Brussels

This Month in Brussels (March):

Shopping: Guides, postcards and books about Belgium are sold in Le Cercle des Voyageurs. There's a bar, too, where regular customers can be found reading while having a drink (18 Rue des Grands Carmes).

Sightseeing: Objects, movies, art pieces and interactive installations form the C'est Notre Terre 2! exhibition, raising awareness on climate change (86 Avenue du Port, expo-terra.be/en/).

Key areas: The Mont des Arts area marks the transition between lower and upper town and boasts many museums, theatres, historical monuments and an archeological site - the remains of the Chapel of Charles Quint.

Day trips: The 28-hectare Hélécine Provincial Park is situated on the site of an ancient abbey, a 40-minute hop outside the city. It contains a nature reserve and an 18th-century castle. Don't leave without sampling the Abbey of Heylissem beer.

Brussels News & Gossip

Out of town: Bruges Ice Festival

Brussels

It's the kind of job worthy of mythical status. Build a beautiful village complete with train station, atmospheric pub, sculptures and a slew of funfair rides for the kids. Decorate it in signature artwork, then watch it slowly dissolve into nothing. And rebuild it all over again the following year. Welcome to Bruges Ice Festival, an annual event open from 10am-7pm until 10 January, just an hour's train ride from Brussels and metres from the central train station.

With 300 tonnes of ice works decorated with 400 tonnes of snow, the event calls for an army of international ice sculptors who descend on the city to create a winter wonderland made entirely of ice, with showpieces and interactive snow-bound activities.

Previous themes have included fairy tales and classical styles, but this year sees an animated film become the focal point. With sabre-toothed tigers and nut-gathering rodents galore, Ice Age is the 2009 foil for the talent of Bruges resident sculptors, and the fantastical possibilities have seen more madcap designs than ever.

On completion, the vast array of ice exhibits are housed in an enormous thermal tent designed to keep the contents at a constant -6°C. But while guests may want to keep their coats on to enjoy the display, hurtling down a towering ice slide into a frostily wrought pub is well worth getting a red nose for. Not to mention making that steaming hot chocolate and Belgian waffle all the more deserved. www.icesculpture.be

Brussels Trivia

• March: In the late 16th century - 250 years before Belgium existed as a country - Brussels was the capital city of the Spanish Netherlands.

• February: Due to its shape, Brussels city centre is commonly referred to as "the pentagon".

• January: In 1847 Karl Marx wrote his Communist Party Manifesto in Brussels in Le Cygne - a café on the Grand Place.

• Print page
• Email page
• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Google
• Reddit
• Technorati
• Twitter
• Yahoo!