48 hours in Brussels

We spent last weekend in Brussels, the "capital of Europe" as it's home of the European Union and the European Parliament. I've always wanted to go there (been there once about 10 years ago but can't remember a thing). When I discovered a pretty good hotel deal on the internet, I booked immediately. We got there by train from the middle of Germany in just about 6 hours. And I have to say, it's been a great trip as you can see...

The best place to start your tour of Brussels ist the so-called "Grand Place", where the most beautiful buildings are. There, everything's just bubbling, and - despite the many tourists - it has a great atmosphere. The big building is the town hall by the way.

Here's the town hall again, it's beautiful day and night. 

All in all, Brussels is a city that really feels multicultural, not just because of the many modern buildings of the European Union (which we visited but I didn't take photos of). Brussels itself is bilingual, so all the signs, menus and so on are in French and Flemish. Besides, there are so many tourists from all over the world and also, there are obviously living many foreigners in the city. We visited a bazar-like street where you get the feeling like you're in Northern Africa. Wherever you go there's always a mixture of different languages in your ear...

We didn't visit any museums. Doing that we could've spent many more days in Brussels, however as Brussels is not that big we figured that 48 hours is enough to get to know the city a bit, see the main parts and find out what the city feels like. (In my mind, every city I visit has got a special feeling and that's what I'm after when I'm going to a new city - to catch that particular feeling).

Typical Belgian food are chocolates and waffles. We had a lot of those which were really yum!

And of course, Belgium is famous for its fries (often with mussels). I loved the fries but didn't have any mussels because I'm not particularly fond of mussels.

Another great treat is the Belgian Beer. There are many different kinds and I especially enjoyed the cherry beer and the peach beer. The "Geuze" which is typical for Brussels wasn't really for me, however I think you could get used to it...

As "real tourists" we also took a city tour by bus and visited the famous Atomium which is a heavily enlarged iron atom. Inside the spheres, there are several view points and exhibitions which are connected by escalators and stairs inside the tubes.
 

More impressions... 

So I hope you like my first traveling post. Oh, and "Happy Midsummer" (it's Midsommar in Sweden) by the way!