BRUSSELS IS THE CAPITAL OF BELGIUM, heart of the EU and the headquarters of NATO. It is famous for (incredibly) chocolate, hand-made hats, waist-expanding waffles and to-die-for moules — Brussels mussels. It’s favorite son is the comic character Tin Tin.
Chapeaux Chocolat
Waffle Tin Tin
With all that going for it, visitors to Brussels make a bee-line towards Manneken Pis, a statue squeezed between two waffle stands of a little boy peeing. Go figure.
When you gotta go...
The Grand Place was bathed in sunshine, our first glimpse of the sun in Belgium, and the locals were taking advantage of it. Suffice to say that many whipped-cream laden waffles were washed down with cups of coffee and glasses of wine.
Solvay Townhouse Tassel Townhouse
Besides Tin Tin and the kid with the tiny bladder, Brussels was home to architect Victor Horta. His art deco buildings would be out of place in South Beach or Napier — just not flashy enough — but it didn’t take us long to recognize his style, a lot of brass-colored ironwork put together with rivets, not welds. We tracked down several of his “hotels,” or townhouses and spent a nice half-hour in the Maison & Atelier Horta Museum before calling it a day.
