Beautiful Brussels
There was one reason and one reason only for me wanting to go to Brussels and that was for beer. Ok two reasons, beer and chocolate, but this trip gave me that and so much more.
Day 1
Parque du Cinquanentaire
Coming to Sancha, Brussels after bustling Barcelona was quite the change of pace .We landed midday, and had no idea what to do. I didn’t do any planning before because I has a simple mission, beer and chocolate, and that’s an easy mission to complete.
We started with the hotel map and took a walk over to the first point of interest, Parque du Cinquanentaire. This is one of the most beautiful parks in Brussels. This park is a decent size and I’d recommend taking your time walking through it to really appreciate it. This park had a bocce court, soccer field, cricket court, basketball court and track and field towards the center that leads to the the breath taking view of ‘the arch’. Depending on what side you enter in from, you could easily leave the park without getting to arch, but make sure you go visit it!
Pro tip: You can take pictures from the top of the arch, which I didn’t originally know about. Don’t be like me, go to the top!
Square Ambiorix
Next we walked over to the Square Ambiorix. The square itself is like most other squares, with nothing being too outstanding. The houses, surrounding the square however, are very beautiful, especially this quirky house (pictured below), which was worth the walk over.
Belgian Cuisine
Before this trip I couldn’t even take an educated guess at what Belgian food could even be. We wanted to try some authentic food, so we asked a local about some typical Belgian food we could try. She mentioned, french fries, sausages with stoemp and a few others we could try at Fin de Siècle (La), which is located in the city center. This place was bomb!
We tried the sausages with stoemp and a beef stew with mashed potatoes. Both plates were amazing! The portion sides were a a good size, but the food was heavy so we split two meals between five people, and it was enough to be satisfied.
City Center
After we finished our food, we walked about the city center. The city center made me appreciate the beauty of Brussels. I’ve seen a ton of town squares and centers but the Grand Place knocks all of the ones I’ve seen (Cuba, Barcelona, etc ) out of the park.
We walked around the center and stopped at:
- The Grand Place
- Zinneke Pis, Manneken Pis & Jeanneke-Pis (trios of peeing statues — All of statues are seen as representing the down to earth, irreverent and surreal spirit of the Bruxellois)
- St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral
Then in true Belgian style, we stopped at Delirium Cafe for a few beers before we ended the night.
If you want to try as many Belgian beers as humanly possible you should come to this cafe, they have over 2000 beers from around the globe that you can try!
Day 2
City Center
Mont de Arts, it’s one of the sites you have to see during the day and night, so we started our day here. We took a longer but more scenic route back to the city center. We walked along Toison d’Or Guiden Vlies and Avenue Louise. These streets are the main avenues with a ton of the shops and restaurants, so if you’re looking to get some shopping done this would be the area. We then finished up with the ‘must sees’ of the city center with Egmont Palace, Place du Petit Sablon and the Halle Gate, before taking off to Gravensteen.
Ghent
Ghent, has a more charming feel than Brussels, but I wish I had a whole day to spend here. We came here to explore the castle the Gravensteen Castle, as it is the closest castle to Brussels and it’s only an hour away by train. The fare to get here wasn’t much and we only had to transfer once at Gent-Sint-Pieters.
We got to Gravensteen just as it was closing, but we were still able to appreciate the castle from the outside. With the castle closed off to visitors we grabbed some beers, and booked a canal tour which gave us a nice tour of the city, views of the castle, church and beautiful views of the canals.
Overall Brussels was architecturally richer than I could’ve imaged. I was expecting it to be a hip and bustling town with many of the pleasing elements existing outside of the city center, but there was a multitude of greatly detailed pieces within the city.
