BRUSSELS & BRUGES
My lovely partner won this trip from Trendyol with a romantic tweet, so we found ourselves on the road again for New Year. Brussels was the first stop on our week-long Paris and Benelux tour. Our flight left Istanbul at eight in the morning and reached Brussels around noon.
It was bitterly cold, with intermittent rain. Our guide claimed that Brussels was not a city you would want to see more than once, because so much of it was filled with diplomatic and institutional buildings. That was a personal opinion rather than a fact, of course. Brussels is one of the European Union’s principal institutional centres and is home to major EU buildings, including facilities of the European Parliament. The Parliament’s visitor centre and Hemicycle remain open to visitors under current booking and security rules; details were checked in August 2026.
Two of Belgium’s most familiar attractions are chocolate and the small urinating-boy statue, Manneken-Pis. Yet the country is also the home of creators behind comic characters many of us have known since childhood. Belgian artists gave the world Lucky Luke, the Smurfs and Tintin, among many others, and Brussels now celebrates this heritage through its comic-strip murals. Personally, I am not a great chocolate lover, and Manneken-Pis was tiny despite looking enormous in photographs. To me, that was proof of how brilliantly Europeans can package and promote an attraction: it is astonishing how such a small and rather mysterious statue has been turned into something every visitor wants to see.
It was bitterly cold, with intermittent rain. Our guide claimed that Brussels was not a city you would want to see more than once, because so much of it was filled with diplomatic and institutional buildings. That was a personal opinion rather than a fact, of course. Brussels is one of the European Union’s principal institutional centres and is home to major EU buildings, including facilities of the European Parliament. The Parliament’s visitor centre and Hemicycle remain open to visitors under current booking and security rules; details were checked in August 2026.
Two of Belgium’s most familiar attractions are chocolate and the small urinating-boy statue, Manneken-Pis. Yet the country is also the home of creators behind comic characters many of us have known since childhood. Belgian artists gave the world Lucky Luke, the Smurfs and Tintin, among many others, and Brussels now celebrates this heritage through its comic-strip murals. Personally, I am not a great chocolate lover, and Manneken-Pis was tiny despite looking enormous in photographs. To me, that was proof of how brilliantly Europeans can package and promote an attraction: it is astonishing how such a small and rather mysterious statue has been turned into something every visitor wants to see.
WHAT TO EAT
Could anyone go to Belgium and return without eating a waffle? :) The waffles really were delicious and enormous. Belgium also has Quick, a home-grown fast-food chain that serves surprisingly tasty burgers.
Because we were there on Christmas Day, we also encountered the traditional winter markets. We drank delicious mulled wine while carols played and ate waffles, burgers and biscuits from little wooden huts. These traditions transformed every city on our route, Brussels included, into something charming and theatrical. Europe at Christmas felt like a Hansel and Gretel story filled with tiny details :) Seasonal dates, locations and opening hours change each year, so check the official Brussels Winter Wonders programme before travelling.
WHAT TO DO AT CHRISTMAS
For Christmas, a strikingly modern tree-like installation stood in Grand-Place, the square where many of the city’s major celebrations take place. In the evening it was illuminated from within, and we watched a modern light show play across it. The historic Town Hall and guildhalls surrounding the square—not law-court buildings, as the original text suggested—were also washed in changing colours and visual effects.
BRUGES—WHERE IS THAT?
The following day, on our way towards Paris, we stopped in Bruges. We knew this tiny, picturesque city from the film In Bruges, which, to be honest, we had found rather boring. The city did not immediately reveal a dramatic secret to us, but its beauty comes from a network of canals rather than a single river. Bruges is famous for chocolate and lace. We did not even consider buying lace, convinced that Turkey’s own lace-making tradition was hard to beat.
In the end, both cities are worth seeing if you are nearby. At the time we felt they did not differ dramatically from other orderly European cities, although that was simply our personal reaction. Being there at Christmas made the trip special, and it had been a long time since we had visited this part of Europe, so we were glad we went.
Could anyone go to Belgium and return without eating a waffle? :) The waffles really were delicious and enormous. Belgium also has Quick, a home-grown fast-food chain that serves surprisingly tasty burgers.
Because we were there on Christmas Day, we also encountered the traditional winter markets. We drank delicious mulled wine while carols played and ate waffles, burgers and biscuits from little wooden huts. These traditions transformed every city on our route, Brussels included, into something charming and theatrical. Europe at Christmas felt like a Hansel and Gretel story filled with tiny details :) Seasonal dates, locations and opening hours change each year, so check the official Brussels Winter Wonders programme before travelling.
WHAT TO DO AT CHRISTMAS
For Christmas, a strikingly modern tree-like installation stood in Grand-Place, the square where many of the city’s major celebrations take place. In the evening it was illuminated from within, and we watched a modern light show play across it. The historic Town Hall and guildhalls surrounding the square—not law-court buildings, as the original text suggested—were also washed in changing colours and visual effects.
BRUGES—WHERE IS THAT?
The following day, on our way towards Paris, we stopped in Bruges. We knew this tiny, picturesque city from the film In Bruges, which, to be honest, we had found rather boring. The city did not immediately reveal a dramatic secret to us, but its beauty comes from a network of canals rather than a single river. Bruges is famous for chocolate and lace. We did not even consider buying lace, convinced that Turkey’s own lace-making tradition was hard to beat.
In the end, both cities are worth seeing if you are nearby. At the time we felt they did not differ dramatically from other orderly European cities, although that was simply our personal reaction. Being there at Christmas made the trip special, and it had been a long time since we had visited this part of Europe, so we were glad we went.
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