City Center of Brussels - Free walking tour

So I will write this one in English - as it's some sort of a tour guide from the city center of Brussels I hope my internationals friends can find it useful tool. But I have only lived in Brussels for less then one week so don't expect I'm an expert and here I'm leaning too much on the guide's word.

When I enter a new city I do typically tourist stuff like visiting the main street, main square and all the famous buildings and statues you could post on your Facebook, Instagram, Snap and other SoMe channels.

So I did my first days living in Brussels but honestly I'm must say I'm happy with living in Ixelles, far away from it and near the locals.

On Thursday I went on a Free Walking Tour, starting at la Grand Place and continuing in the boroughs around. For those of you who don't know: Free Walking Tour is exactly what it sounds like: a free walking tour with a guide where the only payment is tips based. Therefore it's in the guide's interest to do the tour interesting for it's audience and usually they never fail to do so. Then you pay them what you think they deserve for the job (but it's rood giving nothing - then it must be really bad!) I've done free walking tour many times when I've travelled abroad, in Berlin, Krakow, Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Sydney. My experience is that the guides usually are locals, who know their city in and out, so it's excellent if you want to be told some good local tips, jokes and fun facts about the city.

Grand Place - the free walking tour starts in front of the city hall to the left - which also is the oldest buildings among the ones at the square.

So the tour I did in Brussels starts at - no surprise - Grand Place, as basically every start point in the free walking tour starts by one of the greatest tourist attractions. Our guide was a local woman from Brussels, and she was really nice and and told us many interesting facts about the divided Kingdom of Belgium. Belgium became an independent country in 1830, and before then it was a part of Netherlands and France. Today it's a bilingual country with the flemish (dutch) speaking region of Flanders in the north and the french-speaking region of Walloon in the south. Brussels is its own region but originally and geographically it's like an island in the Flanders.

According to the guide, Brussels is a bilingual city where the children learn to speak both languages in school, in addition to English. But then it's up to you how well you'd like to keep the second language, which I assume depends on the family and your environment.

As I understood people in the Flanders and Walloon learn to speak the other languages in school, but as we know it's very much up to your self. So there are people in the Walloon who don't understand Flemish - and the opposite. This must be very confusing but when they have their own tv channels, local parliament +++ I guess they don't consider it a big issue.

The majority of Belgians speak Flemish (60 %), which is spoken in the cities of Ghent, Antwerpen and Brugge. Brussels is bilingual but the majority here speaks French (most lightly influenced by the EU) something you definitely notice when you're in shops and cafes. However the guide did show us some streets and quarters in the city center which she called «Flemish speaking eras»... Well, this is not easy if you're a foreigner living here.

So a country with not a very big national identity made Brussels to a liberal, open and international city from a very early point - and it became a sort of expat city for artists and thinkers in the 19th century. Did you know that both Victor Hugo and Karl Marx lived in Brussels for a while? Apparently the famous author and philosopher were both escaping hardship in their respective countries of France and Germany for some time and Brussels was definitely a city where they could think and work undisturbed from the authorities.

Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert - a famous shopping arcade close to Grand Place from the 19th century. Here you find several shops, mainly chocolate and lovely cafes!

Our guide said the brand Mary on the Galeries Royales is one of the oldest and best brands for Belgianchocolate - and apparently the shop owner didn't appreciate having a paparazzi tourist like me taking pictures of her outside....

There are chocolate shops everywhere in the city center! Yes, this is a dream for a true chocolate lover But this is not something you can buy often because one box with one of the delicious bites costs like at least 10 euros, meaning (luckily) I won't buy it every day. And I also belive the ones around Grand Place are the most expensive ones and according to my flat mates it's cheaper in our borough of Ixelles.

Haha, you've probably heard about the famous statue of Manneken Pis? Meaning «Little man pee»? Unfortunately I still haven't visited him but there is another (less famous) statue of a girl peeing too, called Jeanneke Pis, located close to Grand Place.

A typically «Brusselisation», modern, grey buildings next to the ancient ones. Just north of Grand Place.

But there are not only lovely, small brick houses on every corner in Brussels. According to our guide with all the new EU institutions and international companies established here since the 50s the government has not done a good job trying to make the new modern buildings fit into the ancient architecture, also called a «Brusselisation» (the guide's words).

Boulevard Ansbach - Brussels' Champs Elysée. Say whaaat? Well now they are working to do this long boulevard just north of Grand Place to a car free center (just like our local government at home in Oslo are working on in these days, it's clearly a trend in European cities).

Just north of Grand Place and in the era called Du Brouckere you'll find all the famous shopping shops, brands and whatsoever. No big shopping malls but classic shops in the streets. Something to prefer, but if you'd like some quietness when you shop skip the Saturdays! It was so crowded when I was there yesterday.

Further north of the city center is Place Sainte Catherine which - according to the guide - is the best era to go out for food in Brussels - if you want to eat a local meal in the city center, free of the main tourist restaurants around Grand Place.

Palais de Bruxelles - the royal palace, which is the official palace (but not residence) to King Phillippe of Belgium, is located a few streets south of Grand Place and next to Parc de Bruxelles.

Me in front of Triumphal Arch in the Parc du cinquantenaire - located in the European quarter at Schuman. Using a selfie stick can be very embarrassing as you have all the people around you stirring at you and whispering «Selfie!!!!»

This photo above was not part of the Free Walking tour but since is one of the main tourist attractions in Brussels I had to show it :) I will write a longer column on the European Quarter with the EU museum later - that's another, busy world away from Grand Place.

So far! The main tourist spots in Brussels - CHECK! Now I can start to get to know the city as a local and when family and friends will arrive - I'll now the best local spots! (wow, now I'm putting a lot of expectations on my shoulder. If I fail on that - sorry!)

#Brussel #GrandPlace #Tourist #Freewalkingtour