{"id":958,"date":"2011-01-10T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T07:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.traveleurope.com\/en\/?p=958"},"modified":"2013-09-27T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T11:02:00","slug":"brussels-the-engaging-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.traveleurope.com\/en\/brussels-the-engaging-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels: the engaging Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The capital of <strong>Belgium<\/strong>, seat of the European Union, is one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the Old Country, yet has retained a charm that makes it a man-sized city, intriguing and seductive. The wealth of historical monuments, palaces and museums coexists with a very dynamic and lively style, very attentive to fashion trends and modern, multicultural lifestyles, starting from food: the international restaurants are flanked by the many brasseries, modern nightclubs and old-fashioned pubs where the atmosphere is a mixture of dreams and art.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nBrussels has given birth to personalities like the Surrealist painter <strong>Ren\u00e9 Magritte<\/strong>, architect <strong>Victor Horta<\/strong> -exponent and interpreter of the <em>Art Nouveau<\/em> style, singer-songwriter <strong>Jacques Brel<\/strong>, but also comics\u2019 characters such as <strong>Herg\u00e9&#8217;s Tintin<\/strong>, Lucky Luke by the pencil of Maurice de Bevere and scriptwriter Ren\u00e9 Goscinny, up to the Smurfs by Pierre Culliford, aka Peyo.<\/p>\n<p>A stroll through the historical centre of Brussels allows us to understand the charm of this city, its secrets and its history. Starting from the symbol of the city, the <strong>Manneken Pis<\/strong> &#8211; whose source is almost legendary &#8211; which emphasizes the spirit of independence of the inhabitants: a mocking little boy who pees on the world.<\/p>\n<p>And of course the buildings, such as the <strong>Atomium<\/strong>, constructed of steel, which represents an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times; the <strong>Grand Place<\/strong> with <strong>Hotel de Ville<\/strong> and the <strong>Maison du Roi<\/strong>; the <strong>Gothic<\/strong> cathedral of <strong>Saint Michel<\/strong>. Not to be missed are the city parks: 1,700 hectares of forest and 600 hectares of city parks among which is worth a mention <strong>Jubelpark<\/strong>, the <strong>Cinquantenaire park<\/strong>, an urban park of 30 hectares. And in the late afternoon and evening, it is a must to spend some time at a &#8216;<em>ralineria<\/em>&#8216;, where you can enjoy one of the many <strong>beers<\/strong> produced in Belgium.<\/p>\n<p>Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/phalenebdlv\/5178215542\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">phalenebdlv<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A city on a human scale,  intriguing and seductive, where tradition coexists with modernity, and art nouveau buildings blend with parks and forests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[498],"tags":[45,59],"class_list":["post-958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-belgium","tag-brussels"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Brussels: the engaging Capital - 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