The secret of Belgium’s capital city, Brussels, is to go with the flow and allow yourself to become part of its charming everyday life.
Having previously been ruled by Spain, the Netherlands and France, Belgium is one of those countries that finds it easier to describe itself by what it is not: It’s not French, nor is it Dutch, neither German. Belgian is a country with an identity crisis as it’s population encompasses French, Dutch, German, some Arabic tongue is also spoken and further still, a large percentage of the population are expat English-speaking foreigners. With all the variety, Brussels takes the mix in its stride and pulls everything together into an offbeat, almost bizarre sense of being. In short, Brussels is very different from the one-dimensional EU hub many erroneously imagine it to be.
With this cultural diversity its no wonder that Brussels, Belgian capital, has seized the new century with a fresh vigor, leaving other European cities wondering who stole their tourists. One source of the tourism influx is Belgium’s fashion — while other European cities rested on their laurels, Belgium became a might in style, surpassing France; while the buzzing sidewalk café scene has outmatched those of Paris.
Yet the urbanization of Brussels will not leave you woozy with its splendor, rather you will feel compelled to seek out its intimacy and explore its secreted treasures.
Eating in Brussels
The capital’s restaurants rival those of Paris and London -- both in value and excellence. It’s not an inexpensive city for dining in, but standards are high as restaurants that fall short of the mark simply close.
Mussels and chips is the classic dish and can be found in nearly all Belgian restaurants. However, certain districts of Brussels specialise in specific food: Ixelles, has excellent Thai, African and Italian bistro’s, mainly around St-Boniface church. Place du Grand Sablon, has an abundance of these restaurants, although a little more pricy.
Avoid the Grande Place restaurants. They are touristy, too expensive and offer low-quality. Five minutes walk away is a district where you will find local people as well as good and affordable restaurants. There are a couple of good ones at the Rue Antoine Dansaert, like the Kasbah, the Couscous House or Bonsoir Clara.
Drinking in Brussels
It’s a national pastime in Belgium. The Grand’ Place is lined with terrace bars, full of life in the summer. Le Roi d’Espagne has the most ambiance and Place St-Géry has designer bar terraces with oodles of mood, as is the timeless art deco bar of L’Archiduc, which is claimed to remain open until dawn.
Three of Brussels best Bars:
Poechenellekelder Bar (rue du Chêne 5, Brussels), is a nice place to watch tourists take photos of Manneken Pis. The inside is dark and often smoky when crowded. It’s awesomely decorated with puppets and trumpets and beer crates hanging from the roof. It has a nice terrace although it was taken care of by a single waiter. He was quite quick, with the usual European smileless indifference (though they of course know how to pour). Beer selection is good but the prices are high.
Delirium Café, is hidden in a maze of alleyways about 100 metres from the Grande Place (Impasse de la Fidelité 4A, Brussels) and may be hard to find. An average Belgian bar might have a couple of dozen beers available. A good Belgian bar might have a couple of hundred, but the Delirium Café has in excess of two thousand beers available at any one time. They are not only Belgian beers but also beers from over sixty other countries. One thing to be aware of, the beer price goes up during live music gigs, which happens twice a week.
Bier Circus (Rue de l'Enseignement 57, Brussels) If you are fascinated by the diversity of Belgian beer this is the place to be. Here you can choose from hundreds of different beers. The Bier Circus offers the Cantillon Vigneronne, a wonderful Lambik beer made with raisins comes highly recommended.
Sleeping in Brussels
Most visitors to Brussels are on business, therefore hotel rates drop significantly at weekends, so don’t write off the five-stars entirely. The most celebrated new luxury hotel is the five-star Amigo only a few metres from the Grand’ Place and as such, conveniently close to the main commercial district and attractions. The stylish Amigo is considered by many as the best hotel in the city. The interiors are fresh and contemporary, with some Flemish touches such as tapestries, paintings and early sculptures, which all helps to retain the character and ambience of the area. Heavy linens are used extensively, together with red silk curtains with embroidered velvet detail, leather brass-nailed headboards, and ornate Flemish chairs and desks. The Blaton Suite has its own roof terrace, two ensuite bedrooms, sitting room, and a dining room for private entertaining. The bathrooms contain mosaic details in red or green to match their marble vanity tops, and figures of Hergé’s Tintin characters enliven the walls with a touch of humour.
Of the mid-range options, the Mozart just off the Grande Place and less than five minutes from the Central Station. The decor is Baroque kitch, with marzipan public rooms, a patio and fountain. The rooms are small, but attractive, the breakfast decent, though minimal. The staff and owner are friendly and helpful. The Mozart’s more spacious rooms in front and may be noisy in the summer.
The George V is a family run budget favourite near the bars of St-Géry. The rooms and small and clean but be warned, the walls are thin and therefore not recommended for families with young children. Breakfast is sufficient but served in chipped china. There is no hotel parking available. This hotel is excellent value for money as its only five minutes walk from the city centre.
Shopping in Brussels
The main pedestrian drag, rue Neuve, is full of soulless chain stores selling mainly clothes and shoes. Inno is a big department store selling designer brands and the City 2 shopping mall has a number of shops, the highlight of which is the impressive Fnac music and bookshop on the top level.
Escape the shopping malls and try something more idiosyncratic, like the shabby area between boulevard Lemonnier and the Grand’ Place, where you’ll find second-hand book shops, record shops and clothes shops. Off the Grand’ Place is the Galeries St-Hubert, which is filled with designer boutiques and quirky sidewalk cafés.
Sightseeing in Brussels
The lower city is centred around the superbly ornate Grand’ Place, considered by many as the most beautiful medieval square in all of Europe with its elegant 17th century guildhouses and narrow atmospheric lanes leading off it. In summer, daily flower markets are held there, which is often accompanied by a concert.
Nearby St-Géry flourishes on stylish bars contained in an old covered market on place St-Géry. The cafés, restaurants and nightspots buzz in the summer months, and nearby too is St-Catherine -- a canopied terrace lined with seafood restaurants. Immediately south of Grand’ Place, amid the grimy old stores in rue de l’Etuve, is the symbol of Brussels – the little statue of the urinating rascal, Mannekin-Pis. Further south in the earthy Marolles quarter, rue Haute hosts the daily flea market at Place du Jeu de Balle. Throughout the lower town are murals of Belgium’s comic-strip heroes like Tintin.
The upper town boasts dramatic architecture and parks, with a string of grand names along its boulevard. The Royal Quarter overshadows everything else with the palace and the fountained Parc de Bruxelles leading through to the Belgian Parliament. The Fine Arts Museum boasting old masters like Bruegel, Rubens, Magritte, Delvaux and Monet.
A short tram ride from Brussels Montgomery to Tervuren takes you through parks and the beautiful Ambassadorial district. Tervuren is home to the African Art Museum and Léopold II’s spectacular monuments and parks.
Belgium by the sea
Did you now that seven out of ten diamonds come from Antwerp, the world’s largest diamond centre for more than 700 years? Diamonds from numerous mines all over the world are skilfully cut and polished, praised and appraised, bought and sold in Antwerp. Antwerp and diamond are two categories that have been closely related for over 500 years.
The coastal town of Antwerp fizzes in fashion and the effect reaches far beyond her borders. Belgian designers have a solid international reputation with designs being sold around the world and pictures in today’s most authoritative fashion magazines. Antwerp has become one of the most important European trendsetters in the fashion world. Belgian designers that have scored internationally have artistic roots in Antwerp. The highpoint of the Antwerp fashion season is the yearly fashion show of the Antwerp Academy of Arts, which draws 6,000 visitors.
Antwerp unmistakably has positioned itself as a unique fashion city. It is a mini metropolis, a little big city that is culturally loaded and strategically packed-out, chock-full of diverse physical characteristics and stark evidence of finger-on- the-pulse global connections, still somehow behaving like an oversized village, albeit a happily peculiar version of one.
Antwerp is the fourth largest port in the world and the second in Europe. It stretches for more than twelve miles along the banks of the River Scheldt, reaching up to Rotterdam and out to the North Sea.
Every European country seems to have one: a city that thoroughly encompasses all that the place holds dear. Bruges is such for Belgium, sitting there all proud and pretty, epitomizing the grandeur and perfection otherwise relegated to storybooks, and hey presto, the tag 'Venice of the north' is securely fastened.
With canal boats, horse-drawn carriages and bicycles as readily-available transport options, the ethnic spirit is available for the visitor to swallow whole from the word go, hastening appreciation of the cultural niceties which zoom into view from every direction.
Outside of Brussels
Some 10 miles, south-west of Brussels is the small Flemish town of Leuven. It has a big university and an even bigger history. The number of inhabitants amounts to more or less 90,000 people. The student numbers, which are awesome in European standards, are around 22,000. The entire city lives off and with the University, which was founded in 1425 by Pope Martin V. It is considered to be the oldest catholic university in the world.
St Peter’s Church is certainly worth a visit for the rich inside decoration. One can admire the beautiful rood loft dating back to 1488, above which hangs a triumphal crucifix from around 1500. The chairs in the choir were sculpted between 1438 and 1442. There is a magnificent 12m high sacraments tower and a baroque wooden pulpit in the nave. In the left aisle a wooden sculpture of the Madonna can be seen. St Peter’s Church holds two world-famous masterpieces in its treasury: ‘The Last Supper’ and ‘Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus’.
Leuven also boasts ‘The longest bar in Europe’, as it is generally called by locals -lining up more than 60 pubs, which serve a great many of the 360 kinds of beer produced in Belgium. The Old Market Square offers plenty of choice to find a spot that fits your mood. ‘Stella Artois’, the pride of Leuven, is probably the most uttered word on this square.
The Den Horen is the oldest brewery in Leuven and dates back to 1366. In 1717 the master brewer Sebastian Artois gave his name to one of Belgium’s best-known export products – Stella Artois.
Further south of Brussels is Liege, a sizeable and dynamic town on the banks of the River Meuse. It’s the intellectual capital of Wallonia and the birthplace of Georges Simenon, the prolific thriller writer. Despite some grim architectural reminders from its industrial days, the old centre remains attractive and overflows with bars, cafés and restaurants.
A little further on is Namur, a university town known as the gateway to the rivers and forests of the Ardennes. An eerie presence overcomes one when walking through the cobbled squares as this was where the 1992 serial killer docu-drama ‘Man Bites Dog’ was filmed.
Hop onto the train in Namur and head still further south to Dinant which is at the centre of the Meuse Valley. Dinant is a pretty little town slung along the river beneath craggy green cliffs about 30km south of Namur - a handy base for venturing into the surrounding countryside either by boat, bike or on foot. Dinant is dominated by its two main buildings: the Citadel, which overlooks the town from a 100 meter cliff, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame, outsized against the surrounding structures and capped by a bronze onion dome. A famous native of Dinant is Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone.
Nearby is the castle of Jehay, which was built in the 11th century and has, through the centuries, been home to aristocrats and royalty. It is a magnificent example of medieval Renaissance architecture, surrounded by a moat. Today it is owned by the Province of Liege who has opened it to the public. The castle is full of rare furnishings, silverware collections, antique lace, china, tapestries, books dating back to the 11th century, sculptures and paintings by the masters, and many other precious artefacts.
The marvel continues in the gardens, along the paths, arbours and fountains; all along the main alley bordered by cascades and nymphs, delicate works by Count Guy can den Steen.
Ten contemporary sculptors take us on an artistic journey full of original works and installations in the woods surrounding. These wood magicians invite us for a stroll in the gardens and parks surrounding the castle of Jehay (between early June and the end of September).
There’s just something about Belgium. Maybe it’s the friendly welcoming people who with three official languages still find it easy to converse in English, the fourth language. Maybe it’s the stunning architecture decorating the quaint cobblestone squares. Or perhaps it’s the incredible cuisine. Whatever it is that revs your motor, you will find it there.
DID YOU KNOW
The science of anatomy was founded by Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, who went on the write the first complete text-book of human anatomy.
The world’s first collection of maps in book form was published by Abraham Ortelius of Antwerp.
The much loved plastic – Bakelite – was invented in 1913 by Leo Hendrik Baekeland of Ghent.
The Belgian inventor Jean Joseph Lenoir developed the world’s first internal combustion engine in 1860.
Filled chocolates, known as Pralines, were invented by Jean Neuhauss, whose 19th century shop still remains in the Galeries St Hubert in Brussels.
Millions of cartoon fanatics enjoyed the adventures of Tintin, created by the Brussels cartoonist, Hergé.
Whooping cough medicine was invented by Belgian Jules Bordet.
© Cindy-Lou Dale 2006
