Brussels May 16-19

[jjone20]

Any Porsche-related activities? I looked at the map and don't think I have time to get to Stuttgart. Anything local? Last time I was there, our host drove us to Bastogne which was very impressive. Spa was nearby, but I wanted to see the WWII memorial. Any thoughts?

[Don Plumley]

Great beers, mussels and frites.

[Normy]

JJone- I lived in downtown Brussels for a year. Look for "allee des bouchers", which is this tiny little street [yes, it is considered a "street" in Brussels, despite the fact that it is 19 feet wide and has no vehicle traffic- only pedestrians. There are 2000 GREAT restaurants in this city! If you don't capitalize on this you are stupid!

My recommendations, if you have time:

Mystical- do a web seach, I can't remember the location of this place but this is a typical tiny Brussels restaurant. 20 seats, and a gourmet cook, the walls are old brick, but they have figured out ways to insert little candles. Great place to bring your chick- dude, you're going to get laid after a trip to this place and a walk around the Grand Place. [pronounced "Gran Plas"]

LeCap. Located "Vieille Halle aux Bles", which is a lot easier to find than say! Just a block or three off of the Gran Plas, this restaurant is dirt cheap [like, $11 for a dinner], and its food is wondrous! You can't even believe a gourmet meal in a European city for less than a TGI Fridays price!

Brussels is the undiscovered city. The place is dirt cheap! You can find hotels in the city for typical US prices, as opposed to London or Paris which are three times as much. And Brussels has just as much to offer culturally as those other cities....you just have to look for it. Musee de Bande Desinee is the comic strip museum in Brussels. And the best beers and BY FAR the best chocolate in the world is made in Belgium.

Dude- you can't go wrong by going there. What's more, anyone that wants to explore Europe? You can typically fly to Brussels for $150 less than Paris. But even if you take the Thalys 180 mph high speed train, you still get their cheaper. You can't go wrong by starting a trip to Europe by starting in Belgium. Amsterdam is 90 minutes away by train- you can catch the train in the basement of the airport, by the way- and be there for $35. Paris is via high speed from the same train for $65! All of Europe is available by train for low prices- you don't need a car in Europe. I had one there [I shipped a VW Jetta to Brussels when I lived there], but it was a waste of money, I barely drove it. I only did it because my company paid for it. They even shipped it back to Orlando after they had gone out of business!

[It got some attention, a US 1980 model jetta 2-door driving around Brussels with a Florida license tag!]

In any case, I highly recommend Brussels as your first stop in Europe. This is a WONDERFUL country! These people are excessively quiet, they don't like any sort of ostentation, but they are really gentle, carefull, and considerate.

N!

[Geronimo '74]

Wow, thanks for the kind words about our capital, Norm!
Your recommendations are spot on, but you left out Manneken Pis, the staue of the small boy peeing.
Not that much too look at but a very popular tourist go see!

[Garp]

The area around Cinquentenaire is quite interesting too. A small but very nicely stocked Army museum and Autoworld, a car museum. Not top quality but still quite ok with an excellent library.
Leuven is just a few miles away and quite interesting as well.
From Lonely Planet

Picturesque, intimate and lively… Leuven is yet another fabulous Flemish city, and again it’s just a hop, skip or jump from Brussels (25km). Leuven (Louvain in French) is the chief town of the province of Vlaams-Brabant. It’s an ancient capital – the home of the Dukes of Brabant since 1200 – and in medieval times an important cloth trading centre. Today it boasts one of Belgium’s most ornate town halls and is Flanders’ oldest university town. Some 25, 000 students – more than a quarter of the town’s population – zoom around by pushbike here, giving the city an upbeat, creative air. Leuven is also Belgium’s beer capital, home to the internationally known red-label Stella Artois.

[Don Plumley]

I've been to the car museum, it does have a reasonable collection.

[dtxscott]

Skip the Walloon stuff and head to the Flemish area. They love cars and beer..... You need anything else?

For disclosure, I'm married to a Flemish girl.

Kidding aside, we usually do family stuff so I can't comment on happenings. Check Spa's schedule. They usually have some sort of club race or other function going on in the spring.

And, yes, Stuttgart is a solid 5-hr drive. We did this last month driving from Munich to Ghent.