Exploring Brussels in 2022

Exploring Brussels in 2022

Experience, Travel

The long-awaited summer trip to Belgium after 2 years of waiting to unite in Europe, Hema and I traveled to Brussels. We got to know Brussels in and out because of our 5D-4N trip. We left no stones (places) un-turned, except a couple of boring museums. 😜 Since we had plenty of time, we made the most out of our trip. We explored the city across its length and breadth, from the Grand Place in the center, to the iconic Atomium. We visited the Parlamentarium of EU, the Guinness record holding Delirium Cafe, Churches, museums and more.

Day 1


After long and careful planning which included our flights to and from Belgium, our accommodation in Airbnb and the list of all places one must visit in Brussels, on the 22nd of August 2020, we left our apartment in Modena, to catch the 15:50 flight from Bologna Guglielmo Marconi International Airport. Me, being overly cautious about timing, and partly also because of the fear of missing the flight, I hurried myself and Hema to reach the airport way before the usual 1-hour precedence.

And to our dissatisfaction the boarding started after a delay of 40 minutes. It was not a big deal after all we were chatting, giggling, and having fun as always during the wait. Anyway, we boarded the flight and spent 11/2 hours before we reached Brussels Charleroi International Airport.

From there, we quickly took a shuttle bus to reach the city center. Then a 15 min walk, we arrived at our room, which was little far from the center, but a good one, nevertheless. It was cute tiny room in the attic with a study desk and a soft bed along with a vertical swivel window overlooking the suburban part of the city. Immediately after refreshing, we headed straight to the city center. Boy, oh boy, it was a long walk, longer than I anticipated.

The first thing we try was the famous Belgian waffles and along with fries, enjoying a beautiful view from the center of Grote Markt (Grand Place). The historic buildings with their golden highlights and bright focus lights were a delight to watch while we much away our waffles and fries.


Day 2

This was one of the most exciting part of the trip. After getting a day pass, which was about 8 Euros, that included the buses, trams, and the metros, we headed off towards Heysel Park. It took us 20 minutes on a metro to get there. It was that far from the city center. But once we were there, this amazing structure made of steel and alminium stood there magestically. It was the Atomium. Built as a temporrary structure to host the World Expo from 17 April to 19 October 1958. It was the first major world’s fair registered under the Bureau International des Expositions after World War II.

As it kept attracting more and more tourists, they never demolished and over the years it became an iconic symbol of Belgium itself. The structure, if you notice, is like a ferrite molecule and the iron atoms are the shiny spheres at the corners. Hema and I went straight to the top-most sphere to get a panoramic view of the Brussels city. It also had a small restaurant/cafe inside it. After a quick beer and desert, we moved on the individual spheres one by one. All of them seems like a museum except the temporary exhibit, which was psychedelic light show which took our breath away.

After spending maybe around 1 hour looking at all the artifacts from the time the Atomium was build and some interesting exhibits of art, we moved to the next attraction in our list. We got down from the Atomium and grabbed ourselves some Belgium Fries and relaxed near the Atomium’s exit before we moved to Mini-Europe. Mini-Europe is a miniature park located in Bruparck, at the foot of the Atomium, in Brussels, Belgium. Mini-Europe has reproductions of monuments in the European Union and other countries within the continent of Europe on display, at a scale of 1:25. Roughly 80 cities and 350 buildings are represented

To name a few, the leaning tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower of Paris, City Hall of Stockholm, Acropolis of Athens and much more. It’s a must see attraction when you are visiting Belgium.

From there, we went to the city center in search of the oldest shopping mall of Belgium, Galeries Royales Saint Hubert. We were confused with the way google maps for pointing directions. As we were walking towards it, it said that we had reached our destination, but we couldn’t believe it. It didn’t look like a shopping mall nor were anyone shopping there. So, we decided to go old school and ask people for directions.

To our surprise we found out that we were actually in the shopping mall and just didn’t realize it. The lack of crowd and prominent name board was the reason we missed it. The mall has jewellery stores, luxury boutiques, Belgium Chocolate makers’ showrooms, cafes & restaurants and more. We barely spent 15 minutes in the gallery and we took a bus from there to Place Poelaert. It was almost 7.30 ish when we reached Place Poelaert which housed a giant wheel called ‘The View’. Fitting to its name, the giant wheel gave the people boarding it a view of the Brussels skyline. The city filled with lights was a delight to watch from the spacious pod of the giant wheel.

After spending some time around the wheel, it headed towards our airbnb room. It was too late and only couple of buses left for the day, and yet while returning through the city center we could feel the city alive and people still enjoying the night life.


Day 3

The most informative day that I ever had was this day. Today Hema and I went to the Parlamentarium in Brussels. This building houses the EU’s parliament. There is also a museum in the vicinity or campus if you will. The entry to these places were completely free. But you need a reservation. I can’t remember his name, but there was this German guy who also did not have a reservation, who was kind enough to help us with the reservation. It took him maybe 10 minutes to enter all our information and get a reservation ticket generated.

After passing through strict security, we were all given a device and use-and-throw earphones. This device would be the personal tour guide. So, this device guided us to walk through the building and get around different places, and as we did, it kept filling us with the history and information of what it is that we were looking at. Quite an interesting and smart way to manage the visitors. As you see in the picture above, I’m standing in front of a picture of the Hemicycle. The Hemicycle, which is what it is called because of its hemi-spherical construction, is where the parliament sessions take place.

People are seated not by country but by their political orientation. Elected representatives of each EU member countries were seated from left to right based on the typical left-wing—right-wing. Then we moved on the museum with lots of historical background about the Europe, the politics of world wars and the origins of the European Union. These were in the form of live interactive models which engages the visitors and makes it much more exciting.

Though it was interesting, it was too much for half-a-day and we were getting hungry by the minute. It was well past 2 hours after noon, so we got out of there and found ourselves a Hawaiian restaurant pretty close to the Parlamentarium. It was called the Hawaiian Poke Bowl. Hema took a customized veggie bowl with tofu garnished with chili-flakes and mayonnaise whereas I took a

chicken bowl with extra nachos and onions. I really loved the meal. It was so satisfying and filling. Unfortunately, Hema did not share the same feeling. I think she really hated the sea-weed type/plant thingy that felt a bit chewy.

Next, we headed towards the comic art museum or at least that’s where we thought were going. We, instead, ended up going to the Marc Sleen comic strip museum thinking it was the comic art museum. Not to our surprise, there wasn’t much happening there. Nevertheless, we did spend about 30 minutes there looking at his comic strips and some art works. Very close to the comic strip museum was the Notre Dame Du Sablon cathedral. We took a quick look inside and came back. I wasn’t much impressed by the architecture because, hey, I have seen the Milan’s majestic cathedral, and this was nothing compared to it. Maybe it would have been impressed if I got to know the history behind.

From there we walked to the city center in search of Delirium Café. The one and only café for holding the Guinness world record for having the most variety of beers in the world. They have about 2004 varieties of beers. As a humble beer enthusiast, I tried their best selling Bar-Meter which has 10 of their best served in small beer glasses on a long wooden plank.

I only hoped Hema could have given company to me. But we did have a nice chat about random things as always. Anyway, after I was a little buzzed, we came back to our room and spend some more time in a cafe at the corner of a junction. You can see the view from that café in the picture below.


Day 4

When Hema and I were planning our Belgium trip, Day 4 was supposed to be Antwerp. We even decided to make a visit to the zoo. But after 3 days of exploring, we were tried and did not want to spend more again on train, accommodation + the efforts to find accommodation. So, we decide that we will explore more in Brussels. That lead us to visit the science museum under the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science in Brussels. We reached the museum at around 11. The entrance and the building looked unusually boring, and I thought we would end up wasting this day.

To my surprise, this was by far one of the most amazing museums that I have ever been to. There are 10 permanent and 1 temporary exhibitions. The ‘Gallery of Humankind’ has an elaborate collection of artifacts and exhibits showcasing the journey of humankind. From Sahelanthropus to Homo sapiens, from embryo to adult, one could explore the human evolution and body. The ‘Living Planet’ represents more than 850 specimens displayed on 2,000m2 (from the giraffe to the koala and the aphid), 3D models that we can touch, visual media, audio interviews and interactive, recreational and educational animations. In the ‘Dinosaur Gallery’ we saw how the Olorotitan died, learn how fossils are formed and challenge a virtual Pachycephalosaurus.

In the ‘Gallery of Evolution’ we travel through billions of years of the Earth’s history, stopping off at six key moments in the evolution of life on earth: the Cambrian explosion, the proliferation of aquatic life during the Devonian era, the conquest of land during the Carboniferous period, the swarming seas of the Jurassic era, the appearance of mammals in the Eocene period, and the impact of humans in the present day. The ‘BiodiverCITY’ is a gallery with specimens, photos, films and interactive installations help to explain what biodiversity in the city entails. In the ‘250 Years of Natural Sciences’ are the fantastic results of memorable scientific expeditions, unusual excavations, moving events and remarkable specimens that trace the evolution of this museum. The list goes on.  

Hema and I spent almost about 5 hours in the museum and yet we felt it was insufficient. I would recommend anyone going to this museum to spend 1 whole day. After biding adieu to this amazing museum, we were so tired, we wanted to go back to our Airbnb. But then, I had this sudden craving for Indian food.

And found the closed and the most popular Indian restaurant in the vicinity. It was a south Indian joint called Ganesh Restaurant. This restaurant actually had a Tamil proprietor whom we couldn’t meet that day. Nevertheless, we had a proper south Indian food, Dosa with different chutneys and a plate of chicken tikka sided by a glass of beer and lemonade.

A satisfying day overall. The bed in our Airbnb was calling us telepathically. So, we obliged. Before we called it a day, Hema and I did a preparation with our stuffs so that its easier to check out the next day.


Day 5

We had an afternoon flight, but we had to checkout from our Airbnb at 10AM. So left our room with our luggage and went to straight to the airport. It was an overcast day with light drizzles on and off. We had Belgian fries for one last time before we leave. There was busy food cart selling just that. We munched off our fries and got to the terminal and spent a good couple of hours chatting about random stuff.

We reached Bologna at around 7.30PM and took a bus and reached Modena at 8.30PM. With aching feet and slowly inched towards our home and before we knew it, we were on our beds. This summer trip was truly amazing. Hema and I thoroughly enjoyed it.


Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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