Beautiful Brussels

Almost everything was a highlight. The city of Brussels is modern yet still has a 17th century feel. Most of the action is centered around the Grand Place in the center of the city. When we were there, they had a stage set up in the middle of the square for a music festival that was happening. At other times, the entire square is covered in flowers. Tours are available of the town hall on certain days.

If you are in shape, everything is within walking distance from the center of the city. The cathedrals were also a highlight with beautiful stained glass windows and statues.

Quick Tips:

1. Don't bother renting a car. Public transportation is great and there aren't many parking spots around the major tourist areas.

2. Most of the shopowners and waiters speak English, but a pocket dictionary would be helpful in some cases.

3. We'd heard that any of the banks would change money for you, but we didn't find that to be the case. We went into three different major banks and asked to change dollars into euro, but none of them would let us unless we had an account at the bank. Even though you don't get a very good deal, I'd recommend changing some money at the airport or the rail stations. There were a number of exchange places around the Grand Place, but otherwise there isn't anywhere else that you can do it.

4. Check the menus of the places where you might want to eat in the afternoon when most of them aren't that active. If you try to look during dinner time, you'll be harassed and won't be able to look at your leisure.

Best Way To Get Around:

The best way to get around the city is either walking or using the public transportation. There are express trains that run from the airport to all three major train stations, but the morning that we got there, the trains were on strike. We had to take the bus to the subway, but it still wasn't too bad. You can get anywhere in the city that you want on the subway, bus or trams. You can buy a pass for either a single voyage, a day pass, or a multiple voyage pass. If you are going to take a day trip to one of the major cities, I'd definitely recommend taking the train. It's cheap, easy, and better than driving. We didn't try to take a cab, but didn't feel that we needed one. Maps of each city are available at the tourist info booths for about 0.25 euro.

The hotel is located in the city center near the most important business district and the major tourist areas. It contains 315 rooms, of which only 61 are non-smoking. There is a fine dining restaurant downstairs which is also open for a breakfast buffet, at 19 euro per person. A fitness facility is also available for those staying at the hotel. We didn't use this either since we did so much walking. The hotel staff was very friendly and all spoke english to mixed degrees.

Rack rates were about 230 euro, but you can probably get a discount over the internet. We were staying on an airline employee discout which was 75% off. Accor seemed to have the best discounts for airline employees at their top hotels including this one. You could also get a discount at the Sofitel Astoria, another Accor hotel nearby for 66 euro.

The hotel was pretty well located, near the North train station and about a 20 minute walk from the Grand Place. We found out one of the last days that we were there, the hotel is also about a five minute walk from the red light district if you are interested in that. The neighborhood is pretty quiet. We hardly heard any noise at night. There are a number of restaurants nearby, but we spent most of our time and meals down at the Grand Place.

The hotel was billed at a couple of websites, including their own, as either a four or five-star hotel. While the rooms were nice, we didn't quite agree with that high of a ranking. I would say that it is probably equivalent to most Sheratons or Hiltons in the states. Upscale, but not luxury.

The room contained the usual high priced mini-bar. Our room had a king sized bed which was pretty comfortable, but had some nice indentions where people usually sleep. There was also a table and two chairs for a sitting area near the bed. A television was present with a few English speaking channels (BBC, CNN, and CNBC Europe) and a few in French, Dutch & one in Spanish. PPV movies are also available, but you won't spend too much time in the hotel since the city is so nice. An electronic safe is in one of the closets, so you can lock up your valuables while you are gone.

The bathroom facilities were adequate with a bath/shower with adjustable head. Water pressure was pretty good. They have a hair dryer in the room since they have European electrical outlets. The dryer was ok if you have thin or short hair, but women with long, thick hair probably won't be too happy! Those women may want to look into getting an adapter and bringing their own dryer. Other than that, we were pretty happy with the ammenities provided by the hotel.

The restaurant is located off of the Grand Place on one of the streets packed with restaurants. It has both inside and outside seating.

Both of us had the pot of mussels with fries. The portions were pretty generous with about 25-30 mussels per serving. The price was good at only 7,50 euro per plate and they threw in the first glass of wine free. Part of the reason that we chose this restaurant was because of the cheap mussels. We had never had them before and didn't want to spend 15-20 for a plate and then not like them. The other items on the menu were a little more expensive since we got the special.

The mussels were tender and the service was pretty good. There were only two other couples in the restaurant when we were there, but we ate really early that night, around 5:15 or so.

We would recommend that you walk down the street early in the afternoon to look at the menus and decide where you want to eat because if you go during dinner time, you will be forced to run the gauntlet of all of the people trying to get you to come into their restaurant.

We were very pleased with this restaurant. We went here on our first night and enjoyed sitting and eating dinner on the Grand Place. The atmosphere was excellent sitting outside and watching the people pass by and looking at all of the old buildings.

I ate the Chicken Waterzooi, one of the most highly recommended local dishes, which is like a stew with chicken, potatoes, celery, and onions. It was outstanding and the portion was plentiful.

My wife had the Carbonnades a la Flamande. This is another local dish with beef, kind of like a pot roast. The sauce covering it is a brown gravy made with mustard to give it some spice. The meat was incredibly tender and the sauce was very tasty. The entree also came with a small salad and fries.

The price was pretty resonable with both entrees costing about 13 euro each. They have a decent selection of beer with most about three euro. Whether you want to eat or just sit out on the outside patio for a few beers, it's a great place to go.

Gaufre is just off of the Grand Place. You can either eat inside, outside, or take your food to go by ordering at the stand. We went there for breakfast twice since they are cheap and have good food.

The first time we had crepes, mine with strawberry topping and hers with chocolate. Both were very large and delicious. The wait staff was very friendly and spoke good english.

The second breakfast, we had ham and cheese omlettes. These were not quite as good as the crepes, but still not too bad.

The prices were very reasonable. The crepes were three euro each, and the omlettes were 4,50. We also had one of their Belgian Waffles with chocolate one evening which was 1,50, pretty consistent with the other waffle stands around the Grand Place.

The Happy Corner is located in the little row of restaurants inside the Brupark, where Mini-Europe, the Atomium, and a water park are located. The food is a mix of French and Belgium specialties, and they have both indoor and outdoor seating.

My wife had the 1/2 Poulet Roti, which was half of a chicken, fries and a salad. There was a lot of food and it was very good for the price. I had the Carbonnades a la Flamande, a Flemish dish similar to a roast with a mustard based brown gravy. The meat was very tender and fell apart when cut with a fork.

Both dishes were an excellent value at under 10 euro each. This was the cheapest dinner that we had in all of Brussels, which surprised us since it was in the middle of a tourist area.

The Atomium was built in 1958 for the Universal Exhibition held in Brussels that year. The name is actually a misnomer, since the building is representative of a metal molecule, made up of 9 atoms connected together. It is visible from most parts of the city due to its large size and location in the northern part of the city.

You ride to the top of the structure, after the obligatory tourist photo, in Europe's fastest elevator. At the top, you have a 360 degree view of the city. Unfortunately, the windows are so cloudy, you can't get a decent picture of anything with your cameras. After the stop at the top, you take the elevator back down part of the way and get off in one of the balls. You then take either the stairs or escalators into the other balls which have different exhibits about the history of the Atomium or the future developments that are planned. The inside was pretty strange with weird music and drawings that didn't make much sense. Most of the info was in English, but there were a few things that were only in French or Dutch which may have explained some of the oddities a little better.

We weren't particularly impressed by the Atomium, but it's one of those things that you have to do since it's so popular and well-known. To skip it would be like going to Seattle and not going up in the Space Needle. We got a package deal with admission to Mini-Europe for 15.50 euro per person. The price is a little steep, but worth it if you do some of the other activities in the park.

Despite the reviews that suggested that Mini-Europe was primarily for kids, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps we're just kids at heart! The attraction is located in the Brupark, the same park as the Atomium and a water park. It is easy to get to if you take the subway or trams to the Heizel stop.

Mini-Europe is a collection of models of the most famous sights throughout the various countries in the European Union. Everything, with a couple of exceptions, is built to 1/25th scale, so you can see how they compare to each other in terms of size. The detail is incredible, and the movements and other additions are a nice touch. The models are aligned with their counterparts in their respective countries, i.e. all of the sights in the UK are right near each other. At the entrance to each country, you can push a button and hear the national anthem. At other areas, you can push a button to make Mt. Vesuvius erupt or other little animations happen.

At the entrance, they give you a small booklet which gives data about each of the countries. The booklet also explains the significance of each of the models and in some cases, how long it took to make them. The booklet is more or less laid out in the same order as the exhibits, so it is pretty easy to follow along and read as you go. At the end of the tour along the park, there is an exhibit where you can play video and trivia games to learn more about the EU. As something that is a still evolving process, it was very interesting to learn about the goals and processes involved in creating a unified Europe.

The price for admission into the park in combination with the Atomium was 15.50 euro per person. The Atomium wasn't that impressive, but Mini-Europe was definitely worth it. Whether you have children or not, you should definitely go and check it out. In addition, there are a number of good restaurants in the Brupark that are pretty cheap compared to downtown Brussels. Check out the entry on the Happy Corner for a recommendation of a good restaurant.