Star Services: Brussels

Brussels Belgium

From its awe-inspiring medieval heart to its 21st-century shrine to Surrealism, the new Magritte Museum, Brussels offers the visitor far more than just beer and chocolate and is strikingly different from its unfortunate dull image as the home of EU bureaucrats. Indeed, Brussels is a creative, vibrant city. Its compact city centre is packed with pubs, restaurants and museums set along cobbled streets. Inevitably, most tourists head to the Grand-Place. With its ornate Flemish guild houses, impressive Town Hall and buzzing atmosphere, it would be hard to find a more beautiful square in all of Europe. It rightly is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is the city’s crowning glory. Wander next to the nearby Royal and Sablon districts brimming with art galleries and antique shops. Toss away your map and wander down a myriad side streets, discovering flea markets, art-deco houses and boutique shops. The Bruxellois take pride in their self-deprecating, intellectual sense of humour, underpinned by a strong appreciation of the bizarre. The city has a long-standing love affair with the Surrealist art movement, pioneered by René Magritte, and with classic comic strips, epitomised by Hergé's boy hero, Tintin. There's a telling irony in the fact that the city's best-known landmark is the Manneken-Pis, a tiny statue of a urinating boy. Meanwhile, all of this sits alongside world-class collections of art, fabulous cooking including mussels, chips, waffles and whelks, some of Europe’s best and unique beers (literally, there are thousands of varieties), and master-chocolatiers. The city’s cultural calendar is packed with events for everyone from the massive, rowdy Foire du Midi street fair every July brimming with stalls and fairground attractions to the legendary Christmas Market that takes centre stage in the Place Sainte Catherine with 240 stalls, a skating rink, a big wheel, and numerous rides. One of the biggest events is Art Brussels, showcasing the city’s edgier, creative side and a hub for art connoisseurs from around the world. If you’re a Euro-loving national, check out the European Quarter, centred around Schuman and the Berlaymont. Its liveliest part is the Place du Luxembourg: all its pubs fill up around 6pm on weekdays with some of the 20,000 diplomats, politicians and civil servants who reside in the city after Brussels became the centre of international politics following WWII. Open your eyes and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by all that Brussels has to offer.

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Brussels Natl (BRU)

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