Brussels
Grand-Place, Manneken Pis & the Lower Town of Brussels
The Grand-Place (Grote Markt — the central square of Brussels, UNESCO World Heritage Site, described by Victor Hugo as 'the most beautiful square in the world,' surrounded by the Gothic Town Hall and the extraordinarily ornate Baroque guild houses of the Brussels merchant guilds, rebuilt after the French bombardment of 1695) is the defining monument of Brussels and the starting point for exploring the Lower Town (the historic commercial centre of the Belgian capital).
Ghent Day Trip — Gravensteen Castle, the Ghent Altarpiece & Medieval Canals
Ghent (Gent — the medieval city 55 km northwest of Brussels, 30 minutes by train, the capital of the Counts of Flanders and the largest city in medieval Flanders): Ghent's three medieval towers (St. Bavo's Cathedral, the Belfry, and St. Nicholas' Church) rising above the Graslei (the medieval quayside harbour) are the defining image of Flemish medieval history; the city's greatest treasure is the Ghent Altarpiece (the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, completed 1432 by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, in the Cathedral of St. Bavo) — the most important painting in Northern European art history.
Molenbeek, Anderlecht & Multicultural Brussels
Brussels is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Europe — approximately 35% of Brussels residents were born outside Belgium, with the largest communities from Morocco, Turkey, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the EU member states; the working-class communes of Molenbeek (Sint-Jans-Molenbeek) and Anderlecht immediately west of the city centre are the heart of Brussels' North African and Turkish communities and some of the most economically deprived areas in Belgium, but also among the most culturally vibrant, with their mosques, Moroccan restaurants and pastry shops, Turkish grocery stores, and emerging creative community.
The European Quarter — EU Institutions & the Capital of Europe
Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union — the seat of the European Commission (the executive body of the EU), the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament (which sits in both Brussels and Strasbourg), and approximately 1,000 other European and international institutions, plus over 1,400 lobbyist organizations: the European Quarter (Quartier Européen/Europese Wijk) — the dense cluster of EU institution buildings in the Ixelles/Etterbeek communes east of the historic centre — is the most important political neighbourhood in Europe.
Bruges Day Trip — The Venice of the North & UNESCO Medieval City
Bruges (Brugge — the medieval city in West Flanders, 55 km west of Brussels, 1 hour by train — UNESCO World Heritage Site 2000): the historic centre of Bruges is the best preserved medieval trading city in northern Europe, with its network of canals (earning it the 'Venice of the North' nickname), cobblestone streets, Gothic churches, medieval guild halls, and the extraordinary 83-metre Gothic Belfry (Belfort, built 1240-1486) that dominates the Market Square — the most visited city in Belgium after Brussels.
The Atomium, Expo 58 & the Royal Domain of Laeken
The Atomium (the iconic 102-metre structure built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58), representing a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times, designed by engineer André Waterkeyn and architects André and Jean Polak) — on the Heysel Plateau in northern Brussels, adjacent to the Royal Domain of Laeken (the 200-hectare royal estate containing the Royal Palace of Laeken and the extraordinary Japanese Tower and Chinese Pavilion) — is the defining Modernist landmark of Brussels.
Brussels Comic Strip Route — Tintin, Smurfs & Painted Walls
The Brussels Comic Strip Route (Parcours BD — the network of approximately 55 large-scale painted comic strip murals on the facades of buildings across central Brussels, initiated in 1991 by the City of Brussels and the Belgian Comic Strip Centre as a way of transforming blank walls into tributes to the Belgian comic strip heritage): the murals depict characters from Belgian and international comic strips, including Tintin and Milou (Hergé), the Smurfs (Peyo), Lucky Luke (Morris), Blake and Mortimer (E.P. Jacobs), Gaston Lagaffe (Franquin), and dozens of others — turning Brussels into the world's largest open-air comic strip museum.
Art Nouveau Brussels — Victor Horta Museum, Ixelles & the Upper Town
Brussels is the world capital of Art Nouveau — the revolutionary architectural and decorative arts style that emerged in Brussels in the 1890s and transformed the visual culture of Europe: the architect Victor Horta (1861-1947) invented the language of Art Nouveau in Brussels in 1893 with the Hôtel Tassel (the first Art Nouveau building in the world) and developed it through a series of extraordinary private houses in Ixelles and Saint-Gilles whose interiors remain among the finest in European domestic architecture.
Les Marolles — The Flea Market, Palais de Justice & Working-Class Brussels
Les Marolles (the historic working-class neighbourhood south of the Grand-Place, below the Palais de Justice — the most authentically Brussels neighbourhood remaining in the city centre, with its distinctive Bruxellois dialect (Brusseleer, a mix of French and Dutch with archaic elements), its neighbourhood bars, its artisan workshops, and its extraordinary daily flea market (the Vieux Marché/Rommelmarkt on Place du Jeu de Balle)): the Marolles neighbourhood survived the 19th-century demolitions that cleared most of the historic lower city (to build the large law courts) and preserves something of the flavour of pre-modern Brussels.