Brussels Walking Tour Centre-Ville
Bonne Année! Happy New Year! Late on Jan 1, we left on a family vacation for Belgium. We spent 4 days in Brussels, with two day trips to Bruges and Ghent. This trip report is for Day 1 of our vacation.
We arrived at the Brussels airport mid morning then took the train to our hotel, Le Meridien Hotel. The hotel is just across the square from the Brussels Central Station. We checked in, and started our little Brussels Walking Tour.
We walked just over a block to the world famous Grand Place, had a light lunch at the Le Roy d’Espagne, then walked to the Mannekin Pis fountain, the Christmas Market (Plaisirs d’Hiver) at the Bourse, walked up the Rue du Marché aux Herbes, stopped at the historic Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert shopping mall, then looped back to the hotel.
We took a break, stopping for a rest in the hotel lobby. We were fighting jet lag, trying to stay up all day, to get adjusted to the CET timezone. We then continued our Brussels Walking Tour. We walked over to Cathedral SS. Michael and Gudula, touring the insides — just beautiful. Then we walked up the hill to the Parc de Bruxelles, walking the length of the park to the Palais Royal. We walked by the Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg Church, then walked our way down the Mont des Arts to our hotel.
This was pretty much it for sightseeing for us today. We went for an early dinner at small little place on the narrow Rue des Bouchers, called The Lobster House. Much to our delight, after dinner we saw a beautiful light show at the Grand Place. L’Hôtel de Ville and La Maison du roi were bathed in multi-colored flood lights show in-time to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice music. (Search youtube for Grand Place Sound and light show)
Tips:
It was our plan to make dinner our big meal for the day. We’re going to have cafe or street stand food during the day and eat at a restaurant around the Grand Place area each night. For our first night, we walked along Rue du Marché aux Herbes; this is one of many streets that run along the outside of the Grand Place.
There were lots of choices. A common theme was each restaurant had a person on the street aggressively selling their place. Sales people were physically pulling at me to try to get my attention. After awhile, it got a little annoying.
Finally, we picked a place based on how many customers they were serving; we figured if it had other customers, it’s probably an ok place. We ended up at a tiny little store front place that served Moules-Frites and Steak-Frites… just what we wanted. The place was kitchy but the food was ok and the staff was really happy we were there. The Lobster House
But after running the gauntlet of street hawking places, we knew that for the rest of our vacation, we would not be having our evening meals on these streets. As it turned out, the places we enjoyed the most were going to be at restaurant on the Grand Place. That’s what I suggest for you, too.
