How to do Brussels in a day

[photos coming soon]

Place du Grand Sablon

I started the day aiming for a place called Place du Grand Sablon. It's an outdoor market, plus it's where most of the very best Belgian chocolate shops are located. The names of the shops are Mercolini, Neuhaus, Godiva, Wittamer, Leonidas, Passion and several others. I bought macarons at Mercolini and I bought individual pieces at Wittamer.

Musical Instruments Museum

Being somewhat of a musician, I was excited to head over to the "MIM", which is the Musical Instruments Museum. The first thing you notice is that the building and the view outside are awesome. When you go inside, you learn that it's a 10 story building where 4 floors are open and ready. They recommend you start at the top and work your way down. The top floor is a restaurant with a fantastic view of Brussels. The 4th floor is mostly dedicated to saxophones, but actually there's quite a bit of brass there. I learned that the guy that created the sax (his surname was Sax) had pulmonary problems. In fact, most of his family died at a young age due to their problems. He not only created the sax, he custom created many other instruments. He received many patents for his inventions. He lived into his 80s, so they say that music literally saved his life and he said he created those instruments to help others live longer and happier too.

Second floor was string instruments, so I skipped that. Just kidding. It was cool, I liked the old guitars and this was where I realized the incredible professional design of the museum. A few instruments were out in the open, not that you could touch them, but they were right there. The audio guide you carry around automatically played a song using the instrument you were standing closest to - very cool. The bottom floor was pianos and again it was great to see how pianos truly used to be beautiful pieces of art. I suppose they still are, but they've changed a lot. 

Similar to the British Museum, this museum inspired me to realize that tremendous change and improvement really does happen. Even in relatively short periods of time.

As you wander the streets of Brussels, you can't help but smell the sweet aroma of fresh waffles, then notice a trace of chocolate in the air.

Natural History Museum

I stopped by the Natural history museum, but you can skip that unless you have kids under 10 years old with you. 

Metro

I took my first ride on a Brussels metro to get to a place called Atomium. The escalators start moving when step on the first step, which makes sense from a power conservation perspective, but it's a little startling the first time you see it. Inside the station, there's a map hung overhead. Each station on the map has a light beneath it that lights up if a train is currently at that station. That's a kinda cool way to give you a heads up about upcoming trains. 

Atomium

Atomium is 9 huge spheres connected by bars, all in the shape of an atomic structure. The structure tops at 100 meters high. You get to go in a few spheres, then take a lift to the top. One sphere isn't open to public, it's full of mini spheres. The mini spheres are beds for kids and that sphere is designed for a class to come and study science, and spend the night, nice! There's a tremendous 360 degree view of Brussels from the top sphere.

Dinner - Nuetnigenoigh (noot ee nuff)

I checked my phone for a place to eat dinner. The people on the yelp app recommended a Belgium pub called nuetnigenoigh, and a dish called boulettes de veau a la gantoise. I don't know how to pronounce that, but I can tell you it's veal meatballs in a white beer sauce. Here's to crowd sourcing because it was awesome. It was so good that an older couple next to me spoke English and asked if they could take a picture of my food because they had heard it was good too. Then another American couple jumped in the conversation too. There were only 6 tables in the pub, so it became a whole pub conversation about beer and food. Good times.

Waffles for dessert

I ran over to a chocolatier called Frederic Blondeel at 630 for a Belgian waffle dessert, but apparently they had just closed. I knew another place called Dandoy was great, so I looked it up on google maps. They were also closing soon, so I rushed over. The one I went to didn't serve waffles, only biscuits. The woman behind the counter said wait, I'm heading to the other one now, I'll take you. So she did and I helped her carry the stuff she was taking. I got there and ordered waffles with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. I started to pay and the cashier said nope it's on us, nice! I then saw him smile at the woman I had helped.

Mannekin Pis

Mannekin Pis is one block over from Dandoy, so I stopped there. Wow it's small! No, not that. The whole statue. I expected some 6 foot thing and it's literally less that 2 feet tall. It's blocked by an iron gate and it looks like a little doll on top of a cool platform. Yes it really does piss! I hear there's a female version somewhere close by, but no one really goes to that, so I guess I'll skip it too.

Live jazz at Grand Place

I ended the night at a central area called Grand Place. It's a classically beautiful European city center, with a large open area surrounded by beautiful cathedrals and gothic buildings. I was lucky to see a live jazz concert where I sat, relaxed and typed this up. The concert is ending now, so I'm heading back.