Brussels

Brussels is not only the capital city of Belgium. It might also be considered something of a capital (or at least an administrative centre) for the European Union, as many European institutions have their headquarters here.

I started my walk through Brussels at the Grand Place. This is the central market square of the city, surrounded by beautiful guild houses, the city's spectacular town hall and the Maison du Roi. From here I headed north west, past the stock exchange towards the Place Sainte Catherine with its Gothic church. After a quick walk along the old harbour behind the church I turned towards the nearby Place du Beguinage where I had a look inside the Saint Jean-Baptiste church with its lovely red wooden porch.

My next stop was at the Passage du Nord. This was built in the late 19th century and although it has seen better times it is still worth walking through. However, a far better window shopping experience is the nearby Galerie du Roi as well as the Galerie de la Reine. These two passages are connected with each other and commonly known as the Galeries Royales Saint Hubert. They were opened in 1847, giving them a claim to being one of the world's first shopping malls.

I finished the day with a visit to the Atomium. The official website describes it as the "most astonishing building in the world" which is porbably a bit over the top. Still, it is an impressive building to visit. 102m high, it represents a unit cell of an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times. The Atomium was built in 1958 for the Brussels World's Fair and planned to last only six months. If it wasn't still there today I would have missed out on a decent dinner in the Atomium restaurant and saved an enormous amount of money (the waiters speak French and Dutch only and charge a ridiculous EUR 35,- for a small-sized fish dish). Still, it was a memorable dinner with a beautiful view, my dinner table being nearly 100m above ground in the top sphere of the Atomium.

Official website of the Tourist and Convention bureau

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