Touching down at Brussels Airport in Brussels makes it easy to explore, with nearby places close enough for simple day trips. Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the home of the European Union, but under the official surface it is a quirky, bilingual city of comic strip murals, Art Nouveau townhouses, and cafes serving hundreds of beers. It is compact, a little eccentric, and very good at eating well.

Things to do in Brussels: - Stand in the Grand Place, especially at night when the guildhalls are lit - Find the Manneken Pis and check which costume he is wearing - Follow the comic strip murals through the city center - Tour the Horta Museum and the Art Nouveau streets of Ixelles and Saint-Gilles - Ride up the Atomium for views over the city - Buy pralines in the Sablon and eat a cone of frites with mayonnaise from a frituur - See the surrealist collection at the Magritte Museum - Hunt for bargains at the daily flea market in the Marolles - Drink a lambic or a Trappist beer in a brown cafe

Belgium is small, and trains from Brussels reach most of it fast. Leuven, a lively university town with a Gothic town hall, is about 25 minutes away. Ghent, with its medieval towers and canals, is about 40 minutes, Antwerp and its fashion and diamond districts about 45 minutes, and Bruges, the postcard city of canals and swans, about an hour. The battlefield of Waterloo is half an hour south. Order moules-frites or a carbonnade stew simmered in beer, and settle in. Brussels rewards slowing down.