A Day in Brussels (2025)

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found travelling by train to be much more enjoyable compared to taking flights, and both my mum and I were keen to get the Eurostar to Brussels to enjoy the mussels and waffles. My mum had been many times before, and although I’d been two or three times, including once on a school trip to see the EU parliament, I didn’t remember the city at all so wanted to familiarise myself with it once again. 

We set off on a 7am train out to Brussels from St Pancras, the waiting gate of which I consider much worse than those in airports as it is always jam-packed with nowhere near enough seating for everyone. We had accidentally booked Eurostar Plus tickets on the outbound journey, so were treated to breakfast, which comprised a vanilla pain au chocolate, a measly amount of Greek yoghurt with rhubarb and ginger compote, an orange juice and a coffee. It did the job and I spent the rest of the journey reading and napping so it flew by and within only two hours we had arrived in Brussels.

One thing to know about me is that I enjoy scrapbooking and photobooth pictures come with the territory. Shortly after arriving, I spotted a photobooth, so had to take a couple of snaps with my mum, and we then took the metro to the Central Station, which was a new experience. 

I was desperate to walk around the city but my mum preferred to get a hop-on-hop-off bus since we had limited time to explore and it was forecast to rain. We used to get these buses often on family holidays but I’ve since gone off them slightly and would prefer to amble about, however we ended up getting the bus. And thank goodness, as despite being August, it was 18°C, with heavy downpours and winds. The bus itself was decent and I learnt a lot about Brussels, however I didn’t find the city particularly enticing (although there were definitely nice areas within it!). 

By the time we finished the loop on the bus, it was around 1pm so we were absolutely starving. We headed into the first Belgian restaurant we spotted, which happened to be Leffe, where I enjoyed a traditional beef stew with chips and beer. It did the job and the service was very speedy, which was much appreciated as we had a booking to get to at 2pm. 

I’m very big on New Year’s Resolutions, and one of my favourites to do is to ‘try one new thing each month’. Since we were in Belgium, this month’s new activity I’d be trying was (drumroll please) ….. chocolate making! 

I quite enjoy a cooking class and when I saw chocolate making as an optional activity in the Belgian capital, I jumped at the chance. I was very excited going into it and the instructor was a very humorous lady which made the experience even more enjoyable. We learnt a lot about the bean-to-bar process and tried many samples along the way, then made our own creations, including a chocolate bar, some truffles, and smaller chocolate pieces. The activity lasted one and a half hours and it was definitely the highlight of the trip. We then bought a few extra chocolate bars home as souvenirs.

By the time we finished the class, the sun had decided to make an appearance and we could finally explore the city centre in all its glory; it was nice to see the central square and the small meandering streets off it. 

My mum and I shared a Belgian waffle with strawberries and Nutella, which was delicious, and then had an early dinner at a restaurant called Leon. I had mussels complimented by an Aperol Spritz, whilst my mum had fish. The food was nice and before we knew it, it was time to start heading back to the station. 

We took the metro back to Gare du Midi station, and then bought some snacks and make up from the duty free, before heading to the Eurostar lounge. The lounge was empty, which was nice to fully enjoy and relax, and then we boarded our train and within a couple of hours had made it back to London. 

Although I don’t love Brussels, I did enjoy the trip and spending quality time with my mum greatly and Belgium does have many other beautiful places to visit, including Bruges and Dinant!