Our last full day of Europe 2013 was an excellent day.  For breakfast we bought some take-away croissants and pastries, coffee and juice from the EXKi in the Herb Market Square outside our hotel, the Novotel Off Grand Place.  We took them back to our hotel room and had them looking out at the passing parade of Brusselians and the activity of the square. Then we figured on heading up to the main art museum there, The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, about 20 minutes walk away.  We had a bit of trouble finding which building and the entrance, but we got there in the end and it was definitely worth it. They’ve got some incredibly good stuff in there. A whole room dedicated to Rembrant, plus lots of van Dycks, Rubenses, Brueghels, and a suitably disturbing Hieronymus Bosch.  Loads of fantastic portraits, and some brilliant huge 19th century works, pictured.  It’s a nice museum interior, too, very spacious with a big central atrium. We spent quite a while going through it, and then thought we’d see what else there was around.

We’d seen a good report about the Museum of Musical Instruments, but when it came to it we decided just to get a coffee and cake in the cafeteria of the place, because we were a bit weary from our already not-inconsiderable museuming of the day so far. It’s a brilliant Art Nouveau building and the cafe is on the top floor with great views of Brussels.  Up we went, and had some delicious cheesecake and lemon tart. After that we decided to hop on a hop-on-hop-off, the stop being just outside that museum. It was okay, but not the best of those we’ve experienced.  We had to move three times because our headset plugs didn’t work properly. Still, we saw some of the big sights around Brussels, such as the 1958 World’s Fair futuristic giant sculpture, The Atomium, a huge model of a unit cell of an iron crystal.  

The traffic was pretty appalling getting back to the centre, so it became a bit tedious, but we got back eventually and had another look in the Galerie Royales.  Jen wanted to find some things to get as gifts, so we bought some chocolate and a few other knick-knacks. We also visited the Tintin shop, and almost decided which little figurines we wanted. Coming out, we made the mistake of wandering into ‘The Agora’ across the street, a market-style place where everyone seemed to look a bit aggro and wild-eyed, and which once you were in, was really hard to find your way out of again in a hurry. Anyway we escaped eventually and went looking for an appropriately cool place to have our final dinner of our trip at.  Jen liked the look of La Roue d'Or, ‘The Golden Wheel’ in French, on Rue des Chapeliers that comes off the southern corner of the main square, so we made a booking.

We continued our walk, wandering around and about Brussels late in the afternoon, looking at a few shops and soaking up the atmosphere. By and by we lobbed back at the hotel, and relaxed for a time before going out to dinner.  It was then that we learnt the news that Rudd had re-taken the Prime Ministership.  Jen’s restaurant judgment was as sound as ever - La Roue d’Or was an excellent choice.  We got a great table, and the food was to die for. I had smoked salmon for entree and Jen had pate, and for mains Jen had rack of lamb and I had - you guessed it - a steak!  Fantastic. We had desert too, or at least I did: an apple tart flambee’d with brandy!  Then we had another wander around the main square to admire the buildings so gorgeously lit up. Sensational evening and a great day.

Brussels