statue. On our way to the Jardin Botanique de Bruxelles we spotted the Cathédral Saints-Michel-et-Gudule which has an impressive towering over the surrounding area. We then continued on to the Jardin Botanique de Bruxelles, which was free to enter and is a lovely peaceful spot despite the nearby business district and high-rise office buildings. We then made our way to the closest metro station to get to the Atomium – it’s a little out of the city so would take an hour or so walking to get there, well worth taking the metro there. It’s got such a unique and impressive design, I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. We walked around that area for a little before taking the metro back to the city centre for a lunch break. Of course, had to try out the local McDonalds options – all I’ll say is Cornetto McFlurries in several different flavours! After a rest there we walked around the streets some more and eventually made our way towards the Palais de Bruxelles through the Mont des Arts gardens which were a popular spot. This is a huge museum area and there are so many you can choose from to fit your preferences. We didn’t really have time to visit any, but I think I would have chosen the Musée BELvue which is all about Belgian history. We went to see the front of the Palais, then took a late afternoon stroll through the Parc de Bruxelles before heading back towards the centre for dinner. We ate at Nona Pizza which was delicious and very reasonably priced, plus just around the corner from our hotel.
I really think we covered a lot of ground in our one day in Brussels, we needed an early night as we were taking an early train the next morning out to Pairi Daiza to make the most of our time there. And now I’m happy to tick Brussels off the list, but I’m sure I’ll be back in Belgium again at some point.
