THE home of European bureaucracy is also home to an enviable lifestyle - vintage cafés, art-nouveau architecture and picturesque Christmas markets.
Before you go The Everyman MapGuide for Brussels (£5.99) is easy to use and
www.brussels-international.be has tourist information. For more on art nouveau in Brussels, see
www.bruxellesartnouveau.be.
When to go For a winter or early-spring break, Brussels has the advantage of innumerable gorgeous cafés to snuggle up in, plus historical shopping arcades and absorbing museums to amuse you if the weather is unkind. Christmas markets are another lure during December.
Planes, trains and automobiles BMI (0870 607 0555,
www.flybmi.com) flies from Edinburgh to Brussels from £106 return.
Getting Around The Brussels Card (
www.brusselscard.be), which costs Û30 for 72 hours, includes free travel on the metro, trams and buses and gets you into museums free or at a discount.
Tourist trail The Grand Place is the city's showpiece, a perfect cobbled square fronted by baroque guildhouses and the filigree Hôtel de Ville. Stop for beer or coffee at any of the cafés - La Brouette does the best hot chocolate and has a roaring fire. Then stroll through the Galeries Royales St Hubert, a glass-roofed 19th-century arcade, and on to the cartoon museum, Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, at 20 rue des Sables. Exhibitions are in French, but the shop is fun and the building was designed by art-nouveau genius Victor Horta. Continuing uphill to Place Royal, you can choose either the ancient or modern collections at the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts (
www.fine-arts-museum.be), at 3 rue de la Régence.
Along rue de la Régence is Nôtre Dame du Sablon, with its glorious stained-glass windows. Above it, Place du Petit Sablon is a tiny formal park; just downhill is the café-lined Place du Grand Sablon, where the bourgeoisie congregate for the weekend antiques market. The best seats are outside Wittamer's patisserie; the dress code, at this time of the year at least, is fur coat and designer shades. Explore the antique shops and small galleries in the arcades and side-streets, then head along Rue Haute and take the elevator up to admire the views from the Palais du Justice. Once you're in the upper town, make for the Musée Horta (www.hortamuseum. be), at 20 rue Américaine. This was Horta's superbly decorated home, where the rooms flow around a central staircase lit by a stained-glass skylight.
Go native Place Sainte Catherine was formerly the city's docks - the River Senne flows beneath the square but was covered over after a cholera epidemic in 1866. The pretty gabled buildings here are still the best place for seafood restaurants. The streets nearby, particularly rue Antoine Dansaert, are home to many new clothes boutiques and excellent bars.
What to buy Leonidas is the best mid-range chain for Belgian chocolates, but for pure glamour take a look at Pierre Marcolini, at 1 rue des Minimes, on the Sablon. The Italian-made hats, bags and gloves for sale at S en Ciel, near the lift up to the Palais de Justice, are worth a look too.
Night life Tradition has it that Belgian bars don't close if customers are still ordering. À La Mort Subite, at 7 rue Montagne aux Herbes Potagères, stocks 600 locally brewed beers. Falstaff, at 17 rue Henri Maus, exudes old-fashioned glamour with its wood-and-mirror interior. At the heart of the thriving St Gery district, Fin de Siècle, at 9 rue des Cartreux, is a bar-restaurant with great beers and an ebullient young crowd.
Where to stay Although formerly a prison, Hotel Amigo (www. roccofortehotels.com), at 1 rue de l'Amigo, is now classically elegant and fabulously located - just steps from the Grand Place. Double rooms start from Û189 a night. Nearby, at 25 Rue de la Madeleine, is the beautiful Le Dixseptième (www.ledixseptieme.be), a boutique-scale townhouse conversion. B&B in a double room costs from Û140 a night.
Where to eat At 15 Grand Place, 'T Kelderke (00 32 2 513 7344) serves traditional Belgian food in an atmospheric cellar. Just off the square, at 2 rue des Harengs, an art-nouveau butcher's shop is now the delightful Osteria à l'Ombra. Vismet (00 32 2 218 8545), at 23 Place Sainte Catherine, is a modern take on local seafood restaurants. Le Pain Quotidien, at 11 rue des Sablons, is good for leisurely brunches.
Can you drink the water? The water is fine, but French-speakers might find translating numbers a little strange. If something costs septante or nonante euros, it means 70 or 90 respectively; the Belgians have wisely simplified the French system.
Read
ers' tips
Br
ussels
Brussels calls itself the City of Beer and there's certainly plenty of it about. Be warned, though - the fruit beers are very good, but they are deceptively strong.
Kare
n Hunter, Strachur
There are loads of cool gay bars and cafés here and most of them are around the Grand Place. Some of them turn into straight bars at the weekend, though.
Ed M
cPherson, Perth
Send your suggestions for visits to Split, Vienna, Dublin and Girona to spec
trumtravel@scotlandonsunday.com.
Please include your address and a daytime telephone number.
