Discovering Brussels, Belgium: My Memorable Day Trip Experience

Brussels day trip dump

If you follow me on Instagram @anne.polyglotadventurer, then you already know that I went to Paris a couple of weeks ago. I managed to fit in two day trips during this time, one to Rouen, Normandie, and one to Brussels, Belgium. It was my very first time in Belgium, and the experience was made even better by meeting up with my friends who were coming in from London, UK.

First, let's talk about getting to Brussels from Paris. I got my train tickets in advance through Trainline (enter my name "Anne Lam" at checkout for a discount). On the day of the excursion, I made my way over to Gare du Nord in Paris, and waited to board the Eurostar train that would take me to Brussels, Belgium, where I had made plans to meet up with my friends. The train ride only took about an hour and a half, making Brussels a great day-trip option from Paris.

Boarding the Eurostar train to Brussels

My arrival at Bruxelles-Midi station

After meeting my friends at Bruxelles-Midi station, we took the metro to Grote Markt, which is the central market square in Brussels. We decided to go there, because it is one of the major tourist destinations and also one of the most important landmarks in Brussels. Honestly, my friends and I did not really have a planned itinerary for Brussels, since we wanted a more relaxing and chill day. We spent the majority of our time just walking around the area and stopping at pubs/cafés whenever we needed a break. However, if you would like a more structured itinerary, you can definitely book a guided walking tour or even a bus tour.

So, if my friends and I had no real plans for Brussels, what did we end up doing and seeing? Well, we made it a point to see the Mannekin Pis, as well as two other urinating statues. Yes, you read that right - urinating statues. Together, the three urinating statues form the "pis trilogy". The Mannekin Pis is a very small, bronze statue of a little boy peeing in a fountain. It is about a five-minute walk from Grote Markt, so it was very easy to get to for us. Originally, the fountain served to distribute drinking water in Brussels.

Mannekin Pis statue: a little boy urinating into the fountain

In addition to the famous Mannekin Pis though, there is also the Jeanneke Pis, which is a small statue of a little girl squatting and urinating into a basin. Basically, it is the female version of the Mannekin Pis statue.

Jeanneke Pis statue: the female version of the Mannekin Pis

Finally, to complete the "pis trilogy", we also have the Het Zinneke, which is a statue of a dog peeing on a post. The difference with this statue though, is that there is no actual water coming out if it. This was my favourite statue out of the three, because it reminded me of my own dog.

Het Zinneke: urinating dog statue

After so much walking around, my friends and I decided to stop at a pub. Since Belgium is very well-known for its beer, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try some. It was clear from the drinks menu at this pub that Belgian beer comes in a large variety of styles and even flavours. One of the more interesting beers we got was a green, cactus-flavoured beer. I'm not a huge beer drinker, but I have to admit that I did like this one a lot.

Cactus-flavoured beer

You could also order a set of 10 beers, all of different flavours and colours, which I thought was super cool and interesting. Unfortunately, we didn't end up getting it, because it would have been too beer for us. However, we did see at least two other tables ordering the set! If beer is something that interests you, you can do a whole Belgian beer tasting experience.

For lunch, we decided to go to a well-known restaurant in the area called Chez Léon. Since mussels and fries is one of the regional cuisines of Brussels, that's exactly what we ended up getting, in addition to a beef stew. What I appreciated about the mussels was that the sauce it was in was very simple and fresh, meaning that you could really taste the mussels themselves. The sauce basically consisted of celery and onions, which added to the flavour of the mussels, instead of overwhelming it entirely. The beef stew was also fantastic. The meat was so tender, and just melted in your mouth.

Mussels at Chez Léon

Beef stew at Chez Léon

After fuelling up, we decided to continue exploring the area further on foot. It was a lovely, sunny day, and the area overall was very quaint and charming - perfect for walking and getting even more steps in.

Walking the streets in Brussels, near Grote Markt

I love these types of quaint little streets

Such a beautiful, sunny day to be walking outside

We also found a lot of Mannekin Pis souvenirs. Seems like they really take their "pis trilogy" in Brussels seriously!

Mannekin Pis souvenirs

Before we knew it, it was time to start heading back to the train station and return to Paris. This is where we encountered a little hiccup. Turns out, the metro isn't quite as punctual as expected, and overcrowding seems to be a real issue. Not only was our metro extremely late, but we also missed three trains that came, because they were completely full each time and couldn't fit any more people. We were starting to be short on time, so we decided to give up on the metro and take the bus instead. The bus, thankfully, departed on time, but we encountered some... "interesting" people on the bus, which made the ride a little unpleasant. Once we got to the train station, we had a bit of trouble finding where exactly we had to go to board the train to Paris. Luckily, we made it with time to spare.

Eurostar train arriving at the station, where we were waiting to board

All in all, I had a great day trip in Brussels! I think it showed me that you don't always need to have everything fully planned in order to still have a good time. My friends and I virtually had nothing in our itinerary for this day, and we still managed to enjoy ourselves immensely in Brussels.