24 HOURS IN BRUSSELS

I was not excited or mentally prepared for this trip. It was January 20th and since Thanksgiving, I’d either been traveling or hosting straight through, and even without those factors the weekend’s schedule was daunting. We were traveling/sleeping in buses or airports both Thursday and Saturday night, and only had accommodation booked for Friday. My outlook was more defeated exhaustion than one of energetic excitement. Add in that I had not heard the best things about Brussels, and those 30 euro return tickets started to feel like more trouble than they were worth.

But! I was so wrong! Belgium was amazing. I had heard Brussels was pretty boring but Bruges would be like a fairytale, and while the latter was correct, I loved Brussels! The international vibe, the gorgeous architecture, the super nice people, the bilingual population, and also THE FOOD. So much chocolate. So many frites. And the waffles. Man, those waffles. Brussels is a chocolate and beer lovers heaven on earth.

Also we were there during Trump’s inauguration. There were trilingual protests and a fantastic women’s drumming band from Spain.

Brussels, BelgiumBrussels, Belgium

We only had a day to spend in this amazing city, and while knowing what I know now I wish I had planned more time there, I think we had a good itinerary for the time we had. Check out my itinerary for 24 hours in Brussels below.

Itinerary

First thing in the morning, head towards Grand Place. We took some pictures of the amazing square, and at this time of day the sun is out and makes the gold buildings shine in such an incredible way. It’s also central to everywhere else you’ll want to go.

Brussels, Belgium

From there walk just around the corner to Maison Dandoy, which is SUPER cute and delicious. It has an upstairs that feels like you’re sitting in someone’s living room, and it is a great place for your first waffle experience.

And as delicious as those waffles are, one isn’t nearly enough, but that’s perfect because it leaves room for Fritland, which is AMAZING. Man do they give you an insane amount of insanely delicious frites. Not going to lie, I ate an entire order all on my own. And it was so worth it. Fritland is again, just around the corner.

Brussels, Belgium

After that you can wander around the area a bit heading towards Au Bon Vieux Temps, which is the oldest bar in Brussels, open for over 300 years. On the way, check out some chocolate shops, because that chocolate is amazing. The bar really actually looked like an old bar, and you could feel the history. That said, they were playing 80s pop pretty loudly, so the ambience was a bit compromised, haha. Here we took a little break, had some delicious beer, and discussed how surprised we were with how much we like the city. Maybe our expectations were really low, but we were all really enchanted.

Brussels, Belgium

Then you have time to wander through Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, which was gorgeous but pretty expensive. My camera died, but the window displays were incredibly creative and artistic, well worth the trip. There is also a bookstore that I really wanted to check out, but we didn’t have time to stop in. If you like books, I’d check out both that and Muntpunt, a library and information center, as it is one of the coolest and most unique libraries I’ve been to.

From there, you’re right next to street full of restaurants, but most have people out front trying to force you inside. I don’t trust/like this method, and we ended up going to Chez Leon which didn’t have anyone peddling out front. I highly recommend it! The place looked small but was actually huge, made up of about 10 different cozy rooms connected by maze like hallways. The food was delicious and there was a wide variety of prices on the menu. We got the mussels, which were incredible. If you go, get the mussels.

If you feel like an after dinner walk, Grand Place is beautiful lit up at night, and well worth the quick stroll.

After that we headed back to our hostel, Meininger Hotel, which I also recommend. The common areas were really lively, there was a bar, a kitchen, and our rooms were comfortable and well designed (each bed had a plug and a personal light). At $25 a night in the city center, it’s fairly priced, and they also let us hang in the common room until 4 am on our last night, even though we hadn’t booked a room. We had an early night partly because we hadn’t slept at all the night before, but also because we were waking up early the next day to go to Bruges!

Like I said, I hadn’t expected much from Brussels, and while I do think we got a great feel for the city and saw the most important parts, looking back I would have planned to stay longer. I wanted to check out the flea market and the EU Parliament. Guess it’s just another city I’ll have no choice but to return to!

(feature photo source)