Frommes on a Journey: Europe Vacation

I am notorious for choosing hotels that are out of the way. We usually have to walk forever just to get anywhere, and it's usually down some sketchy alley. Not in Brussels! Our hotel was within a few minutes walk of basically everything! I seriously have to give myself a pat on the back for this one.

We came to Brussels without knowing much of anything about the city. We stayed four nights because that is how long we planned to stay in most of the cities on our trip. However, one or two would have been plenty. It rained the first two days we were there, so we opted out of doing the walking tour. Instead, we walked around on our own when it wasn't raining too hard. Also, we spent a lot of time just sitting in cafes and bars people-watching.

The third night we were there, we went on a Sandemans beer tour. Since I was on my final day of antibiotics, I didn't partake in the beer drinking. Going to Belgium and not drinking beer - what a shame!!! However, Zach really enjoyed himself and we met a ton of great people! Zach was really surprised that we only went to two bars, but all of the bars had such a large selection that it really made sense. All of the beers had a very high percentage of alcohol. After the tour, about 15 of us decided to get dinner together. It was one of the most interesting dinners we've had. Zach continued to stay out with the group after dinner and went to another bar. I went back to the room and relaxed. I was having a hard time being around a bunch of drunk people when I was completely sober.

The next morning, I set out by myself to do a Sandemans free walking tour. The tour contained almost all of the same sites that Zach and I saw while we were walking around by ourselves. So, while getting the history was interesting, I was also a little bored.

Knowing what we know now, we would have made a day trip to Bruges. We weren't all that impressed with Brussels. Maybe it was the rain. Maybe we just stayed there too many days. I do think that you should check it out for yourself, but one to two nights would be plenty.