We arrived in Brussels via train from dreamy Amsterdam. Sandwiched in between France and The Netherlands, Belgium is mix of about 80% French and 20% Flemish (Belgian Dutch). Our AirBnB stay was in a beautiful split level flat owned by a girl around our age named Amelie. She was a lovely host who made sure we knew all the hip places to venture to in Brussels. Even though we wouldn’t be in Paris until a few days later, Amelie, with a thick French accent, made us feel like we had already arrived in France. As we explored Brussels, we found there were far less attractions to see than our previous European destinations, so our AirBnb became a great hide-a-way to spend more time in than we forecasted for. In between our adventures around the town, we would buy a handful of Belgian beers from a bottle shop, and return to our AirBnb to relax and sample them. Being an avid home brewer myself, with a fondness for the Belgian style, this was actually a part of trip that I looked forward to greatly. The beers were fantastic and inspiring. It was impressive to drink beers from breweries dating back hundreds of years. On top of being renowned for their beers, Belgium is of course known for their waffles and chocolate. It’s hard to pass either up when there are countless street vendors in Brussels selling waffle and chocolate treats.
When we weren’t busy eating and drinking, we made it to a handful of historic sites in Brussels. One that most all have heard of is Manneken Pis; the little boy statue peeing in a pond. Ironically it was just a tiny fountain on a side street a couple blocks from where we were staying. Made for a few laughs nonetheless. Taking the metro across town we ventured to tour The Atomium; an awesomely large installation from the World Expo of 1958. It replicates an iron atom enlarged 165 billion times. The inside is a mix of viewing platforms offering panoramic views of Brussels, as well as amazing art installations. We saw the Grand Place, Palais de Bruxelles, and many old churches.
After plenty of wandering, we concluded that Brussels is a difficult city to categorize. Having just spent time in Germany and The Netherlands, both of which have a more homogenized feel regarding culture and architecture, Brussels left us scratching our heads a bit. Brussels absolutely has the essence of a cool European city with its never-ending sidewalk cafes, historic architecture, and unique culture. But we did find ourselves feeling ready to move on after two days. Maybe it was because we just came from the ridiculously charming Amsterdam, which seemed to have a much larger youth population. The younger scene in Brussels appeared to be more underground. The city also has a more metropolitan feel with a larger amount of bland architecture mixed in with the historic buildings. Despite our couple small critiques, we definitely recommend spending a day or two in Brussels.