City guide - Brussels

Published on Sunday 11 March 2007 00:59

THE home of European bureaucracy is also home to an enviable lifestyle - vintage cafés, art-nouveau architecture and picturesque Christmas markets.

Before you go The Everyman MapGuide for Brussels (5.99) is easy to use and www.brussels-international.be has tourist information. For more on art nouveau in Brussels, see www.bruxellesartnouveau.be.

When to go For a winter or early-spring break, Brussels has the advantage of innumerable gorgeous cafs to snuggle up in, plus historical shopping arcades and absorbing museums to amuse you if the weather is unkind. Christmas markets are another lure during December.

Planes, trains and automobiles BMI (0870 607 0555, www.flybmi.com) flies from Edinburgh to Brussels from 106 return.

Getting Around The Brussels Card (www.brusselscard.be), which costs 30 for 72 hours, includes free travel on the metro, trams and buses and gets you into museums free or at a discount.

Tourist trail The Grand Place is the city's showpiece, a perfect cobbled square fronted by baroque guildhouses and the filigree Htel de Ville. Stop for beer or coffee at any of the cafs - La Brouette does the best hot chocolate and has a roaring fire. Then stroll through the Galeries Royales St Hubert, a glass-roofed 19th-century arcade, and on to the cartoon museum, Centre Belge de la Bande Dessine, at 20 rue des Sables. Exhibitions are in French, but the shop is fun and the building was designed by art-nouveau genius Victor Horta. Continuing uphill to Place Royal, you can choose either the ancient or modern collections at the Muses Royaux des Beaux-Arts (www.fine-arts-museum.be), at 3 rue de la Rgence.

Along rue de la Rgence is Ntre Dame du Sablon, with its glorious stained-glass windows. Above it, Place du Petit Sablon is a tiny formal park; just downhill is the caf-lined Place du Grand Sablon, where the bourgeoisie congregate for the weekend antiques market. The best seats are outside Wittamer's patisserie; the dress code, at this time of the year at least, is fur coat and designer shades. Explore the antique shops and small galleries in the arcades and side-streets, then head along Rue Haute and take the elevator up to admire the views from the Palais du Justice. Once you're in the upper town, make for the Muse Horta (www.hortamuseum. be), at 20 rue Amricaine. This was Horta's superbly decorated home, where the rooms flow around a central staircase lit by a stained-glass skylight.

Go native Place Sainte Catherine was formerly the city's docks - the River Senne flows beneath the square but was covered over after a cholera epidemic in 1866. The pretty gabled buildings here are still the best place for seafood restaurants. The streets nearby, particularly rue Antoine Dansaert, are home to many new clothes boutiques and excellent bars.

What to buy Leonidas is the best mid-range chain for Belgian chocolates, but for pure glamour take a look at Pierre Marcolini, at 1 rue des Minimes, on the Sablon. The Italian-made hats, bags and gloves for sale at S en Ciel, near the lift up to the Palais de Justice, are worth a look too.

Night life Tradition has it that Belgian bars don't close if customers are still ordering. La Mort Subite, at 7 rue Montagne aux Herbes Potagres, stocks 600 locally brewed beers. Falstaff, at 17 rue Henri Maus, exudes old-fashioned glamour with its wood-and-mirror interior. At the heart of the thriving St Gery district, Fin de Sicle, at 9 rue des Cartreux, is a bar-restaurant with great beers and an ebullient young crowd.

Where to stay Although formerly a prison, Hotel Amigo (www. roccofortehotels.com), at 1 rue de l'Amigo, is now classically elegant and fabulously located - just steps from the Grand Place. Double rooms start from 189 a night. Nearby, at 25 Rue de la Madeleine, is the beautiful Le Dixseptime (www.ledixseptieme.be), a boutique-scale townhouse conversion. B&B in a double room costs from 140 a night.

Where to eat At 15 Grand Place, 'T Kelderke (00 32 2 513 7344) serves traditional Belgian food in an atmospheric cellar. Just off the square, at 2 rue des Harengs, an art-nouveau butcher's shop is now the delightful Osteria l'Ombra. Vismet (00 32 2 218 8545), at 23 Place Sainte Catherine, is a modern take on local seafood restaurants. Le Pain Quotidien, at 11 rue des Sablons, is good for leisurely brunches.

Can you drink the water? The water is fine, but French-speakers might find translating numbers a little strange. If something costs septante or nonante euros, it means 70 or 90 respectively; the Belgians have wisely simplified the French system.

Readers' tips

Brussels

Brussels calls itself the City of Beer and there's certainly plenty of it about. Be warned, though - the fruit beers are very good, but they are deceptively strong.

Karen Hunter, Strachur

There are loads of cool gay bars and cafs here and most of them are around the Grand Place. Some of them turn into straight bars at the weekend, though.

Ed McPherson, Perth

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