As you know, at Christmas time everywhere in Europe looks as if it's jumped out of a storybook; I know our girl always wants it. This year I wanted us to catch together the scenes from the films we'd watched together! It was only the 2017 Ramadan Bayram. When I saw Turkish Airlines's affordable ticket prices I couldn't resist. I bought the tickets as a surprise for Berna!
With an opportunity like this we couldn't sit still. With the 1 January holiday falling on a Monday, it was only 3 days, but by also taking some annual leave it was going to be a 6-day adventure for us. Without dragging it out, let me tell you about our route. First stop, Brussels. Then in order Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Ghent! Aand the real reason we set out: Bruges! Here's the Belgium Travel Guide.. Come on, with the excitement of travelling these cities in winter in mind, let's look at Brussels in detail.
Things to Know About Brussels
The literal meaning of Brussels is city in the marsh; the city's name comes from the place it stood in the city's history being a marsh..
My first exploration of Belgium's capital Brussels was during my Interrail tour. When you set foot in the city, the multilingualism is a little confusing. Three official languages are used: French, Dutch and German. 80% of the population speaks French and 20% speaks Dutch. In fact
although it's a Flemish city, it's like a French island in the middle of a Flemish sea; you'll understand what I mean better when you get there. The signs also have directions in Dutch and French, and announcements are made in all three languages.
In 1944 Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg removed their borders for the free movement of their peoples and the goods produced, and entered a commercial partnership. The region's name became "Benelux", made up of the first two-three letters of the countries' English names. Of course, over time this clever process developed the partnership beyond commercial fields too. Even in holiday programmes you can see the cities of Brussels, Amsterdam and Luxembourg, which shares its name with the country, as the Benelux Route. If you like tour holidays, we recommend the Benelux-Paris tours that add Paris to the Benelux tour!
Places to Visit in Brussels
The fairytale small towns in Belgium have always excited me. Contrary to my dreams, I couldn't really love Brussels, I think because it's too cosmopolitan. Still, Brussels is a very sparkling city, especially if you're here at the end of the year like us. A bit of research shows that in fact this city sparkles all year round! There are two reasons:
The first, of course, is the weather getting dark early, especially in winter! During the New Year celebrations it was already dark by around 16:00 in the evening, and decorations and New Year lights adorned everywhere.
Another reason closely connected to this need is the electricity Brussels received from Germany for many years after World War II as war reparations. That's why all the city's big avenues and streets are lit up.
Where Is Brussels?
Brussels is the capital of Belgium, which has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean. The country is made up of 3 federal regions, and Brussels is located in the Belgium region, at the intersection of the Charleroi and Willebroek canals.
As I said at the start of the post, Brussels is a real transfer point, a connection hub: it's at very short distances from Amsterdam, Paris and Luxembourg. You can reach almost all of them in 2 hours. We got from Brussels to Amsterdam on a journey that took 2 hours 45 minutes. Of course our choice for this journey was FlixBus. Tickets were 11€ per person. As I said, getting around is both easy and affordable. Flights to Brussels are also relatively cheaper than to other cities. So if there are places nearby you want to see, you can use Brussels as a stopover point and tour this city for a day as well. We paid 700€ per person return for the tickets we bought from Turkish Airlines.
When to Go to Brussels?
In Belgium, between the Netherlands and France, the weather conditions, especially in winter, are harsher and colder compared with ours. Based on this, of course, we can say the ideal season is June-September. But we added this place to the winter routes we started in 2016. Summer trips have their good sides of course, but for us winter trips are always better. ☃
Whatever season we go in, having a raincoat or umbrella is a must. Keep in mind that because it's further north than Turkey it has a harsher cold, and don't pack your suitcase without checking the weather forecast! ☔
Note: I can say it's almost impossible to walk around in December-February without thermal underwear. Good gloves, a scarf and a beanie are also a must!
How to Get to Brussels?
Brussels, one of the important cities in Europe, has flights from almost all airlines. Flights generally operate via Brussels Airport (BRU) in Brussels and Charleroi Airport (CRL), which low-cost carriers fly to.
By the way, as I mentioned above, you can also come to Brussels from neighbouring countries by train very comfortably and quickly. European train journeys are a quality and fast transport choice. In Belgium, which has a good train network, train travel is at times both faster and more comfortable than flying! Brussels - Paris takes 1 hour 30 minutes by high-speed train, and Brussels - Amsterdam 2 hours.
Where to Stay in Brussels?
As New Year approaches, many people flock to Belgium's small fairytale cities: Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Mechelen...
Because of the holiday season, hotels/hostels have mostly reached 100% occupancy. Since the city is small, wherever you stay, you're close to the centre. But if, like us, you want to be within walking distance of the places to see, you can choose Hotel Saint Nicolas, whose location is absolutely perfect. We paid 89€ for 1 night for 2 people. Ibis, Novotel, Marriott and Golden Palace are also hotels we saw in the centre. Click here for reservations!
Apart from that, you can also stay in hostels or rent a home on AirBnb. Our AirBnb recommendations - click here!
Brussels Airport & Getting Around the City
Like many European cities, Brussels has a developed public transport network. You can reach many places you want to go in the city on foot. Since you can tour most of the city on foot, a map is the biggest lifesaver. That's why I strongly recommend getting a map as soon as you arrive in the city!
But if you say you'll use public transport, there's a comfortable network you can grasp quickly. I've gone into detail below. First, let's write for those coming from the airport to Brussels city centre. As I mentioned above, there are 2 airports in the city:
Brussels Airport (BRU)
It's Brussels' biggest airport, and international flights generally operate from here. There are many options for getting from the airport, 11 km northeast of the city, to the city centre: train, bus and taxi.
If you want to go to the city centre, that is the central train station, you need to get off 2 stops after boarding the train at the airport on level -1. The first stop is Brussels North, and the second is Brussels Central. You get to the central train station in about 15 minutes.
Just as we were about to buy a standard ticket at the ticket office, we noticed the very advantageous 'Go Pass 10' ticket option! Of course we chose the Go Pass.
So what is this Go Pass? It's a ticket option you can use when going by train from any place in Belgium to a different one. It isn't personal, and you have the right to use it 10 times on the train. You need to be under 26, but we didn't see any check on this. The two of us chose to get a single 'Go Pass 10'. Just a return trip from central Brussels to the airport came to 17.5€ per person. We paid 52€ for the Go Pass 10 ticket, which we could also use going to cities like Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges.
We bought our ticket from the ticket machine here 
In Belgium you can go almost anywhere you can think of by train
To go by train from the airport to the city centre, we had to buy the Diabolotoeslag tickets required for the Go Pass. You have to buy this ticket both when leaving the airport and when entering the airport. When we asked why, it was because the airport is run by a private company and gets this revenue. We paid 5.2€ per person when leaving the airport and 5.3€ on entry. In short, we saved 53.40€ in total. How? The Belgium route we followed was like this:
Brussels Airport - Brussels Central 8.90€
Antwerp - Gent Sint Pieters 9.80€
Gent Sint Pieters - Bruges 6.70€
Bruges - Leuven 18.10€
Leuven - Brussels Airport 9.20€
If we'd followed the route above without buying the Go Pass, we'd have paid 105.40€ for two people. But in total the two of us toured by paying 52€.
Note: We travelled from Brussels to Amsterdam, from Amsterdam to Rotterdam and from Rotterdam to Antwerp with FlixBus buses. The bus worked out many times cheaper than the train.
Charleroi Airport (CRL)
Airlines that generally offer cheap flights operate flights here: Ryanair, Wizzair, Pegasus etc. From this airport too you can easily reach the city centre by train, bus or taxi.
The airport train leaves from level -1 below the arrivals terminal and reaches the city centre (Central Station) in 20-25 minutes. You can buy the train ticket at the ticket office; the ticket price is 7.80€.
Getting Around the City
There are 3 metro lines in Brussels. The bus network is also very developed.
In Brussels, tram, metro and bus transport is provided by the company STIB. On the company's website you can check service details and timetables. You can also find out how, and in how long, you'll get somewhere. Better still, we've left the link to the app made for mobile devices here.
We used the 10-ride card we bought throughout our trip. It was more than enough for us. You can buy the cards from the kiosk machines you'll find at metro entrances or from STIB sales offices. By the way, transfers are free for 60 minutes after first use!
A single ride is 4.50€ if you buy it from the kiosk machines and 6.00€ if you buy it on board. The 10-ride ticket we used is 32€, and you can also use these tickets for airport transport if you like. This card is strongly recommended for those doing just a Brussels trip.
Brussels Cuisine
When you say Brussels, or even Belgium, the first thing that comes to mind will be 'chocolate'. Chocolate should come first both in the kitchen and in shopping!
The most famous foods of Brussels cuisine are chocolate, mussels, waffles and chips. Considering what I've written, it's almost as if it has no famous foods. Yes, we tasted these foods, but you can't help expecting better things. If, like us, you're in Brussels in December - January, it may be hard to taste the mussels.
Belgian Chocolate🍫
Imagine a place that smells strongly of chocolate as you walk! This must be what being famous for chocolate means. In Brussels there are a great many kinds and options of chocolate. If it were a bit cheap too, we'd have wanted to buy almost all of them. But after seeing the prices here, I couldn't help thinking "Do we even eat chocolate in our country?" Either this place is very expensive or they give us different things as chocolate.
Don't look at the price! :) 
Manneken Pis themed
We chose to buy our chocolate from the oh-so-famous Leonidas. There are so many shops that you can buy from whichever you like.
Note: We actually stocked up on chocolate by finding a 'Lidl' supermarket.
Waffle🍩
Where chocolate is famous, how could there be no waffles! This wonderful-smelling waffle is sold almost everywhere, from mobile van sellers to shops. If only it were as good as it smells.
When ordering a waffle, don't be scared when you see those huge pieces of dough. They're much bigger than ours and different in flavour too. The dough is sold plain, and the price changes depending on each topping you add.
For example, just a waffle is 2€, with icing sugar 3€, with chocolate 4€, with chocolate and banana 5€. If you want it loaded with toppings like ours, you may need to increase your waffle budget. Our choice was Dandoy Waffle. We got plain waffles, spread our own Nutella and sliced the fruit we had with us on top.
Beer🍺
A la Mort Subite 
We sipped our delicious beer with a cheese plate..
In Belgium, after chocolate, the first thing that comes to mind is beer. Some love it and some don't! But we thought, having gone, we couldn't not try it. On the beer front, our first recommendation is A la Mort Subite, which has become a tradition.
Chips🍟
You can't go to Belgium and not try the chips. Especially at Christmas time you can find street food everywhere. Don't forget to get the delicious chips sold for 3€.
Shopping in Brussels
Galeries Royales 
Brussels' delicious chocolatiers 
The famous Belgian lace
As soon as you get off at the central train station, almost everywhere there are wonderful chocolatiers, beautiful lace makers, shops selling wonderful toys..
Brussels Useful Information
In Brussels shops are closed on Sundays. On Saturdays many shops close at 16.00. So if you're planning to shop, don't leave it to Sunday!! Brussels is a safe city. It's enough to watch your pockets while walking around the streets. The areas outside the city are known to be a bit more dangerous.
The tourist information office is in the 'Grand Place'. From this very centrally located office you can get various brochures and a city map.
Do You Need a Visa for Brussels?
Yes, you need a Schengen visa to go to Brussels. Visas are not required for green (special) and grey (service) passports. A visa is required for the burgundy (ordinary) passport.
Cycling in Brussels
As in most of Europe, shared bikes provided by the municipalities are found in Brussels. The bike-sharing system found in many developed cities with cycling awareness is widely used here. It's a system they're also trying to set up in Istanbul, but unfortunately I don't think it has any chance of taking hold. With the daily and monthly bike rental cards, people can take a bike from one bike station as needed and leave it at a different point. This way the state provides a healthy alternative for transport and personal wellbeing.
I'd mentioned it before in my Moscow post too. For those curious about the system, I'm adding the link again. The system in Brussels is called VILLO, set up with clunky yellow bikes. ☺ But they're bikes with good brakes, well maintained, with tyres in good condition and saddles you can adjust to your height... Oh and by the way, they have the cutest baskets!
Now on to bike lanes. Of course there are roads with special lanes reserved for bikes. But there are some rules to being in traffic on a bike, and it's worth following them. The reminder's from us; happy pedalling.
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