The upper city of Brussels

Having explored the lower (and more touristy) part of Brussels, we headed up the hill through lovely gardens and got a different view of Brussels, the tower from the Grand Place being very prominent.

We grabbed a Panini, Cherries and fresh juices each for lunch

and then wandered around lots of large majestic buildings.

The sculpture park was a bit manky, particularly the green/yellow water but it was still an interesting stop along the way.

We then came across the Mercedes House where they have a free entry showcase of a few vehicles.

There was lots of intricate detail on the Notre Dame (which apparently took 150 years to complete, or something like that).

We then wandered through another park with several statues, including one of the guy who found a better way to represent the spherical world in 2D.

At the lookout we also came across a lift to the lower city, but continued our exploration in the upper area.

As we wandered we kept coming across this poster that Jane absolutely hated [Jane: It screwed with my mind!]

and eventually arrived at the front of the Palace.

Across the road, we spent some time in the gardens before heading back down to the lower city.

Le Fourneau, Brussels

We had a superb meal out last night in Brussels at Le Fourneau. It has been our best meal out whilst on holiday.

The restaurant is very open plan, to the extent that the vast majority of tables in the restaurant are located at the bar looking into the kitchen which is where we also dined.

There was a nice ambience to the restaurant with funky music playing lightly in the background.

Jane had the 7 course tapas (which was actually a degustation) and I went with 3 courses of lobster (lobster salad, lobster bisque and a half lobster in veal jus); EUR45 and EUR35 respectively. The meals were all beautifully presented, perfectly cooked, flavoursome, fresh and it was obvious that pride was taken in the delivery of each dish.

Jane also had a selection of desserts to finish that she enjoyed.

In terms of service, in general the wait staff were superb except for one waiter who in addition to not correctly taking our order also missed off putting an item on it later (which we pointed out). The food all arrived in a timely manner.

We would very happily return.

A wander around Brussels

We arrived in Brussels yesterday and were surprised how busy it was. Maybe it was because it was a Saturday or maybe this is normal, we don’t know. We were expecting Brugge to be the busier of the two but we were soooo mistaken.

I had a Herring Salad for lunch at a restaurant near our accommodation and Jane had a Croque Monsieur (i.e. toasted sandwich).

We then wandered through a beautiful mall (Galeries Royales St Hubert)

and then made our way over to the majestic Grand Place where there were so many lovely ornate buildings to take in.

The temperature was remarkably hot yesterday (compared to previous days) and would have in the 30’s. I left Jane to take in the buildings at Grand Place after she had played tour guide and went off for a wander

and came across the ridiculously small Manneken-Pis that attracted a large crowd.

I took a few more pictures as I wandered.

Late afternoon we had a waffle to hold us over until dinner and it was super fresh and had a nice little chewiness.