We are scheduled to arrive in BRU at 14:50 from FCO in Dec. We want to see Manneken, Grand Place, just go by the Comic Museum, and get some chocolates. Is the Manneken lit up at night? I know the Grand Place is and it appears beautiful.

Will this be enough time or should we change to the earlier flight that arrives at 9:45? We fly back to the States the next morning so we will only have these few hours. We are glad to see the airport has finally relaxed the electronics restrictions...I didn't want to have my iPod and dig camera in my luggage only to tempt thieves.

Thanks in advance!

I would try and catch the earlier flight to give you almost the whole day in the city. But whether it's a half day or a whole day, it's still not really enough to experience all Brussels has to offer.

On our trip, we arrived in Brussels late one evening via train, spent the morning in Brussels, spent the afternoon in Bruges, and the evening back in Brussels. Overall, we probably spent a total of approximately eight hours touring Brussels. During our time there, we pretty much stuck to walking around "the core" (Manneken Pis, Grand Place, Galeries St. Hubert, Rue des bouchers) with the furthest we went being the Fish Market area. We didn't devote a lot of time to sit down meals other than maybe an hour at Chez Leon for lunch. For what we wanted to see in our first trip to Brussels, we found this to be enough time and met our goals. Ideally, if we had more time, I would have like to visited other parts of Brussels but we wanted to allocate more time to other cities during this trip.

The Manneken Pis is a very quick walk from Grand Place. I can't see one spending more than 15 mins there though. Recommend bringing a mini tripod for taking pics of Grand Place at night. If you can get in earlier, I'd probably recommend it just because places have different vibes during the day versus night and it's nice experiencing both.

You may want a bit more time in Brussels that just a few hours. Remember it will get dark very early so you may want to have at least a little sight-seeing time in the daylight. There is a neat, little chocolate museum that faces the Grand Place (a few Euros for entry but we got some free chocolate samples). It is very small though and shouldn't take long. Please try to walk to the Sablon and get some Pierre Marcolini chocolate. It is absolutely wonderful and they have neat ice sculptures out front for Christmas. Have a wonderful trip!

If chocolate isn't your thing, there is a Beer Museum right on the Grand Place. What wine is to France, beer is to Belgium. ^

-There should be a Xmas market on the Grand Place in December
-The Atomium is worth a visit but need extra time (subway line 1 - station Heyzel)
-The Comics Museum is definitively worth the visit
-Try a warm wafle from those little stands Rue Neuve