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Grand Place (Grote Markt) – The Grand Place in
Brussels is a great place to start with kids. The Grand Place, important
since medieval times, is a large square, surrounded by gabled facades of
the town hall, private residences, and guild halls of painters, tailors,
butchers and bakers, coopers and cabinet-makers. It's a big wide space,
where there's lots of room to run around, and cafes for a snack. |
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 City
Museum (Musee de la Ville, Museum van de Stad) – In the King's
House (Maison du Roi), is the city museum. Check out the models of Brussels
from the 13th - 17th century and marionette collections. Don't miss costumes
of the Manneken Pis, dressed as a postman, chef, soldier, Louis XV, samurai,
Olympic bicyclist, El Cid, Elvis Presley, and more, plus a video. |
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Flower
carpet – Every two years, the third week in August, the Grand Place
is decorated with a carpet of flowers, a truly colorful sight. |
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Le Manneken Pis (Kertje de Bruxelles) – Kids will
get a kick out of the Manneken Pis fountain, a diminutive cherub, perched
in a little niche, peeing away night and day. Legends of the Manneken Pis
abound, but one of the most popular is that the Manneken peed to put out
a burning fuse of a bomb to blow up the Grand Place. |
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It's also tradition
to present the Manneken Pis dressed in clothes, dating back to the 17th century.
The cherub has over 700 different costumes (you can see part of the collection
in the City Museum). |
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Tip: Go early in the morning to avoid crowds, so it's
easy to see the fountain. |
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Costume and Lace Museum (Musee de Costume et de la Dentelle)
(rue de la Violette) – This small museum has exquisite examples
of lace-trimmed dresses, veils, shawls and fans from the 17th to early 20th
century. Ethereal gowns, adorned with clouds of hand-made lace, seem to
float in the air. This beautiful exhibit of a lost art is a must for anyone
interested in clothing or fashion. |
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Musee Magritte Museum – A museum full of Rene Magritte's paintings and other Surrealist painters is a great place for grumpy teens. Magritte
(a native of Brussels) is perfect for the teenage mind, everything seems
familiar, but somehow it's reversed or floating in mid-air. This is a must see! |
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The museum is closed on Mondays. |
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Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Musees Royaux des
Beaux-Arts de Belgique) – Next to the Musee Magritte are three museums, located at rue de la Regence: |
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Musee Old Masters Museum – Kids will enjoy the Bruegels, a gorgeous unicorn tapestry, and the painting
of Dona Juana surrounded by bunches of pet dogs, each one with a name. |
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Musee Modern Museum – The collection includes paintings by Matisse, Dali and Miro. |
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Musee Fin-de-Siecle Museum – A museum which older kids and teens will appreciate, check out the Art Nouveau architecture, paintings by James Ensor, such as Skeletons Fighting Over a Pickled Herring. |
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Parks – Next to the fine arts museums are two
parks, the Mont des Arts and Parc de Bruxelles. Mont des Arts has a small playset with climbing structures and little water play area
with small fountains to dabble toes. The large Parc de Bruxelles shady trees
and paths, and in the northeast corner is a playground with swings,
sandbox and climbing structures. |
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Belgian Comic Strip Center (Centre Belge de
la Bande Dessinee) – Belgium has a number of best-loved comic strip
artists, including Hergé, author of Tintin. This museum, housed in
a lovely Art Noveau building, will appeal to older kids and teens, especially
kids who like to do cartoon art. Exhibits show how comics are created, from
scriptwriting, to sketches, lettering text and bubbles, coloring and printing,
plus lots of examples of comic strip artists. The exhibits are labeled in
French and Flemish, ask for the English guide. |
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Museum of Natural Sciences (rue Vautier 29) – Visit the Dinosaur Gallery for Europe's largest collection of dinosaurs. Gigantic skeletons of iguanodons and T-rex's, and hands-on activities in the PaleoLab. In the North Sea gallery kids can find out about marine animals (off the coast of Belgium, and a Minerals Hall has rocks galore. |
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Porte de Hal – In the Middle Ages, Brussels was
a walled city with huge gateways. Today you can visit the 14th century Porte
de Hal tower gateway – it's big and impressive. The city wall is long
gone, but the tower is surrounded by a large grassy area, three cannons
to climb on, a bit of the old moat, and a dry slope to roll down the grass. |
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The ivy-covered tower is complete with open slits (for weapons
to poke out), high studded doors, and crenelations on the top. Inside, you'll
climb up the stairway on smooth stone steps going round and round. On each
level, there are exhibits with armor, chain mail, helmets, cross bows, tapestries.
At the very top, the interior wooden structure of the tower is visible,
and you can look out at the busy streets of Brussels through the wall openings. |
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Porte de Hal is closed on Mon. |
