Belgium Day 2 - Brussels

This was the outside door of the apartment, in Rue Souveraine in the Ixelles district of Brussels.

It had a kitchen/dining room and a living room on the ground floor.

The bedroom was down in the basement, along with the bathroom.

We'd decided to buy a 48 hour Brussels Card, which gives entry to 30 museums and free use of the tour buses on two routes. We bought them online then walked to Place Louise to catch the tour bus. It was raining first thing, but dried up later. We stayed on the bus as it toured to the south, round the Art Deco district and the European parliament buildings.

We got off at Place Royale and walked towards the old centre of the city, stopping for bacon and cheese ciabattas at Ciabatta Mania. We then carried on walking and stopped for a beer at Bar Celtica as we'd read about it before the trip. Cheap beer and free wifi.

After this we walked to the main square in Brussels, the Grand Place with its ornate city hall and guild halls.

Then we visited a few of the museums around the centre - the chocolate museum, the brewery museum, the museum of Brussels and the museum of lace. Samples included at the first two.

The museum of Brussels has a room with many of the costumes used on the Mannekin Pis statue.

Then we walked to the Mannekin Pis itself, which was dressed as a condom for AIDS Day.

We then walked a bit further out, past the dog statue called Zinneke Pis, then on to St Catherine's Place where there were Christmas lights, rides and market stalls.

We had a drink in the Viavia bar, then caught the Metro to Namur station. We went back to the apartment via the Carrefour Express supermarket in Chaussee Ixelles where we bought some supplies. After dropping off the shopping we went back out for dinner.

We ended up in La Regence, where Shirley had the local dish Tartiflette (potatoes, cheese sauce and bacon) while Scott had sausages and mash.