Big City Brussels and Its Touristy Little Sister Bruges

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Big City Brussels and Its Touristy Little Sister Bruges

It’s a logical next step on any trip to go from Amsterdam to Brussels. Sadly most guide books seem to recommend that people skip Brussels in favor of smaller Belgian towns like Bruges, Ghent, or others. Despite the advice of these so called experts we decided to stick around Brussels and take a few day trips to other destinations. Our logic was pretty simple: Brussels is centrally located on the rail system, a great place to jump off for our next destination, Berlin, and we had friends to visit here.

Our two hour train ride from Amsterdam, while early in the morning, was an easy way to travel. Trains in general are much better for the short distances than planes any day. We pay for the upgrade to first class, which isn’t anywhere near as expensive as even a coach plane ticket, because of the added luggage space. With less people in a cabin we can usually find space for our huge backpacks and usually can find space that’s close to our seats. There is always a big fear on trains that people will steal your stuff so it’s better to keep your bags in a place where you can keep an eye on them. Thus, we ended up in comfortable seats in first class from 9-11am.

I slept part of the way while Kel devoured a book that she was really into. We arrived in Brussels shortly after 11:30 and caught a tram to our hotel right in the middle of town. After checking email and conferring with Garron, my friend from home who is presently working in Brussels, about dinner plans, we set off to explore the town.

The reason that Brussels gets a bum rap for tourists is that it isn’t a huge hitter like Paris, Amsterdam, London, etc. There is just about enough activity and sights in Brussels to keep you occupied for a day. With many old buildings, a few great churches and two main parks, Brussels may not be a sightseeing Mecca but it does have enough to be worth your while if you are coming through this part of the world anyway.

Since we hadn’t really eaten anything since leaving Amsterdam, we started our Brussels tour with lunch. Some places that we’ve been have had signature foods that aren’t exactly on our favorites list, such as smoked fish in Scandinavia. Thankfully the signature foods in Belgium are awesome: mussels, French fries and waffles.

With a recommendation from the hotel we set off north of the center of town to a little sidewalk café. We both had huge steaming pots of mussels, mine with vegetables and Kel’s in a cream & beer sauce. Despite the fact that the servings were huge, and probably could have been shared by more than two people, we did ourselves justice and ate more than half of what was put in front of us. Food is always one of the best parts of a trip like this so we do our best to enjoy it to the fullest.

With full stomachs we decided to see some of the big sights around town. The biggest tourist attraction in town is the Grand Place, a square just south of the center of town. As you round the bend into the middle of the square you are greeted by one of the grandest squares in all of Europe. The ornate architecture of the buildings is very unique to this particular corner of Europe and has remained almost completely intact for the last 800 years. The Flemish buildings have ornate statues and gilding which makes the Grand Place a spectacular sight for even the most experienced traveler.

From the Grand Place, the next stop is the most visited sight and often most disappointing sight in Brussels, Manneken Pis. This little statue of a small boy going to the bathroom is the symbol of Brussels and is usually a let down for most travelers because it is quite small. It is difficult to understand why a fountain of a little boy peeing could be so important, but it is.

You can always tell the important sights by the swarms of tourists, in this case Asian tourists, snapping pictures. The sight of tour groups standing around taking pictures of each other in front of a special statue has become all too familiar to Kel and me. As Kel put it recently, “It wouldn’t have been as fun a trip without Japanese tour groups.” We decided to go ahead and take some pictures of people taking pictures. Not exactly a keeper picture, but we thought you’d get a kick out of seeing crazy Japanese tour groups for yourself.

Kel was pretty tired at this point because we had gotten up early and she hadn’t slept all that well the night before, thus she returned to the hotel to take a nap. While she napped I ran around town and took a bunch of pictures. I went to the largest Catholic cathedral in Brussels, St. Michaels. While the exterior looks remarkably like Notre Dame in Paris, the really remarkable part of this church is the pulpit inside. The huge wooden platform is carved into an image of Adam and Eve being thrown from the garden. The dark wood and high detail make the pulpit an incredibly powerful piece of religious art. While not one of the more famous cathedrals in Europe, I would recommend stopping in if you’re in the area.

I next walked down to Brussels Parc and the Royal Palace. While the palace is pretty big, it isn’t all that special compared to some of the royal residences in Europe. On the other hand I found the park to be very nice. Since the weather was really nice, people were everywhere enjoying the sun and shade.

My final stop of the day was the Cinquantenaire Arcade which is well away from old town and the other major things to see in Brussels. This giant arch which is part Arc d’ Triomphe and part St. Peter’s Basilica was built between 1904 and 1905. Its purpose was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Belgian independence.

By time I had walked all over Brussels it was getting pretty late so instead of walking back I jumped on the subway to quickly return to the hotel. Kel and I spent the next half hour or so getting ready for dinner with Garron and his girlfriend Hannah. They picked us up at 8pm and took us back to the Grand Place for a traditional Belgian dinner. We had so much fun with them that they invited us to go out with them the next two nights we were in town. We so rarely see friends, and even more rarely see people who know their way around a town we are visiting, that it was really great to have an evening out with people from home. While Garron and I went to school together we were never really close so it was a chance for us to get caught up on the last 10 years and a chance for Kel and I to get to know Hannah as well. After dinner we went out and got some drinks and stayed out late. By time we returned home later that night we were pretty tired but really excited to have had a fun night out on the town.

Brussels’s Little Sister as a Day Trip

Almost everyone who comes to Belgium goes to Bruges. Bruges is a small town near the coast which has become a tourist hub in this region. With it being only an hour train ride from Brussels it made a great day trip for us. We got a late start on the day but still made it to Bruges by lunch time.

When you arrive in this town you can immediately tell that it is THE place to go in Belgium. The crowds are enormous and people are everywhere. We caught a bus into the center square of town and walked to a small restaurant that was recommended in our guide book.

Once we got away from the tourists we found Rock Fort, a small 8 table French restaurant which creates unique food. The menu was completely in French and Dutch but we managed to scrape by and get some really great food. The most notable dish was Kel’s salad which had a generous scoop of Roquefort cheese ice cream. I know it sounds strange but think of it as ice cold, thick cheesy salad dressing. It really was great.

Since we were already on the outskirts of town we decided to see the giant windmills on the edge of the old town. Windmills are famous throughout Belgium and the Netherlands so you can’t really have a successful trip in this region without having seen at least a few windmills. The three large mills on the outskirts of Bruges are pretty decent specimens of tower windmills in the region and actually still work. After taking a few pictures and watching the windmills spin for a while we headed back into town to see some of the larger sights in town.

The big hitters in Bruges are centered around market square which is similar in design to the Grand Place in Brussels. Unlike the Grand Place, the Market Square is larger in area and has a couple of buildings that dominate the scene. The giant Belfry of Bruge, which is a medieval bell tower, stands 240 feet above the square and is much taller than any other building on the square itself. You’d think that a 240 foot tower would be the only large building in a small medieval town but the reason that Bruges is considered so special is that there are multiple churches in the area that are similarly huge.

We walked around town for another hour or two marveling at the canals in town and the other impressive buildings throughout town. St Salvator Cathedral, with its similarly huge tower, and the Church of Our Lady, with its almost 400 foot tower, were other notable sights in the area. Bruge could easily take a couple of days on most tourists’ timetable but with a limited schedule we decided that we could always see more of it on a later trip if necessary. Thus, with 5pm quickly approaching, we headed back to Brussels to get ready for another night out on the town with Garron and Hannah.

Garron picked us up at 8pm and took us out with a few of his friends from around town. Hannah met us at a great Argentinean restaurant where their friends Tanya, D, and Chris met us. After dinner we all went out to a couple of bars and enjoyed a night of Belgian beer and fun company. Kel and I returned, exhausted, to our hotel at 2am which was an incredibly late night for us. It’s usually not a ton of fun for us to go out on the town just the two of us but with a whole group it was a blast!

A Restful Day Before Heading to Berlin

Our final day in Brussels was pretty low key. With a 11.30pm overnight train leaving for Berlin we had most of the day free to whatever we wanted but had some things we needed to get done. Kel spent some time during the day doing travel planning on the internet while I worked on this blog and the pictures we had taken over the last few days.

Later tonight Garron should be picking us up to bring us to dinner. He and Hannah invited us, D and Tonya over for dinner at their place which should be fun. Later that night they’ll drop us off at the train station so we can head off to Berlin. Should be another fun evening!

Hope you are well back home in the sunny US!

Littlie post script shout out to Garron and Hanna. The ribs that Garron cooked for us were a wonderful treat from home. Thank you so much for slaving over the stove for an afternoon in our name. Also, a quick thanks to Hanna for dropping us off at the airport. Traveling in your car was much nicer than taking a cab any day!

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Photos

Mike and Kel Loving the Giraffe
Very cool taps that are brought to your table in Brussels, picture courtesy of Hana.

Bruge Backstreet
Photo By: Kelley Turner