We’re weird.  We know it. You know it – what can we say? But the Brussels Sewer Museum just looked too good to pass up.  So off we go in the relatively early morning toward the other side of town for the Sewer museum.  Fortunately, more things are open earlier here, so we are able to find a coffee shop (ok, actually a waffle shop with coffee) for a little morning caffeine before we go hold our nose in the sewers!

We arrive a little before opening time and wait while the clerk gets all set up. The museum is included in our Brussels Card – another great buy that includes transportation as well.  The museum, hidden beneath the two toll houses on either side of the Porte d’Anderlecht is all about how the city had no sewer system, was prone to flooding, filling the streets not with simply river water, but sewage. 

Starting on the main floor with a map and model of the system, we follow an audio guide with a rat as our tour guide (yes, a rat, a cute, funny rat, but a rat nonetheless) through various rooms and levels that explain how the River Senne was once an open air river and then covered over to protect the citizens from the floods and develop the sewer system.

You can explore a little section of sewer pipe with the oval, egg shaped opening, and learn all about how the different drainage/sewer openings were developed and why.  It’s geeky – but really weirdly interesting.  There are exhibits explaining how sewers are dug, how they are cleaned and drained.

The most fun though is walking along the actual river Senne (with a special exhibition laser light show on the river) and along the main sewer under Chaussée de Mons.

There is a note on the website to check to see if the museum is open after heavy rains, because the sewers flood – and you can see the evidence of that when we walk along the sewer – the grates are full of debris from the aftermath of a flood.  At the end of the sewer, where a single person vehicle that sewer workers used to navigate the sewers (sort of like those hand pumped rail cars) is left for display, we are right under the street and you can hear the cars as they drive over the manhole cover.  Weird and wild.

And while they tell you to “bring a nose clip,” the smell wasn’t all that bad!  Tons of information, lots of science and history, and an overall fun visit. Plus, honestly, the audio guide was one of the best we’ve ever had.  Fun, informative, attention getting, but not long and boring.  Sweet.

Now we are moving on to more palatable touring – the Belgium Beer World housed in the old Bourse building.  But first, we need sustenance to coat our stomachs before drinking!  And as it is still pretty early (i.e., before noon) the choices are pretty slim.  We end up at this little place (probably a chain) called Swalty where we end up with a really good hot tuna melt panini and a hamburger – which turns out to be more like a pressed meatloaf on a hoagie bun.  It tasted far better than it sounds, trust us.

Now Beer.  An enormous museum, with two floors of displays and information on all things Belgium Beer – from the history of beer, the variety, production process and stories of the brewing families –  it is a deep dive into the industry here with cute interactive displays and really informative ones on the different beer glasses to use with different varieties, etc.  And because it is in the old Bourse, there are lots of gorgeous architectural features all around.

The story section is great – from different families, how they developed beer, how for thousands of years women were the original brewers of beer, they put a broom out above their door to let people know they had beer and then were called witches!   And a really cute interactive wall where you could literally “paint” on a mural, as well as an exhibit that let you design your own beer bottle and label.  Very fun.

Further on, we arrive at the best sign in the whole museum!! Yes, the beer tasting is close!  Passing through a gigantic head representing how a brewer’s thought processes work – we can choose a process or type of beer and the “brain” will begin to work. And then finally on to our first tasting – which I can’t now remember what we had.  LOL.

On the next floor (this place is huge!) we walk through explanations of the brewing process, which of course we sort of skip as, well, how many brewery tours can we take before we are giving them ourselves?  But this floor ends up in a great room filled with different beer bottles and accoutrements in huge plexiglass cases and along the way beer taps that connect to a multi-media presentation where you choose from various tastes and flavors and the screen recommends the beer you should have.  At the end, you even get a coaster printed with your personal recommendations.  Very neat. 

And upstairs from there – the rooftop brewery where we get free beer with our museum entrance.  Blanche de Bruxelles Rosee (I’m sticking with the Rose theme – because I’m hooked) and a Lambik while looking out over the beautiful skyline – great way to end a beer tour – for certain.

Off to our next adventure – Train World.  Walking back over to the main train station, past the smurf statue – because Smurfs were “born” in Brussels, created by a comic artist from Brussels – and into the train station to catch the regular S2 train out to Schaarbeek on the far northern edge of Brussels.  Easy peasy – although we now think that we took an illegal train ride – looking at the Brussels Card info, it never says that transportation includes the trains – just the metro and buses.  Oops. 

Train World turns out to be located in the old Schaarbeek station, with lots of great displays from the original Train Master’s and ticket offices to the history of trains from Steam locomotives to high-speed trains.  Belgium was at the forefront of train transportation, in 1835, running the first train ever on the European continent and the first country on the continent to ever construct a railway.  This museum gives homage to the history with a dizzying array of train locomotives in the first huge hall –  on the ground and hung above us for views into the inner- and under-workings of an engine.

There is a great display of clocks – because all the clocks in Belgium are synchronized thanks to trains. Old ticket machines, a steam engine that looks like it is really bellowing steam, old train seats and train cars we can walk through to see how things operated in the day.

There is also a replica (full size, I might add) crossing keeper’s house – complete with bike for transportation and all the items that would make for comfortable living at the time. The last crossing keeper retired in 1999 – ending a 150 profession – due to automation and modernization of crossing equipment.  An interesting tidbit:  the crossing keeper job was often carried out by the wives of railway men.  Sort of makes sense.

More trains, more interiors, and then the Royal Trains from the 1930s – we could look into but not enter.  Opulent for the day, for sure.

At the end of the Royal Train display is this bizarre engine that looks like it is mired in sand or sinking somehow.  There wasn’t any good explanation, but we think it was a mining train engine from the early 1900s.  Cool to look at and speculate.

To get back to the entrance, we walk up to a 2^nd level catwalk that gives us a bird’s eye view of all the huge engines and train cars displayed in this cavernous hall.  How did they get them all in here? That must have been something to see. 

And then there is this weirdly fascinating train-cum-whale model, with a computer-generated picture of the full-size sculpture at the traffic circle between this museum and the Docks Bruxsels – one of the entrances to Brussels – where it will be located when it is complete to showcase Brussels as the first capital served by train.  Would love to see the completed sculpture – but who knows when.

Finished with the trains, we walk over to a nearby Lidl to do some shopping for our stay in Belgium (we have a cooler, and we will have a car soon – so stocking up!) – then decide to call an Uber to get back to the apartment.  Why not?  It is late, we don’t want to try to find the subway or bus – we’ll be lazy!

Later in the evening, we walk over toward the European Parliament building, hoping to go to Asia Extra for dinner.  But while the sign on the door says they will be taking holiday beginning tomorrow, they apparently decided to start their holidays early as they are definitely not open.  Oops.  Plan B. At least there are a few other restaurants open over here – there is a definitely dearth of evening restaurants in this area – almost all are breakfast and lunch only due to the fact that it is so highly concentrated with offices.

But, right on the corner there is Vester, which has a nice large patio with tables available, where we plop down to a great meal, starting with an appetizer of sausage and cheese, then our mains of Cheese Croquettes (I’m officially addicted to the Belgium style croquettes) and Country Sausage for Ed. 

Yummy – and all right across from the Swiss Embassy – Gaby and Sigis are never far from our thoughts! Then it is back to the terrace for night caps and another day is done.