Weekend #4 of European Living: Brussels, Belgium

Weekend Adventures: Brussels

(July 2-4, 2010)

As you know from our last weekend post, our great pal, Juan Jose Perez, planned a European adventure around a week-long Microsoft training program. Since Juan was flying into Zurich and flying out of Brussels, and we had such a great time in Brienz, why not see him two weekends in a row?!
 
Preston flew to meet Juan Thursday afternoon. Let's just say Preston looked like he had finally recovered from Thursday around 5pm on Sunday ...
 
After work Friday I flew in from Geneva and the weekend fun (at least for me!) really began. I took the *bus* to the airport (first time venturing with public transport to an airport and it was easy-breezy from the Expedia office - the #10 straight to the airport) and had a lovely flight via Brussels Air. The airline even offered free wine and a meal on the hour-long flight. Amazing.


Even more amazing? I just walked across the terminal to the hotel. Juan was in training near the airport and he decided to stay at the Sheraton there; so we booked at the same spot to be close to our pal (it worked out really well). 


When I arrived the boys (looking terrible from Thursday night) were in the hotel lobby bar with Juan's new friend from training, Micael. Micael is from Stockholm and I think he's recruited Preston to go fast car driving with him throughout Europe. He also gave me good pointers for holding Expedia meetings, "If they are unsure about you, the American marketing girl, and they give you grief just say, 'Hold on one moment ...' and come back with a bottle of Veuve ... Everyone's happy." Needless to say, we all love Micael.


We left the hotel bar at halftime of the Uruguay/Ghanna World Cup match and headed in to town. We went to a square packed with outdoor tables and people cheering on the match via a cab with incredible technology. Through the gps system the driver was streaming live tv. Wow.


We hung out at a bar called Coco and watched the momumental game (Juan's parents are from Uruguay which made it even more awesome). The best player on the Uruguay team got a red card for preventing a goal via his hands at the end of the game and it went to a shoot out. When Uruguay pulled off the win, we were all speechless.

We had a late dinner at Zywieg's and sat outside. We shared a table with three guys that live in Brussels and a South American character ("my son-in-law has the unfortunate disability of being an Argentinian") that lives in Washington, D.C. He does business in Geneva so we got talking about the city and all its rules ("children are brought up to learn 'no' before all else", the "no flush" after 10pm rule, etc.). The guys from Brussels were saying Geneva is the Singapore of Europe (and while they were at it, the French are the Argentinians of Europe!).


We slept in Saturday (Preston needed it from Thursday!) and took a ridiculously old train for $13 (one way!) to the center of town. Let's just say Brussels is my new favorite European city despite its old train system. We walked around the gorgeous Grand Place, had a Belgian waffle at Aroma Cafe, shopped in cute boutiques and hid underneath the table umbrellas with espresso as the rain showers passed.

We bought more tourist umbrellas (a regular occurrence since moving to Europe) and when the rain got really bad, ran into a French bistro for a glass of wine. Love Brussels!


Our day of being tourists continued and we visited the famous Manneken Pis (little boy peeing). How cute is he?!

Next we hit Brussels' third most famous landmark, the Atonium. The Atonium was built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair and is 102 meters tall. Like the Eiffel Tower, it wasn't supposed to be a permanent structure; but today Atonium it is a symbol of both modern architecture and Brussels. 


On the grounds there we also visited Mini Europe and saw the top EU landmarks 1:25 scale. Preston commented the monuments in Mini Europe are looking a bit tired these days though!

Saturday night we ventured back to the same square we were in Friday and had a great dinner at Coco (which, obviously, began with a bottle of Veuve).

After dinner we wandered into the Belgian EU Presidency celebration, aka the "I heart EU" concert. It was a free show with singers, dancers and acrobats. We even got a pre-Fourth of July fireworks show courtesy of the event.

We started Sunday with some moules frites in Grand Place and even found the "Jeanneke Pis" the little girl counterpoint to Mannekin Pis (although she's super hidden within the city) ... 

As if Brussels could get any better, Sunday's real activity was venturing back to Atonium to watch the TOUR DE FRANCE!!  We spent the day with our friend Stephanie, who's boyfriend is Washington's own Tyler Farrar. This tour is Tyler's second with Team Garmin and we were so excited to watch our friend be favored to win the stage (after finishing seventh in the prologue Saturday!).

Unfortunately another cyclist got caught up in Tyler's bike in the waning meters of the stage and Tyler didn't win. But we'll obviously be rooting for him throughout the rest of the tour (and it makes bike racing a lot more fun when you know a major contender!). 


Preston and I ran back to the airport where Juan met us with Starbucks and promised he'd be back soon to visit with Krystal. Thanks for two awesome European weekend adventures, Juan!

Complete photo album here: Two European weekends with Juan Jose 


*******
Weekend Trip to Brussels, Belgium
Dates:
Friday – Sunday, July 2-4, 2010

Excursions:

• Saturday: Walk around Grand Place, visit to the Mannekin Pis, shopping in Brussels, visit to the Atonium, walk through Mini Europe, dinner at Coco on Place du Luxembourg and Belgian EU President celebration on the Esplanade in front of the European Parliament
• Sunday: Back to Grand Place, visit to Jeanneke Pis, tour through the inside of the Atonium, Tour de France Stage 1 with Stephanie, bye to Juan at the Brussels airport

Where we stayed:

Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel

The Walls' Review:

Hotel review: The hotel really couldn't have been more conveniently located in proximity to the airport (I didn't even walk in an uncovered spot from the terminal to check-in). The hotel was very clean and the hotel bar makes a great martini! The one thing we would recommend when staying in an airport hotel is ask for a room as far from the elevator as possible. While we were staying relatively near the end of the hallway, we still heard all of the early morning travelers trying to rush out to catch their flights. Stay further away from the elevator for a restful night's sleep. 

Other comments: I heart Brussels. Oh, and I would love to return for the flower carpet (it only happens every two years in August) in Grand Place.