Those men in biohazard suits, mud caking on their rubber boots

[venta]

Good morning, the internet. Does anyone know anything about Brussels?

My dance team are organising a trip for ourselves and another team there next Easter (location chosen mostly for presence of Belgian beer, and ability to get there on the train).

Right now we're at the planning stage, and looking for things to do, things to see and places to dance for a group of ~30 people. Also a (cheap) place to stay, and places to eat. I'm sure the internet, and the research trip Sally and I are planning, will turn up plenty, but if you have any special recommendations, I'd love hear them!

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

It's ages since I went, but I really liked the Atomium for its retro-future vibe.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

We went in 2012; this is mostly photos and this talks about food. They might give you some ideas.

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

G and I spent last weekend there, as it happens ;)

I suspect neither of the places we ate would be suitable, but I can recommend Moeder Lambic as a nice place to drink, with ALL THE BEER (we went to the rue de Savoie location). We also went round the Cantillon brewery (they make gueuze in a very traditional way) which was good. Places to dance... tricky since I do not have any idea as to what you might need for that?

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

(Also, if you do have foodies with a slightly higher budget on the trip, La Buvette is fantastic. They do a tasting menu (only) which involved 10 courses for 55 EUR. Wonderful stuff. But it's also relatively small - you certainly wouldn't get 30 people in there without all but taking the place over.)

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

I love Brussels, and I'll second both of those recommendations!

I was blown away by the Musee Gueuze at the Cantillon brewery. They use wild yeast, seeded in to the wort by fermenting it in great open vats in the attic. The source yeast lived in the tiles above it, so they put off repairing the roof for much longer than they should. When they finally replaced it, they kept the old tiles and beams and stuck them to the underneath of the new one.

Very, very many nice places to drink. Have never been disappointed.

I really like Art Nouveau. If you share this predilection, there's a rather lovely Musee Victor Horta (key AN architect's own house) you can wander around, and there's plenty of lovely properties in that part of town that make a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Mannikin Pis is actually quite small and disappointing; the Grand Place is like you imagine and worth a look. There are lots of drinking and eating places around the streets there. Most are tourist traps, but perfectly pleasant ones; a little bit of Internet homework can ferret out gems. (Watch out for up-to-dateness, though - turnover is high, and there are plenty of changes of management.) The Atomium is bcc retro-fun. The Royal Museums of Fine Art are great if you like that sort of thing, and so is the Museum of Natural Sciences (dino-tastic!).

Last place I stayed was called the Hotel Bloom (for work). It was handy, perfectly pleasant, but not bargainaceous. I was amused to find that the muzak in the lifts was thumping Belgian techno with the volume turned right down - took me a while to clock what was going on.

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

Duh, of course I should probably have mentioned the Museum of Musical Instruments which is in "Old England", a fantastic Art Nouveau house. The admission is moderately steep (12 EUR/adult) but when we went on Sunday that included a free classical concert played on what I suspect were classical-era instruments for the most part, which was a lovely way of passing an hour.

We fancied the Atomium but it was a longish way from where we were staying (in the EU quarter -- this was being done on some hotel points that G had kicking around) and we couldn't make the timing work with our restaurant reservations. The hardship, darlings...

[ceb.livejournal.com]

Nth for the Atomium.

The Musical Instrument Museum is utterly awesome; make sure to get the audio "guide".

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with those who have already commented about the Musical Instrument Museum and the Atomium. Also reasonably central and interesting are Maison Autrique and the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts; if you have time for the tram ride out to Teveuren the Museum of Central Africa should be an interesting anthropological experience.

[venta.livejournal.com]

We definitely have some votes for the Atomium already (including from me!)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll have a read through those :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you, a recommended brewery is just the kind of thing we're after :)

Places to dance: anywhere with a hard floor, and about 8 square feet of space. And an audience for preference. We like nice wooden floors in bars, but will settle for attractive paved squares if it's not raining!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thanks, some fine ideas there. I doubt we'll do that much museum-ing, but a few options for giving people some time off dancing are really useful!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Sufficiently many interesting-sounding options here that I'm wondering if I should just go to Brussels myself without all this attendant folk-dancing nonsense :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ooh, ooh, art nouveau musical museum? Sign me up :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

The "guide"? I'm intrigued :)

[ceb.livejournal.com]

Rather than lecturing you, it plays you music so you can hear what the instruments you're looking at sound like. It's activated by RFID tags by the displays, so automatically changes as you wander round the rooms, and means occasionally you get ambushed by bagpipes or a church organ...

[ceb.livejournal.com]

Oh also, the Magritte Museum if you like Magritte. :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Nice!

I like Magritte, definitely starting to think I should organise myself a nice weekend in Brussels on top of this trip!