Brussels Christmas Markets

I saw the sun!! It was Wednesday morning in the car on the way to the Prague Airport. Then I got on a plane, landed in Brussels to a cloudy, gloomy day. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

The flight was uneventful (1:20 minutes gate to gate), the walk through the Brussels airport long (it’s gigantic) and the ride from the airport to the flat expensive ($75; traffic was horrible). I arrived at the flat too early to get the key so I found a restaurant down the block for lunch.

I was finally settled into the flat around 3pm. I did a load of laundry then headed out to find the markets. My first stop was the Grand Place, the town square. Some say it’s the prettiest square in all of Europe. It’s big and it is beautiful, but it doesn’t have a Christmas market. Nope, not a single stall. It did, though, have a beautiful Christmas tree and a light show on the buildings.

Since there were no market stalls, I did a google search and found a market only about 10 minutes away, so off I went. I think Brussels is like Vienna; the markets are scattered all over the city. I passed a few along the way.

Eventually I found the one I was looking for, Place Sainte-Catherine, which is where most of the chalets are located. So, just by accident I found the biggest of the markets.

It was about a 50/50 split food/drink to stuff to buy booths. A lot of the booths were similar to markets I’ve already seen – woolen goods, jewelry, wooden goods and candles.

I found some new stuff as well.

There were more giant sausages but also French cuisine.

There were several crepe booths.

Of course there was lots of other sweets.

The market was less than 10 minutes from the flat so I was home in no time.

That was Wednesday. The forecast on Thursday was rainy most of the day so I spent the morning snug in my flat. I did another load of laundry (no I didn’t have that many dirty clothes but the washers here are very small), read a book, ate more quiche and started watching a couple of Christmas movies on Netflix. I didn’t get more than 10 minutes into either one of them so I found stuff to watch on YouTube.

About 4pm the rain had turned into a light mist so off I went to find more markets. There was another one less than 10 minutes in the opposite direction of yesterday but there wasn’t too much there.

They also had a tent for curling and ice skating.

Then I went on the hunt for sit down restaurant for dinner. There was plenty of street food but I had a taste for a bigger meal. Besides, I wanted to get out of the chilly rain. I found a place not too far from the Grand Place. It served mostly seafood but also had steak. I haven’t had steak in forever so I splurged.

Then I walked back to the Grand Place. On the way I passed a few interesting displays.

I found an entire store dedicated to frites.

Today it was dark when I got to the Grand Place, and, I was just in time for the light show.

Then it was back home to relax for the evening. Even though I didn’t go out until 4pm, I still managed to get over 7,000 steps. Not bad.

I didn’t get a Belgian waffle this time but I picked this up on the way home. A lemon tart that looks delicious. I’m so full from dinner I’m not sure I’ll eat it tonight. Hopefully it can survive the ride to Bruges in my bag.

Tomorrow I’m back on the train for the 1-hour to Bruges. I’m only there for one night but I think my B&B is right on the square, which is where the market is located. Hopefully, the weather will clear up.