Places/Belgium

Brussels

Brussels

A capital people change trains in, which is a poor way to meet it.

Brussels is bilingual, slightly disorderly, and much better at eating than its touristic reputation. The Grand-Place is a genuine set piece. It takes ten minutes. The city takes two nights.

If you only have forty minutes between trains, see the square and go. Do not pretend that was Brussels.

See

• The Grand-Place, then leave it

  Early morning or after dinner. At noon it is a coach party and a waffle shop. The guild houses are worth a slow look, not a meal underneath them.

• Sainte-Catherine

  The old fish market streets for lunch. This is the centre as a neighbourhood.

• A comic wall or the Magritte museum

  Choose one. Belgium’s visual humour is a real tradition, not a mascot.

• Ixelles

  A walk south of the centre for the city that is not trying to be a capital of Europe that afternoon.