Today I took two ‘free’ walking tours. The first one started from Grand Place at 10:00 AM. I got to Grand Place early so I could take some photos in daylight. The tour was very informative about the history of Brussels and the buildings nearby. We also stopped at the Manneken Pis (pissing boy fountain), St. Michael’s church, the Royal Palace and ended at Mont Des Arts.
Before the second tour started I walked back to St. Michael’s church and walked inside. There happened to be a funeral in the church, but it had ended just as I arrived.
The second tour walked through the Congo area called Montagne and the European area. We walked by the EU buildings. They recommended a frites place nearby as the best.
After the tour I visited the Parlamentarium museum, which although was free was also not so interesting to me.
I thought about going to the Atomium, but that was 50 minutes away by metro, so I went to Maison Antoine for some frites. I got them with Andalouse sauce. They were good, but I still prefer the canadian version better (poutine – gravy and cheese covering the fries),
I then went to the new Museum of European History. I didn’t have much time to visit and it wasn’t very clear that there were tablets on the first floor to explain the exhibits. It was also free. They did have some exhibits about USA vs USSR, which doesn’t make much sense in a european history museum.
When the museum closed at 6:00 PM I then took the metro to the Atomium even though the interior would be closed when I arrive. The metro was good and easy to navigate. The metro tickets were 2.1€ each way, which is not cheap (24 hour pass is 7.5€). I took a few pictures while it was still daylight then wandered into a park behind it. I took a few more photos when the lights were turned on.
I took the metro back to Rogier station which is near my hotel and scoped out the train station. I found out that my credit card did not work in the train ticket machine, nor did it take paper bills. Luckily I found this out the night before and not when I was in a hurry to go to the airport.