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Choose one Belgian city or the other, or combine both in the same trip. Katherine Lawrey – with the help of SuperBreak – uncovers some unexpected and contrasting festive experiences
The atmosphere in Brussels’ Grand Place is electric. It’s a dark, rain-spattered night, yet the car-free square is ablaze with colour. The gothic-style 17th-century buildings are swathed in illuminations and classical music reverberates off the walls. The medieval bell tower of the Hotel de Ville dominates the scene. The lights change in time with the music, turning white, blue, purple, orange, red and green. During th 15-minute show, all pedestrians are rooted to the spot, hypnotised.
The lights and music, the giant fir tree and the life-size Nativity scene deliver a supercharged adrenalin shot that pulses Christmas through my veins. Turkey and tinsel, I’m ready for you.
With a seasonal market stretching for 250 stalls, it’s not hard to find Christmas spirit here. I begin my night with a free tour advertised on the Visit Brussels website. Guide Paquita leads me away from the streets lined with Christmas market stalls and reveals architectural gems that would be easy to miss with all the seasonal razzmatazz. “Brussels is not a beautiful, prestigious city,” she says. “Sometimes you look around and things don’t work. It’s very human in that respect. But open doors, and you find something amazing.”
She leads us down side streets, peppering her tour with anecdotes about city life, architectural comment and restaurant recommendations. But it’s cold, and after an hour’s walk I’m ready to hit the food stalls.
I follow the lights of a big Ferris wheel and immerse myself in the rows of stalls that flow around the Grand Place, Bourse (Stock Exchange), Place Sainte-Catherine and Marche aux Poissons.
Christmas markets are a multi-sensory experience. The aromas of the food reach me before my eyes alight on the piping hot pans of Tartiflette, a French concoction of potatoes, bacon and cheese; Belgian frites; garlicky fried mushrooms; and spicy sausages. My cold hands yearn to be wrapped around a warming mug of gluhwein (mulled wine) and my eyes are drawn to the stalls peddling a dazzling array of jewellery, soap, candles, children’s toys, woollen hats and traditional Christmas decorations.
It may sound obvious, but it’s worth reminding clients that Christmas markets are an outside activity, so they’ll need to pack layers and thermals to keep warm. Gluhwein is a great winter warmer but the effect is only temporary.
Brussels delivers an authentic Christmas market experience, but after recent terrorism-related events in the heart of Europe, clients may be wary to visit a bustling capital. After the Paris attacks last November, the authorities are on high alert and armed police are an inevitable presence around the markets.
The stark realities of the terrorist threat are less evident in nearby Bruges, which is a more intimate experience. The two cities work well together as they are only an hour apart by train and have contrasting offers. Getting to Brussels is easy via Eurostar and connecting on to Bruges is simple. It’s the same station, Brussels Midi, just a different platform. Spending two or three nights in Bruges and one in Brussels is a good way to play it.
Bruges has a pared down Christmas market, and I am not convinced about the authenticity of its wares. Cosmetic beauty treatments and inflatable minions are among the more bemusing potential purchases.
Luckily, Bruges doesn’t need Christmas bric-a-brac to draw the crowds. I feel festive just walking around this charming town because every cafe, restaurant and bar is decorated. Even the horses pulling carriages have festive accessories.
Simply walking around the city, enjoying the cobbled streets, canals and historic buildings is pleasure enough. There’s a wealth of boutiques and chocolate emporiums to potter around, and there are several museums that help educate on facets of Belgian life.
Historium Bruges takes me back in time to 1435, the Golden Age of Bruges. I amble through a series of rooms, following the love story of Jacob, an apprentice and Anna, a painter’s muse. Wearing headphones for the audio I watch a number of short films featuring actors in character, telling the story. The overall result is an emotional connection with the Middle Ages, which doesn’t happen in a more one-dimensional museum.
The Bruges Beer Museum is another that has embraced technology. Visitors carry a tablet and headphones – the physical exhibits are minimal. You scan QR codes with your tablet to access information, which focuses on the production, history and practical uses of beer. The amount of text is a little overwhelming, so I skip a few codes, but for beer geeks there’s plenty of information to imbibe. And rewards are found in a bar at the end with three Belgian beers included in the ticket price.
Choco Story is a more traditional museum with information provided on noticeboards about the history of chocolate, going right back to Mayan days. In a demonstration about making pralines, I seize my chance to taste the melt-in-the-mouth chocolate that the Belgians have mastered so beautifully, and surreptitiously sneak more when the chocolatier has his back turned.
The self-guided part of the tour covers where beans are grown, the history behind the first chocolate drink and the development of chocolate bars, and I stumble across an unexpected twist in one of the exhibits. It explains that cocoa contains fluoride, tannins and phosphates, which fight cavities, and caffeine, theobromine, serotonin and phenylethylamine, which act as a tonic and reduce stress, giving better resistance to fatigue. So it turns out chocolate is actually good for you. And I’m not going to argue with that, especially at Christmas.
Book it: SuperBreak offers two nights’ B&B at the Relais & Chateaux Hotel Heritage in Bruges plus return Eurostar travel to Brussels and on to Bruges from London St Pancras starts from £296pp (based on December 6 departure). While SuperBreak also offers two nights’ B&B at the Crowne Plaza Brussels – Le Palace in Brussels plus return Eurostar travel starts from £249pp (based on December 6 departure).
