Brussels
Capital Of Belgium And Seat Of The European Union; Its Grand Place Is A UNESCO World Heritage Site (1998), And Victor Horta'S Art Nouveau Town Houses Are Another (2000) · Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region
Brussels (Bruxelles in French, Brussel in Dutch) is the capital of Belgium and the main seat of the European Union, an officially bilingual city where you will mostly hear French on the street and see every sign in both languages. It grew from a medieval river trading town into the seat of the Dukes of Brabant and later the Habsburg Netherlands, and its heart, the Grand-Place, with its gilded guild houses and Gothic Town Hall, is often called one of the finest squares in Europe and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. People come for that square, for the Art Nouveau houses of Victor Horta, the Old Masters and Magritte on the Mont des Arts, the comic-strip murals, the flea market of the Marolles, the EU quarter, and for beer, frites, waffles and chocolate eaten on the spot. The Atomium in the north of the city has its own row. The honest caveat: Brussels is not pretty everywhere - the centre is a patchwork of grand and shabby, streets can be dirty, construction sites are common, the big stations attract pickpockets, and it rains in every month.
The Grand-Place (Grote Markt) and the historic centre of Brussels, with the Mont des Arts and the Sablon a short walk uphill, Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium
The city never closes, but its museums keep a firm rhythm: most federal and city museums open Tuesday to Sunday and close on Mondays, including the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, the Magritte Museum, the Musical Instruments Museum and the Horta Museum - check each current schedule. The Grand-Place and the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert are open at all hours, and shops keep roughly 10 am to 6 or 7 pm, with many closed on Sundays outside the centre. Getting there: Eurostar trains reach Brussels-Midi from Paris in about 1.5 hours and from London in about 2 hours; Brussels Airport is roughly 20 minutes by SNCB/NMBS train to Brussels-Central; Charleroi airport is about an hour by coach. Inside the city, STIB/MIVB metro, trams and buses take contactless cards. Book ahead for the Horta Museum (timed tickets, often sold out days ahead), Eurostar fares and hotels on flower-carpet and Christmas-market weekends.