Brussels, Belgium

Cinquantenaire

I traveled to Brussels in October 2016 for work for the first time. I was lucky enough to have extra time to walk around and explore the city a little. I stayed at the Marriott in Grand Place which was a perfect location for visiting Brussels for the first time. Grand Place is very touristy, there are tons of restaurants and shops. It's also close to the famous statue, Manneken Pis. Place de la Bourse is the street right outside the Marriott. It's closed off to traffic for the most part, and people walk freely up and down the street.

Place del la Bourse 

Site Seeing

This was my first international trip alone, and I was a little worried about walking around by myself. Being in Grand Place was comforting, there were plenty of other tourists around, and there is also a heavy military presence around the town. Especially around Place de la Bourse there were armed military personnel walking up and down the street.  

Grand Palace (Grote Markt)

From my hotel I walked to Cinquantenaire and then to Palais de Justice. It's about a 2 mile walk from Grand Place to Cinquantenaire. If you're up for it, I would choose to walk. Once you get to Parc du Cinquantenaire, you can sit and relax near the little lake in the middle of the park (and recover from a 2 mile walk if you're out of shape like I am). I only chose to go to Palais de Justice because it was recommended by a Brussels photography as a great spot to capture the city. Alone, it's not much a tourist attraction, it's the Law Courts of Brussels. But if you walk to the top you can get a great view of the city. I was lucky enough to catch the sunset while up there and I got a beautiful view of the city with that little golden touch of light.

Captured from the top of Palais de Justice

Zinneke Pis is on the corner of Rue des Chartreux and Rue Saint-Christophe

In August 2018 I went back to Brussels again for work. I got to witness the city towards the end of Summer, and it was a lot different from when I visited in October. It was a lot warmer, around 78F and the days were longer. When I first went in October, the sun didn't rise until about 8AM and set about 6-7PM. In August I got much more sunlight to explore after work. From the hotel my coworker and I walked through Grand place to Mont des Arts and Royal Palace. People were still enjoying the warm summer nights, out and about walking, kids listening to music on the steps of the park and skateboarding around. The city seemed a little livelier and busier this time around. There's a girl and dog version of Manneken Pis. I was able to find Zinneke Pis, the urinating dog, and I definitely prefer that version to Manneken Pis.

View of Mont des Arts from the top of the stairs

Royal Palace of Brussels

Food

If you're up and walking around the city in the morning, you'll smell all of the fresh pastries from bakeries. Having a freshly made croissant and latte in the morning is one of my favorite parts of these work trips to Brussels. There's a Le Pain Quotidien near my hotel so I usually go there every morning. It's a chain cafe, but still delicious food and drinks. 

Inside Le Pain Quotidien

Happiness is...

OR Coffee is right outside the Marriott so I stopped there quite a bit during both stays. The coffee is really good, and you can get coffee three different ways, drip over, Chemex, or Airopress. But my go to drink in Brussels is a latte. Seems basic, but somehow it's much sweeter and creamier than most lattes I get at home. 

The famous food to eat in Brussels are moules and frites, or mussels and fries. I'm a really picky eater, so even if it's the best thing to eat in the area, if I don't like it, I won't eat it. So I've never had mussels in Brussels because I'm not a big fan of them, but rest assured I had plenty of frites on both visits. I went to Fin de siecle during my first trip with coworkers. The food was really good, but we had to translate the menu from French to English. Luckily Google translate does a really good job, and the photo function is very convenient. On my second trip to Brussels, I went to Nona, it stands for "No Name." They're a pizza place that has a farm to table concept. Pizza was delicious and restaurant is very cute. We were lucky and got there just before the dinner rush.

Can't forget the chocolate and waffles! There are so many places to buy from. I didn't buy anything from Elisabeth this time, but their chocolate is probably the prettiest I've seen. If you're walking around Grand Place, all of the different shops are there and you really have your pick for your souvenir home. Regardless if you need to go chocolate shopping, visiting Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert is still fun to do. Pierre Marcolini has two shops there, one for chocolate and macaroons and another that's just an ice cream shop. Pierre Marcolini is one of the well known Belgian Chocolatiers and is on the high end side of chocolate. Yes, there are such things as a chocolatier and high end chocolate. 

Inside of Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert