Brussels at Easter
"chocolate, beer and plenty of walking"
We arrived in Brussels on Good Friday, pretty early on. Accommodation was courtesy of the Hotel Leopold, over in the Euro Quarter, but more about that later on. The trip from the Gare du Midi to our hotel was simple and straightforward, helped by the fact our Eurostar tickets cover you for any station in Belgium.
Our hotel had a few snack shops open nearby, and Brussels itself was open, so we were able to wander around, in search of the Grand Place.
The pubs we visited were all great, and had a fabulous selection of beers (apparently Belgium has over 400 breweries), food wasn't too difficult to get around (I'm vegetarian, so while it was stodge, I survived).
Travelling around the City was easy, with the Metro, the trams and buses.
Our one main problem we had was trying to get cash out. Of all the European cities we've visited, we've never had as many problems as we did here - we eventually found a bank which would give us cash, but none of the city centre banks would accept our cards (we have visa debit). One ATM wanted a six-digit pin number, so I tried putting two extra 0's for my number, and my card was swallowed! I'd strongly suggest people take travellers cheques, or use a Maestro card, as they seem to work.
Chocolate wise, you can't miss the shops - we were told to avoid Leonida's, and instead try some of the smaller brands. We also went for Godiva (so cheap here) and Neustadt chocs.. heavenly!
Beer-wise, there's so many places to drink in Belgium, but we found the best beers in Falstaff, just by Bourse. There was also a quite odd little bar in a sidestreet from Grand Place, which looks like a funeral parlour from the front, and on entering the bar, it's pretty much pitch black, with a bar in the corner. The tables are made out of coffins! The beers are good, but it was just a little too dark for us!
