Four hours in Brussels
Mussels in Brussels…
I’ve been to Brussels many times now, often with work for EU coverage, but occasionally also for a fun trip to see a friend who lives there. We normally use it as a stepping stone – stay one night and move on to Brugge or Holland.
On a recent trip back to Liverpool, the cheapest flight we found was via Brussels. There was a connection at the airport in two hours, or four hours. We thought it was crazy to be in the land of delicious chocolate and not try at least to get some, so we challenged ourselves to do all the exciting things in Brussels in just four hours – we were literally running for our flight at the end and didn’t get any waffles, but we were pretty full by then anyway.
If you only have a short stop-over in Brussels, here’s how you do it:
You must eat mussels in Brussels – there is a street jam-packed with restaurants (Rue des Bouchers), they’re all similarly priced and taste the same (to me anyway). We went to Le Petit Bruxelles – even thought it was pretty empty it took forever to serve our food. I enjoyed the mussels and Jason loved his steak. After seeing the reviews for it, I would probably recommend trying somewhere else, but it did the job!
From there it’s a five minute walk to the Grand Place, a huge market square with cobbled stones and beautiful buildings.
Then you walk down to the Manneken Pis (Peeing Boy) – he’s famous enough for me to have known about him before I ever went to Belgium, but disappointingly small in real life.
Then you pop into one of the many many many chocolate stores and get some nibbles for the journey home. Don’t forget a hot chocolate too – they are divine in Belgium!!
If you can fit in a waffle, then I’m impressed, otherwise rush back to the airport – this city can be done in just four hours and it’s on to the next place 🙂
PS: We found some cool things at the airport I just had to share with you… no runny cheese in hand-luggage allowed and if you need to charge your phone just jump on one of these bikes and make your own electricity!
