We are are staying in Brussels 2/24 thru 2/28. Any advice on great hotel w/charm. Am considering the Metropole. Should we take a day trip to Brugge and/or Paris? What is our best option for Sunday as many things are closed. Any reccommendations on great souviners or buys to remember our trip?
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The Metropole has a very nice lobby (I don%26#39;t know about the rooms) and it is located within walking distance of the Grand Place but the nieghborhood is not that charming. The Jolly Du Grand Sablon is in a much more charming neighborhood which would be my preference.
You can easily do a day trip to Brugge, Antwerp and Gent which are all worth a visit. Each place can be traveled to in an hour or less by train. In Antwerp check out the Peter Paul Ruebens museum. You can go to Paris via the Gare du Midi on Thalys. You do need to reserve your seats in advance (which you can do online or at the station or via a travel agent). It takes about 1 hour 50 minutes to get to Paris. With so little time, it might be better to go there on another trip.
Sunday most small shops and restaurants around the tourist areas will be open as well as the museums. Over by the Place du Grand Sablon there are the Royal Museums of Fine and Modern Art as well as the Musical Instrument Museum.
Belgium is famous for their Beers, Chocolate, Lace (buy this in Brugge), waffels and french fries. For great chocolate try Pierre Marcolini (again there is on at the Grand Sablon) for beer you can go anywhere though if you want to brave the smoke and the college crowds, Delirium bar off the Rue des Bouchers (near the Grand Place) has over 1,000 beers to choose from. The best fries are at Maison Antoine on Place Jourdan (open all night). For waffels, there are two types to try the Brussels waffel which should be eaten in a dessert shop , these are similar to what Americans call Belgian waffels with the whipped cream and strawberries. I prefer the Liege style which can be picked up from one of the many vendors and eaten while you walk. Just make sure you are geting a freshly made waffel and that it is warm. They are infused with sugar so they don%26#39;t need any topping.
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I think you will have to look at the reviews under %26quot;Brussels hotels%26quot; but a friend of mine who stayed at the Metropole said the bedrooms were not up to the standard of the public rooms, although there might of course be different levels. I like the Astoria (formerly the Waldorf Astoria, now a Sofitel) myself, but I haven%26#39;t seen the bedrooms and the Métropole is more centrally located.
Museums are open on Sundays, closed on Mondays, as are shops in the Sablon and Marolles area, up and down rue Haute and rue Blaes (so between the antiques market in the Sablon and the flea market at Place du Jeu de Balles).
Brugge is one hour away by the fastest trains which are those to coastal towns like De Panne, Ostende and Blankenberghe, of which there are several every hour. You can catch these at Gare du Midi, Gare centrale or Gare du Nord and the cost is around €12/13 one way, double that for a return ticket except on Saturday and Sunday, when you can get a return ticket for the price of a weekday single.
For Paris the Thalys only leaves from Gare du Midi and being a high-speed train it doesn%26#39;t take much longer than to Brugge as it%26#39;s only 1h22 mins, e.g. on Monday 26/2: dep. 7h43, arr. 09.05 and then the last train back would be 21:55 arr. 23:17. Cheapest return fare is likely to be around €80 booked in advance on http://www.thalys.com/be/en/. The hop-on, hop-off tourist buses (www.parisvisite.com/en/Carte_Bus_Opentour.php) don%26#39;t pass by the Gare du Nord so you would have to take the metro to somewhere like Opéra to take these. Or, you can take a coach tour from Brussels, see brussels-city-tours.com/engels/engframes.htm.
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