We spent 2 nights (1 full day) in Brussels while going from Barcelona to St. Petersburg, Russia. We arrived in Brussels late at night (around midnight), spent the full day exploring Brussels and then flew out to St. Petersburg early next morning. Although we missed some popular hot spots due to short schedule, it still was a lot of fun and we gained a lot of appreciation for this city.
Karen had signed up for a Belgian Chocolate Workshop and I dropped her off in the morning for the 3 hour class.
While Karen was in class, me and my parents walked around Brussels exploring the city.
Brussels is known for 3 “peeing statues”. The most famous one is the “peeing boy statue” known as Manneken Pis. There is a similar one for a peeing girl called Jeanneke Pis. The third one is the peeing dog which we skipped :).
Jenneke Pis was very unimpressive. Nestled in an alley, covered by iron grill, I don’t know what the big deal about this statue is. Next we walked over to Grand Place or Grote Markt.
Close to Grand Place is the peeing boy Manneken Pis. Its just a small statue in the corner and dozens of people trying to take selfies with it.
You cannot leave Brussels without trying some Belgian Waffles. We stopped by Los Churros & Waffle and shared a Belgian waffle with bananas.
Another thing to try is the Belgian version of the “french-fries” which they call “Belgian Frites”. One of the most recommended place for this is Friterie Tabora, very close to Grand Place.
The fries were really yummy and came with a wide variety of sauce options. We were not familiar with most of the sauce flavors and rolled the dice and were pleasantly surprised.
Just opposite of Friterie Tabora is a chocolate shop L’Ame Du Chocolat where we shopped for some chocolate souvenirs to take back home.
Next we took a metro from Brussels Central station to Schuman Metro Station. Close to this station is the Parc du Cinquantenaire or Jubelpark.
On our walk back to Schuman metro stop we passed by Berlaymont building, headquarters of the European Commission.
Next we took the metro back to our hotel and after checking out took the train to Brussels Airport where we were spending a night at the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel. We flew to Saint Petersburg early next day.