Brussels

Spring Break

Leigh and I started our spring break by going to the capital of waffles, chocolate, beer, and frites.

Friday

We flew with RyanAir for the first time. This low-fare airline is the definition of the bare minimum. Here are some tips we have learned after flying RyanAir:

1. There is a visa check where you have to go to the check-in counter (also the bag drop) and have the people there stamp your ticket. This is done before you go through security.
2. Line up early at the gate. They say there is only “x” amount of carry-on bags that can fit in the overhead. If yours doesn’t fit, you have to pay to check it in.
3. Randomly allocated seats are fine, no need to pay the extra €4 to pick a seat

RyanAir usually does not fly to the main cities airports. Instead, they fly to smaller airports outside of the main city. We flew into Brussels Charleroi Airport which is about a thirty-minute bus ride outside of Brussels. Unfortunately, we had to wait in line for forty-five minutes after our flight to get on the bus to take us into the city. We also did not do very good pre-planning, as we did not know where it was going to drop us off. We got dropped off at the Brussels-Midi train station but had no idea how to get to our Airbnb. Tired, hungry, and flustered we walked around the station for about thirty minutes before we asked for help. It turns out we had to go to the Brussels-Central station, which you can type into the ticket kiosk (we didn’t know that). After about eight hours of traveling, we finally arrived at the Airbnb.

After settling in, we wandered out to the streets of Brussels and were greeted with the smells of chocolate and waffles. We found multiple places with €1 waffles and decided to check out the place with the biggest line. We ended up getting a waffle with dark chocolate sauce on it (was actually €2). It was delicious. We wandered through probably five to ten different chocolate stores and picked out the places we wanted to come back to the next day. Leigh’s friend, who had been to Brussels before had some restaurant recommendations, so we tried one. We had looked up Chez Leon online, and found a coupon for 50% off the entire meal. Around 7pm (most Europeans have dinner later), we headed over there and got seated right away. We both ordered the Lobster soup (which I definitely recommend) and Leigh got the Georg beer, which was quite good. When we left, there was a huge line out the door (usually you have to make reservations to eat there).

Saturday

This was our main day in Brussels. On Friday, when we were in the information center, this older couple overheard us talking about going to Bruges (if we should or not). They said that Bruges (a city about an hour away from Brussels) was their favorite city, and they had gone there thirteen or fourteen times. We talked with them for thirty minutes telling us all the things we can see, and they told us about this cool app for catching trains in Europe. It’s called Rail Planner, and it tells you to enter a start (train station) and a destination (train station) and when the trains are supposed to come. You can also use it offline, which is extremely handy. This is what we did, where we suggest going, and what we think you should skip.

Our first stop in Brussels was to Le Comptoir de Mathilde, one of the many chocolate shops. They sell hot chocolate on a stick. You pick out what kind of chocolate you want and then you get a cup of hot foamed milk in which you stick your chocolate and stir. Absolutely delicious (I got the salted caramel milk chocolate stick) and definitely worth the €3.25. We then continued our breakfast walk to get some waffles at Friterie Tabora. This is the waffle place we went to the day before, but this time got a banana and chocolate waffle and a strawberry and chocolate waffle. Unfortunately, when we got it, it had clumps of hair on it. We tried to eat around it, but couldn’t stomach it. There is a waffle place right across the street from it that we tried instead, no hair and just as good. We stopped in at Elisabeth Chocolatier where we got some really good dark chocolate marshmallow rounds.

We walked to St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral. This cathedral was beautiful inside. It was probably one of the brightest (natural light) cathedrals. It’s not too far away from Grand Place, and it was also free to get in. We went by the Mont Des Art Garden which we found, but they had this long flower garden and a nice view of Brussels from above. We also heard this parade and drumming from there, and went to explore to see what it was.

We then walked to the Royal Palace, which unfortunately we couldn’t go inside, but it had a cute garden outside. Across the street is a big park we suggest strolling through. Towards the Grand Place is the market, which is set up Fridays-Sundays. We found this guy selling some unique paintings. We both had a hard time deciding which ones we wanted to get, so we went back to his booth probably five times throughout the day. There were shops that also were selling candles, jewelry, perfume, and pottery. One thing Brussels is known for is the Manneken Pis statue. This little boy is a quick, take-a-picture-and-leave kind of attraction. If you want to look at his other costumes, you can head up the street to the GardeRobe MannekenPis museum. It was only €4 (student price) and it also got us into the City of Brussels Museum (located in the Grand Place).

We took the train/railcar out to the Atomium. It is about a 30 minute ride, which can give you a price look into the different neighborhoods of Brussels.  It was €8 (student price) and you had to pay for the bathroom (by the ticket office). It is cool from the outside, but we felt that the inside wasn’t as impressive. The 360 view from the top was nice to look at, but we were too far out of the city to know what we were looking at and it was hot inside. The exhibits were limited and we didn’t find it very interesting (exhibits were about airplanes and flights in the olden days).  

We went back to the city center and went to Brussels Grill for lunch and had a mixture of Belgium and American food, and I got the filet and it was delicious. For dinner we went to the Le Grand Café and had good bread and food. Leigh had the shrimp and cheese croquettes (which she liked) and I got the three cheese pasta (but the cheese smelled weird).

Sunday

We started off the morning eating waffles at a new place across the street from the place we ate at the day before, Le Funambule. We actually got a €1 waffle with powdered sugar on top, and we liked it a lot better compared to the other place. We then went back to the market and bought our paintings. The man who sold us the paintings told us that his wife is in Bruges at the market there. We caught a train to Bruges around 11am.

We started going on the Bruges Riverboat Tour. I love taking tours around the city to help us get the lay of the land and decide where we want to spend our time. The tour cost €8 per person and our captain was super friendly and spoke everything in English and French. He pointed out different places and fun facts and the history behind Bruges. After the boat ride we went to Marieke Van Brugghe for lunch. It was good but not great, would suggest doing restaurant research before you go. I got the grilled shrimp, but accidentally got it as the main course instead of the appetizer (supposed to be €18.50). Instead was charged €26.50 (because it was a main course). I’m still a little pissed about it. Leigh got the beef stew and said it was good

We then went to the Church of Our Lady Bruges. This church houses the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo Costs €3 to get in (have to buy tickets at the Sint-Janshospitaal just across the street). Nothing much else in the church besides that one sculpture. We then stopped in at Sint-Janshospitaal. This houses the works from famous painter Hans Memling and it cost €6 to go in. We weren’t interested in his work and would not suggest going here unless you are. Next stop was the Belfry of Bruges. This is a belltower that we did not climb. Also, is part of the big main square that houses a lot of restaurants and a couple of museums. We sat in the square and people watched for a bit.

We came upon some windmills called Windmills- Sint- Janshuismolen. It’s located on the outskirts of the east part town there are four windmills (only one you can climb). Very cool to see and a nice walk by the river. I also met a nice Irish man on top of the windmill and it got me excited for our next leg of the trip.

When we first arrived in Brussels, we received a very helpful map called “A Free Map for Young Travelers: Brussels” and it is made by locals. There is also an app for it called Use It. There is a map for Bruges as well. We found a place called Hof De Jonghe, at this “park” there are supposedly sheep sometimes grazing the land (mostly in the summer time). There were no sheep here when we went though

The nice couple told us that we needed to see the canals at night (unfortunately we still needed to pack for our early morning flight the next day), so we only stayed until around 8:30pm and saw the canals at blue hour If we could do this trip over again, we would spend all of Friday and half of Saturday in Brussels. Then at night, we would take the train to Bruges and spend the night and most of Sunday in Bruges (Bruges lodging is cheaper than Brussels). If only staying the weekend, then we would take the train back to the airport and fly home Sunday night.

Monday

At the crack of dawn (7am) we were on our way to the Brussels Airport (the main one this time). We wanted to see the Grand Place one last time, and it was completely empty.

If we were in Florence at 7am, the Duomo would already have lots of tour groups walking around. Also, our experience at the Brussels Zaventem was one of the best airport experiences ever. We hopped on a train from Brussels Central to Brussels Airport, and the train station for Brussels airport is under the actual airport. We just had to go up three flights of escalators to get to our departure gates. The security was super-fast and easy. There was a nice security officer helping everyone put the right things in the right bins to go through security. The signage in the airport was super easy to read. It only took twenty minutes from the time we got to the Airport train station to the time we were at our gate. A couple side notes about Brussels. Brussels is not a morning city. Places don’t open until 9:30-10am and people don’t start coming out until then (my kind of city). They also are out very late (night owls just like me). This is probably one of my favorite cities I’ve visited, and I definitely plan on coming back.

Our next stop was Dublin.