Help! What should we do in Brussels? ( with 1 1/2 days available).
 

Ok we (2 adult woman) will be arriving by bus from Amsterdam at noonish on a sat in early May. We will have the rest of the day and all day sunday before we fly to Nice(6pm flight from Brussels Int'l) What can we see and do on a tight budget. (We will have the ISIC card and a Teacher Card)

Naturally the Grand Palace, some chocolate somewhere? and ......

P.S. we already have our accomodations for the night.

P.S.S. how much is the train from town-airport and how long does it take?

Thanks in advance for your help.

The City Museum is nice and houses all the costumes for the Mannekin Pis. The musuem faces Grand Place, and is open on Sundays too. There's a bus 'orientation' tour you could take if you like (I haven't done the Brussels one but sometimes they are helpful).

http://www.trabel.com/brussel/brussels-kings_house.htm
http://www.busbavard.be/home.php?lang=en

We were in Brussels in October for a couple of days, one of which was spent in Bruge. We were mainly there to meet our guide for the Battle of the Bulge area. But, in addition to the Grand Place, chocolate and waffles, there are several museums, including the Museum of Natural History, the Center for Comic Strip Art, Royal Muesums of Fine Arts, Royal Museums of Art and History.
We spent hours in the Grand Place and nearby. We sat in an ourdoor restaurant and enjoyed people watching and a good meal. There are churches, such as the Basilica of Koekelberg.
We found it a very pleasant experience to be in Brussels. Hope you have a great time.

I love the Royal Museum of Fine Arts - it has a ancient art section and modern art section. Both have fabulous art work, esp the Flemish Primitives. The Magritte Museum (in the same complex) should be opening soon.

Musee Horta is a jewel, esp if you are an Art Nouveau fan. There are Art Nouveau walks which you can download from the Brussels Tourist center.

You may be interested in reading my Brussels part of my trip report from Sept 2008:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...omment-2585621

Wow thank you for all the great replies. I can't wait until we get there.

Keep the idea's flowing. We only have 2 months to plan what we will do.

Sounds like we really needed more than a day and a half. I will def. have to return to be able to see all that's there.

The cartoon museum- the Musee de Bandes Dessinees; find a good old fashioned pub, with Belgian beer, and eat Carbonnade de boeuf flamande; walk about the old town.

Hi Laurel61

We spent several days in Brussells, and found the hop-on-hop-off bus very helpful. The commentary gave us interesting information, and the bus loop took us to areas we definitely wouldn't have discovered on foot. If you have the time, hop off at the Atomium Park. There's a gigantic 'atom' that you walk and climb through, with wonderful views over the city and surrounding countryside. We often hopped off the bus at a point that interested us, then walked to the next pick-up point to see more of the city on foot.

If you do a search under my screen name you can see the full report for our trip.
Happy travels, Di

HI Laurel; A lot depends on what you accomplish the first day. The next morning, you could consider the train to Gent. It's closer than Brugge. Spend a few hours and be back in Brussels by mid-afternoon. iris1745/dick