Taking the train from Ghent, I went right to my hotel, the IBIS Brussels City Center, to store my backpack. It was a convenient location but the rooms were very tiny and the bathroom worse. I definitely do not recommend; I think most of the IBIS hotels have very small rooms.

Recommendations

My first morning in town I found the Banksy Museum and spent about 90 minutes here enjoying his art before picking up lunch and going to my afternoon walking tour.

Close to the Royal Palace, the Royal Museums of Fine Art contains both the Magritte Museum and Old Masters Museum in a beautiful building.

I visited the Parc du Bruxelles after.

I met for my walking tour in Grand Place. We visited the Mannequin Pis statue. I saw this decades ago but had forgotten how small it was. Like many other tourist attractions throughout the world, you wonder why it is famous. I did learn that he gets 20-30 outfits throughout the year. I saw some examples for sale in a store nearby but the official costumes are stored in a Brussels museum.

I walked over to the beautiful and huge Parc du Cinquantenaire. There is the Statue for Unity, the Royal Museums of Armed Forces and Military History, the Victory Arch, and the Monument aux Pionniers Belges au Congo.

When walking back to old town I saw the Palace of the Nation. Built from 1778 to 1783, the neoclassical building now houses the Belgian Federal Parliament. I also saw many buildings of the EU Commission.

On the walk back from the parks, I stopped in Sint Michael and Sint Gudula Cathedral. Not as ornate or decorated as some of the churches but beautiful windows.

I visited Sint-Nicholas Kirche. The original church at the site dates from the 12th c but was rebuilt in the 16th and 17th c and restored recently. I also visited Eglise Sainte Catherine d’Alexandrie.

I probably would have made time for a visit to the Belgian Beer World, formerly the stock exchange, if it hadn’t been the Belgian Beer Weekend. I certainly didn’t need more beer but the museum sounds interesting,

Halles Saint-Gery, the former indoor market is now an exhibition space and has restaurants and shops. It is an interesting Renaissance style, lot of metal and glass, built in 1881-82. I stopped in after my walking tour to see the building and had a beer at one of the restaurants to rest my feet.

The Atomium has been the symbol of Brussels since the 1958 World’s Fair. I saw it on a short layover in Brussels years ago but had never visited. It represents an iron crystal (with nine atoms). I took escalators and stairs to the various lower atoms, showing exhibits of the building and design and the World’s Fair. Once returning to the lowest level, I took the central elevator to the very top with excellent views of the area.

What I really enjoyed was walking around the monument and seeing all the interesting views; there so many ways the atoms lined up depending on where I was standing.

I visited on a Saturday, which I do NOT recommend. There were about 50 buses dropping off visitors and it was extremely crowded. I took the metro out to the Heizel station, then it’s a short walk.

The Atomium ticket included admission to the nearby Design Museum. I made a short visit before returning to the subway to downtown. There is an interesting section on plastic design and another large exhibit on Belgian design.

The Belgian Beer Weekend was the weekend I was in Brussels. Lucky timing for me! I spent an hour here Friday afternoon and then a couple hours Saturday evening, too. Free entry. They have a convenient way for paying; you add funds to a card. They charge that and include a glass deposit fee. You get that fee added back when returning the glass. And via the website, you could track your totals and see how much was left from your initial purchase and add more.

Restaurants