Brussels (Part 3)

Day 3 : Flea Market - Les Sablons - Grand Sablon – Plaise de Justice – Grand Place

• Place du Jeu de Balle Market in Marolles – The flea market opens each day from 7am to 2pm. It offers everything from the weird to the wonderful at rock-bottom prices. It was a much more exciting place to shop – sorry I love shopping! But it’s also a great place just to look around. Really great market full of stalls selling bric-a-brac. I bought four ornated antique mini cups and saucers here for 25 Euros.
  
  
  
  
  
• The market started to close around 1pm and we stopped by Cafe La Brocante (Rue Blaes 170 - near the market) for lunch. Again it was another good meal! Apparently they carry the beer Westvleteren 12 which is meant to be the best beer in the world.

  

  [ Cafe near the market ]

  

  [ My lunch ]

  
  
  
• Antique shops – After lunch, we walked down the cobbled hill via the Rue Haute and Rue Blaesto towards Grand Sablon. These two streets are full of antique shops with interesting merchandise – some big pieces art deco style furniture and small home decorations. We basically spent most of the afternoon window shopping here. 
  

  
• Chocolate tasting in Grand Sablon – Apart from beers, mussels and fries. Belgium is also famous for their chocolates. Our first visit to a professional chocolatier was at Pierre Marcolini's. We sampled a few pieces and bought a few chocolate bars here. Then we bought a whole box from Wittamer because they were much cheaper but equally good. We also stopped at Wittamer Café (Place du Grand Sablon 6) for afternoon tea. 

  

  [ Pierre Marcolini ]

  
• Palais de Justice – Very grand looking court house situated at a high point where it is the best place to admire the view of the city.

  

  [ Flemish architecture ]

  
  
  
  
• Grand Place – The most notable landmark in Brussels. Surrounded by guildhalls, the Town Hall and the King’s House, it’s probably the most beautiful square in the world. The nearby Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert is a quaint shopping arcades house a whole variety of boutiques.
  

  

  [ Grand Palace ]
• We had beers at Le Roys, the city’s oldest ‘café’ in the square and my first bottle of frambois (raspberry) beer was thirst-quenching.
• We had dinner in the lively Ilôt Sacré area near the Grand Place. The whole area is full of many restaurants and bars. We had moules frites (yes again) in Chez Leon. What a great dish and I just didn’t get enough of it!! The restaurant was really busy and their moules frites were even better than Chez Patrick. Highly recommend even though their web site looks a bit cheesy!
  

  

Day 4 : Atomium - Ilôt Sacré

• Another famous landmark is the futuristic-looking museum built in 1958. Atomium is situated in the outskirts of Brussels (Metro Heysel/Heizel). It was a very hot day when we were there and it’s quite a walk from the metro station to the museum. The museum sits near a huge park and at the time of our visit, there was going to be a big music festival there. We didn’t visit inside the ‘spheres’ as it didn’t has air-conditioning. Something you don’t want to do on a hot day even though I probably won’t be going back again! However, it looked amazing from the outside. I have seen nothing like it.
  

  

  
• Ilôt Sacré – The area has a different vibe during the day. Restaurants here were packed with tourists at lunch time. Rue des Bouchers (butcher’s street), the home of the Manneken-pis (the pissing boy statue), still bears many testimonies of the past. It has lots of beautiful stepped gables and curls, and ancient doors mostly dating from the 17th century. Across the statue, there sits the famous bar, Poechenellekelder. The restaurant Aux Armes De Bruxelles on 13 Rue des Bouchers) is another restaurant often mentioned in guidebooks for their national dish – ahem….yes it’s moules and frites again.
  

  

  

  Rue au beurre (Boterstraat) named after the butter market that used to be held here has the remaining few medieval buildings in the city. Further along the street and follow your nose, you will find the 17th-century building housing Belgium's oldest biscuit factory, Dandoy (Boterstraat 31). Their buttery and crunchy butterfly biscuits were my favourite. Remember to bring some home, they can keep and you won’t regret it!
• There is an open piazza in the area where we had a light lunch with salad. I think by then we had too much greasy fries and it was also about time to make our way home.