Travel: Any Brussels or Oslo advice?
I have a few days of fun travel to new places coming up.
If anyone has been to Brussels, Belgium or Oslo, Norway, or is a local, and has some advice for good eats or places you think I’d dig, please leave a comment or drop me a line. Thanks!
I’ve only spent a couple days in Brussels, so I don’t have much to say, but a few places off the top of my head:
The Grande Place is quite impressive, both architecturally and aesthetically, with good cafes in all directions.
Just off the Grande Place, there is a street with lots of good Greek food and frites.
Delirium Cafe carries over 2000 varieties of beer, so it’s an interesting place to visit if you’re looking for that.
In general, the city is extremely walkable, so if you give yourself a few hours with a street map, you’ll get to see quite a lot.
Be sure to try the waffles and gelato, which are easy to find on the street in touristy areas. It’s good stuff.
Also, be warned that most of the Belgian chocolate you’ll find is easily available at any grocery store in Europe for significantly lower prices.
Brussels is a pretty good place for beer–Belgian beer, that is. Two of my favorite places are:
1. Delirium Tremens Cafe: It’s at the end of a passage just off the Grand Place. http://ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp?PlaceID=1582. Most likely the single largest collection of Belgian beers in the world. And, they usually have most everything on the menu. (Other mega-beer bars and stores often have huge holes in their stock at any one time.)
2. Cantillion Brewery. Not in the center–a long walk or taxi ride to get there. There is a small museum for gueuze beer, and you can take a tour. You can sample the beer there. Gueuze is definitely an acquired taste, and Cantillion makes some of the best examples of the style. http://www.cantillon.be/. You might want to start with a kriek before trying the gueuze. Warning: extremely sour beer.
Also, right across from the Mannekin Pis is the Poechenellekelder–also good for beer. If the weather is good, you can sit outside. They have food too.
http://ratebeer.com/Place/state/city/le-poechenellekelder/914.htm
Sorry, those tips are all beer related, but that’s how I orient myself in Brussels. If you want some specific beer tips, let me know offline.
In Brussels definitely the “Atomium”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomium
But only from the outside, inside is boring.
for what it’s worth, besides the grand place, i’ve always thought there was more to see elsewhere. about an hour’s drive to the west is a wonderful village/town named brugges, which could easily be worth several days of walking exploration.
if you are interested in history, brugges is more interesting than anything you could find in brussels, including the grand place.
I plan to take a day trip to Bruge – thanks TG!
In Oslo, try to visit the Vigeland Park which is a trip…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigeland_Sculpture_Park
In Brussels, you need to eat some mussels and french fries…try the chain resto called “Leon de Bruxelles”…plus a good belgian beer, of course
I loved both cities, so I am jealous.
In Brussels I also enjoyed touring the Cantillon Brewery, but did not like the Delirium Tremens Cafe. There were two extremely surly bartenders, and the place wasn’t very nice overall. The beer list is impressive, but unless you are looking for something specific, I would avoid it. I liked A La Mort Subite as an alternative: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2289/?view=beerfly
For eating, I really liked Brasserie Ploegmans http://www.ploegmans.be/ for Belgian food. I liked the Braadworst en spek met stoemp which is mashed potatoes and sausage. I would also look at Antwerp for a day trip. Brugge was cool, but I liked Antwerp better since it was less touristy and felt more like a normal city — definitely less pristine. It depends what you like, I guess.
In Oslo, I liked the National Gallery, they have a good number of Edvard Munch pieces, including The Scream http://www.visitnorway.com/en/Product/?pid=29123. I liked the area south of the Opera Software, Gr
+1 to the Vigeland park in Oslo. If you like nature, you can go to the Sognsvann lake, Nordmarka and/or the Botanical Garden (at around 15 minutes walking from the Opera office!). If you like museums, you have the Munch one, the National Gallery, the Nobel Peace center and others.
A couple of random places to eat: Mekong (Thai), Mucho m
Go to the Coiffure du Lillane. (http://www.coiffureliliane.com/) It is a social club that I visited when I lived in Brussels for a few months; they meet in an old converted hair salon every Tuesday night and have a home cooked meal (5 EUROS) and a presentation or musical performance. People are friendly and most speak English, and they love a visitor. This is the best way to experience real Belgian culture!
If you have a full day free, the Norway in a Nutshell day trip is a fun way to get out of the city and onto the fjords: http://www.norwaynutshell.com/default.asp
If you don’t have that much time, I would suggest the Kon-Tiki museum; it’s really interesting: http://www.kon-tiki.no/Ny/e_aapning.php
I’d look out for the Comic Strip Museum in Brussels: http://www.comicscenter.net/en/home. Great content and fascinating building.
Brussels: Some locals refer to both the trams above ground and to the subway as “the metro”. Be sure to ask for clarification.
Have cash, credit/checks are limited and ATMs can be scarce.
Liege waffles are wonderful. They shouldn’t need additional toppings.
Grand Place++, Atomium++
Brussels:
– Cultrure: + Comic Strip Museum; + Grand Place
– Having a drink: +1 La Mort Subite. If the weather’s nice you can also head down to the Place St. G
If you want a strange experience, take the tram or a taxi to the Royal Museum for Central Africa which tells a very tragic tale from King Leopolds colonial times. Unfortunately they have removed most of the old texts revealing how Belgium until quite recently was celebrating its dark past in Africa, but it is still worth the visit.