A museum where cats run wild: a food bike that brings hot waffles to the EU quarter: a card that lets you into 41 museums – summer in Brussels #1
This week sees the launch of a season of online articles that set out to tell you how to spend the summer in Brussels. Over the coming eight weeks, we’ll guide you to hidden rooftop bars, take you on exciting bike adventures and let you in on some secret spots for summer food.
We are well aware that Brussels isn’t always an easy city to love. It is a city with a complicated identity on the borderline between two cultures. It has two languages, 19 communes and 183 nationalities. It takes time to get to grips with it all.
Yet the city has a lot of charm if you take the time to look. That’s what we aim to show you over the next two months. We have put together some ideas that we think will open your eyes to the diversity of the city. We’ve found some fantastic places where you can soak up the sun. But we’ve also come up with some indoor places in case the weather lets you down.
We have activities for kids, suggestions for keeping fit and ideas on how to spend a lazy Sunday. We have places where you can put together the ingredients for a picnic in the park and bars where you can explore the beer culture with a bunch of friends.
We haven’t included everything there is to see and do in Brussels. We didn’t want to overload you with information when all you want to do is to relax. The aim is simply to inspire you with a few suggestions of things you might not have thought about. Let us know if we have got it right and we’ll give you more of the same. Tell us if you think we are on the wrong track and we’ll take note of your points.
This is your summer in Brussels. We want it to be your best ever.
Five Museums to visit
To begin the season, we take you inside five museums that we think are worth visiting, like the fascinating La Fonderie in Molenbeek where stray cats wander in the grounds among abandoned machinery.
La Fonderie Museum
The EU bubble for foodies
They call it the Brussels Bubble. It’s the Brussels district where the European Union is based. Most people avoid it unless they work in the neighbourhood, but we think it’s evolving into a fascinating place to wander around, especially as the food scene has improved dramatically. You can find food trucks on quiet squares, cool cafés with stunning interiors and a food bike selling waffles.
Not that into Brussels? Here's what you can do
Some people don’t like Brussels, but maybe they are just not looking in the right place. In our third feature this week, we look at some original ways to immerse yourself in the life of the city, including an app that tells you about guided tours and a map that pinpoints the city’s 1,251 cafés.
By Derek Blyth
The Brussels Times
How to summer in Brussels
