Brussels beckons all visitors

Find museums, rich food choices and more in Belgian capital

Story and photos by Lexie Taba

U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden Public Affairs Office

If you are looking for a city with beautiful buildings and lively, helpful people — Brussels, Belgium, is the place to visit.

With the fast pace of New York City during the day and the tranquility of the countryside at night, Brussels welcomes visitors to explore its museums and historical landmarks while relaxing in its rich variety of restaurants. These are well-known for delicious food and courteous service.

Among the many sights worth taking in while exploring the city are the Great Mosque, located in the city’s Jubelpark, the Temple of Human Passions, the Cinquantenaire Arch and two museums — Autoworld and the Jubelpark Museum.

The Cinquantenaire Arch was completed in 1905 after King Leopold II called for a monument to be built in 1880 commemorating Belgian independence.

The Temple of Human Passions was built by Victor Horta to house a large marble relief by Jef Lambeaux that depicts the human passions.

Autoworld contains a huge collection of American and European autos, some from three centuries ago.

For family fun, Bruparck is the home of Mini-Europe, Oceade, a movie theater, the Atomium, and plenty of restaurants. Mini-Europe contains models of important and noted buildings and structures from every country in Europe, all built to scale. Oceade is a heated indoor/outdoor swimming pool, with slides for people and inner-tubes, a wave pool, a hot tub and a sauna. The movie theater plays movies in both French and the original language, English. The Atomium is a model of a unit cell in iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times. It was built in 1958 for the Brussel’s World Fair. Three of the spheres are currently closed to visitors, but the others are accessible by escalator.

Foods from many nations are located around Brussels; everything from Indian to Vietnamese, Lebanese to Persian.

The metro is an easy and efficient way of getting around, and everyone is quick to help a lost tourist.

Brussels is about a three-hour drive from Wiesbaden, but you can also arrive by train.

Overall, Brussels is a beautiful, exciting city that offers fun for all ages and interests.

To find out more about Brussels visit www.resto.be for restaurants, www.tripadvisor.com for hotels and www.bruparck.com for information about Bruparck.