Tour of Brussels – Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Musée Magritte and Atomium
For our 2nd day in Belgium, our plan for the day is to take a walking Tour of Brussels. We started with breakfast in a nice place called Mokafe located in the historic Galeries Saint-Hubert.
We then walked up the Mont des Arts hill to the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts. We first visited the Musée Magritte, which featuring the surrealist art work of René Magritte. Then we went over to the Musée d’Art Ancien — featuring masterpieces from 15th to the 19th century.
After the art museums, we had a light, late, lunch at the Natural Caffe on the Mont des Arts. Then we headed back to the hotel. We relaxed in the hotel lobby for awhile, then we decided to continue our Tour of Brussels by heading out to the Atomium. That was a quick Metro ride from the hotel.
After that, it was dark. We headed back to the hotel, then went out to dinner at the very nice Brasserie de L’Ommegang on the Grand Place.
Some notes on our site seeing:
Musée Magritte. This a very popular art museum. When we visited Brussels three years ago, we couldn’t get tickets. Magritte, a famous Belgian artist (1898-1967), painted surrealistic art. The paintings are fun and full of direct and subtle messages. His famous “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” was a painting of a pipe, an image of a pipe, not a real pipe. The exhibits are very nicely curated with plenty of guides with English language. I really recommend this.
Musée d’Art Ancien. The Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts has a marvelous collection of fine art from North European masters. Definitive pieces of the collection are by artists like Breugel, Rubens, David, Memling, van Dyck, and Bosch. Our daughter is has a minor in art history and did a wonderful job explaining the messages and the historical context of the paintings.
Atomium. This monument from the 1958 Brussels World Fair, architected by André Waterkeyn, is made up of 9 spheres (18m diameter) interconnect to form a model of an iron atom. The top most sphere is an observation deck and an exhibit hall. We really enjoyed the Atomium. The view from the top was very nice. The atmosphere was warm, welcoming and fun. We left as it got dark; the night lighting was beautiful.
Tips:
To get to the Atomium from Brussels Central station: Take the Metro ligne 5, toward Gare de l’Ouest, change at Beekkant station onto Metro ligne 6 toward Roi Baudouin, and get off at the Heysel stop. This was 20-25 minute ride. There’s lots of signs at the station and a short work to the Atomium. Directions
At the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, visitors can take photos of everything except the Magritte collection. I really like the Magritte painting and bought some post cards, scanned and included (w/o permission) in my posting here.
Of all the restaurants we visited around the Grand Place, the Brasserie de L’Ommegang was the fanciest. We really liked it.
