A Weekend in Brussels

So last weekend my uncle David came to visit me in Brussels. We did the touristy thing, and there is plenty to keep a tourist occupied with in Brussels and Belgium for a weekend. There is some debate as to whether there is enough to occupy one for more than a weekend, but we will never know. First we had a look around the Grand Place, which is very impressive, especially at night. We followed that up with sampling some local cuisine (Thai!) and local beer. Then on Sunday we looked around the area around the Grand Place, which has many old and interesting buildings, along with lots of shops and colourful restaurants. Above is a picture of a seafood display at one such restaurant. Be warned though, my experience is that these restaurants are over priced and over rated. If you want a nice meal, go a couple of blocks from the Grand Place and you will get a nicer one for substantially less money. After that we went to the Galeries Hubert which is an expensive and impressive shopping centre. Well worth a look. We then went to visit one of the "recommended" sights - the Atomium. It is a 20 minute metro ride from central Brussels, costs 7 Euro to enter and is one great big disappointment. It is certainly impressive to look at from the outside (but you can do that for free), but inside there is nothing. It is a 100 metre high stainless steel model of an iron crystal. It has recently been refurbished and is definitely impressive to look at. But inside there is room to do something interesting (and quite a lot of room), but instead it is deadly boring. The entire experience was not improved by having to queue for 30 minutes just to get in.