Family Fun in Europe, Part 4: Brussels

This is my fourth post about our family's 2024 trip to Europe. I recommend starting with the first, second, and third posts. 

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Brussels, Belgium

On Tuesday, July 16, after three great days in the Netherlands, it was time to pack up and head to our next country: Belgium. 

Remember that I told you we limited ourselves to one roll-aboard and one small backpack each for 3 weeks of European travel? Our experience getting from Amsterdam to Brussels is the perfect example of why. When we walked from our Amsterdam hotel to the Metro that would take us downtown to the train station, this is what we saw: commuters, as far as the eye could see. 

Can you imagine trying to wrangle extra suitcases in a Metro train that crowded with commuters? It would have been impossible. We each managed our own bags, which was enough of a challenge. When we got to the train station, not only were there a lot of people there, but we didn't know where we were going. The fact that we could each handle our own luggage was critical in efficiently getting to the correct platform. 

Once we were on the Eurostar, we put our bags into the overhead compartments and relaxed in the comfy seats for the 2-hour journey to Belgium. 

It was raining lightly when we got to Brussels.

Not a big deal, but it made our 1-mile walk to our hotel a little less pleasant. Note that Trevor is carrying two roll-aboard suitcases. The larger one is my mom's. Trevor took her suitcase so that she could better manage the slick brick sidewalks. While Steve, Trevor, Mom, and I walked, the others took an Uber. We beat them by half an hour. 

We checked in for three nights at the Hilton Garden Inn City Centre. Once again, staying a short (but walkable) distance from the heart of the city meant that we got much more space for much less money. The 2-bedroom, 1-bath apartment-style room was a great fit for our family. 

We dropped our luggage at the hotel, then walked around the corner for lunch at Toast & Tarte. I had what was essentially a ratatouille with burrata and arugula on toasted housemade bread, a side salad, and rhubarb soda. It was incredible. Seriously one of the best things I've ever had. 

This is their french toast, which multiple family members ordered. Everything at Toast & Tarte was outstanding. 

By the time we finished lunch, the morning rain had ended. We walked half a mile to the impressive Palace of Justice.

There, we boarded a hop-on-hop-off bus to get a basic introduction to Brussels. We'd never used Toot Bus before. I definitely recommend them. We had interesting narration during the tour and got to see most of Brussels' most famous and important sites during the 2 hour and 20 minute loop.

Before this tour, I didn't realize that the European Union has a capital city. Technically, Brussels is the "Capital of the European Union" in quotation marks, a de facto capital, and not an official one.

 

The European Quarter houses most of the EU agencies. The flags flying in this area are EU flags, not Belgian ones. 

This must be the border of the European Quarter. That’s the Belgian flag on the left, EU on the right. 

I love the everyday details you see when traveling. Even something as basic as a crosswalk can draw my attention. Brussels has significantly fewer bikes than Amsterdam, yet Brussels' bike lanes are much better marked. See that pedestrian spilling over from the crosswalk to the bike lane? Good thing it's Brussels - in Amsterdam, at least 3 bikes would have hit him already after a cheery "ding ding" of their bike bells. I exaggerate, of course.

Brussels has a lot of impressive buildings. And a lot of statues. 

  

  

Part of the purpose of the HOHO was to figure out our priorities for the following day. We wouldn't be able to see everything up close, so getting a look at the major attractions from the bus helped us finalize Wednesday's plan. 

  

This ferris wheel, called The View, was our signal that we were back at the Palace of Justice and had completed the loop. 

We hopped off, walked back to our hotel, and began the process of figuring out what to have for dinner. The restaurant needed to be an easy walk from the hotel, accommodate a variety of culinary restrictions (including Allison's nut allergy), and able to seat our large group in a reasonable amount of time. We settled on Al Piccolo Mondo. 

The food was outstanding. I had the gnocchi. It was literally the best gnocchi I've ever had, and I've had a lot of good gnocchi. 

This was interesting. We ordered waters around, which in Europe means glass bottles of water (that you pay for) are placed on the table. We experienced this at every place we ate in the Netherlands. What we didn't experience anywhere else, was receiving a large bowl of ice with our bottles of water. I don't know if that is unique to this restaurant or if they assumed (correctly) that, as Americans, we like ice with our drinks and brought it to us unsolicited. Trevor was struggling to transfer slippery ice cubes to his glass with the small spoon, so I took his picture. Hence the expression. 

  

After a long and leisurely dinner, we had a short yet leisurely walk back to our hotel. We were excited about the following day's plans. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.