Bruxelles

This Easter Russ and I planned a short European break to make the most of our long weekend. I'd been in a mad rush searching online for cheap Easter holidays as I'd had my heart set on somewhere a bit random like Budapest. But Brussels ended up being the cheapest option by far... so that's how our destination was chosen.

It took me 2hrs to get to the airport from work, on the tube, but was well timed as Russ arrived on the tube following mine. The flight was much shorter than I imagined - only about 40mins and we were in Belgium. By the time we got here it was dark and late - about 10:30pm. We had to navigate our way to the city centre, to our hotel, but this was made quite difficult by having no one in the station to help, in addition to all the signs being written in French/Dutch/German. For a first-timer to Brussels this was a little intimidating even with the help of Russ' basic knowledge of French. We ended up befriending an Australian couple and shared a taxi into the city.

Besides my brief stopover in Seoul, this was my first experience of driving on the right-hand side of the road. A little confusing in terms of round-a-bouts and trying to cross the road and never remembering which way to look. By day four we almost had it sussed.

Our hotel, NH Atlanta was in a prime location, right in the heart of the city. It was a nice enough hotel - gives you what you need, but you certainly get what you pay for. Would recommend, but don't expect the best. We actually got a bloody good deal. Return fights and four nights accomodation, including a buffet breakfast each morning for £183 each. Bargain!!

First day we were up early with the intention of seeing as much as we could and getting our bearings in the city. We first walked to the famous Grand Place - this amazing square in the heart of Brussels - cobblestones surrounded by centuries-old buildings, including the magnificent town hall. It really is breathtakingly beautiful! We jumped on a hop-on hop-off tour bus, map in hand, ready to see the sights.

On the horizon of the city you can see a bizarrely shaped structure, looking like a model of atoms from science class. This is the Atomium. It was built for the 1958 Brussels World Fair and kept up because of its popularity. Click here to read more about it. The building is pretty surreal, with all the joining tubes having escalators inside them to move between each sphere. There isn't really a lot inside the structure, but it offers an excellent view over Brussels. The best part, of which Russ and I both agreed, was in one of the spheres which had mini speheres inside made into beds for groups of kids to have sleepovers. Would make the coolest sleepover EVER!

From there we wandered back into the centre of town, taking in beautiful parks and palaces, and other ancient buildings, including a magnificent church at the top of the city, built in 1400, with the most impressive stained glass windows I've ever seen, as well as the famous Mannekin Pis.

The whole city is an architectural wonderland. The people are very friendly, the city relatively clean and very spacious, and surprisingly lacking in busy, congested roads, which makes for a quiet city, besides the horn-happy motorists who appear to wait only a brief second for cars to move on a green light before their hands fall to their horns like a concrete block. The zebra crossings are a little confusing at first because seeing one doesn't mean you can just walk across, you still have to wait for the traffic lights to say you can cross.

The following few days saw us settle into Brussels life, navigating their underground and tram system, and me trying to learn some French so I wouldn't feel so ignorant. I found my linguistics came in handy as I could understand quite a lot of French writing, which was in all honestly helped greatly by Russ having learnt French for several years at school.

Brussels has an awful lot to offer in terms of food and drink. There are hundreds of restaurants, cafés, and bars in the city, all of which offer something new and exciting! We found our favourite bar on the corner of a busy road, called Mappa Mundo. It had a really relaxed atmosphere despite being so busy. They could have done with a few more bar staff, but those they did have were great! Really friendly and looked great showing off their tricks behind the bar.

Another bar we just had to check out was just off Grand Place. In French it's called Le Cerceuil, but is otherwise known as the Coffin Bar. You enter through a long, very dark hallway and into the pub up some stairs where it gets even darker. The small pub is morbidly decorated with coffins and you can drink from skull mugs. The bar is a must-see! The barman made it all the more worthwhile with his cool, quirky sense of humour, in particular when him and Russ thought it would be funny to turn the lights out upstairs as I was trying to use the bathroom. Don't worry, we got Russ back when it was his turn to go. This instant bond with the barman made us want to stay longer and feel totally at ease there.

Brussels is not the cheapest city, apart from train/tram travel where there's almost never someone to check tickets. Exhibitions and sites are all quite expensive, as you would expect anything touristy to be, and as they are famous for their delicious chocolate, the many handmade chocolate stores really do take the cake in the expensive stakes, which we found with six strawberries dipped in white chocolate for €7.30. In particular, the chain of Godiva stores, which are the absolute epitome of fine chocolate. Though you just can't argue because words can't do justice to how good their chocolate tastes - especially the Easter eggs Russ and I bought for each other. Mmmm... so creamy!! And of course, their waffles (gaufres) are delicious, but we know now that chocolate topping is only good when you're eating it with cutlery. We did come across, some delicious local cakes and pastries, including Peperkoek, a Dutch spice cake, and Pain aux Grecque, an utterly devine sweet pastry covered in sugar. Everyone must try this!! And last but certainly not least, is Speculoos, a lightly spiced biscuit. It tastes devine by itself, but even better dipped in chocolate or in ice cream, which I tried for the first time in the Atomium, and I have to say it is THE most delicious ice cream I have EVER tasted! You just can't go to Belgium without trying this!!

This city has a lot to offer, and has a great vibe. From all the yummy food, to their excellent beers, including their famed fruit beers (raspberry, peach, faro, etc), as well as their super-strong Tripel Westmalle which continues to ferment in the bottle and boasts a 9.5% alcohol content. Russ was told about it by a local while waiting in line at a supermarket, and we knew the perfect place to try it...

Over the previous few days we watched as people sat in cinema-like seating arrangements outside the grand Hotel Metropole, the only 19th century hotel left in Brussels, just up the road from our own hotel. People sit in the sun or under the warmth of heaters, watching the world go by. So we parked up, with prime viewing seats and proceeded to pass the afternoon with beer and wine in style.

Brussels/Bruxelles, is the perfect destination for a relaxing long weekend city break!! To see the rest of my photos click to view them at Picassa.