Brussels: The European Capital
Short History of Brussels
As Belgium is a bilingual country, Brussels is as a capital of course bilingual aswell. You will notice this wherever you walk. All street names in Brussels will be shown in French aswell as in Dutch. Sadly enough many of the historic buildings have been destroyed when Brussels became the capital of Belgium, they had to make room for new ministries, schools, palaces, army barracks,... . Only the inner centre remained ( The reknown Grand Place and 4 or 5 streets leading towards the market square ) and shows the rich historic past of Brussels.
The European Quarter is a fairly new neighbourhood in Brussels and has grown fastly since Brussels became capital, there are still many projects on the way and it will take a while before all constructions in the EU quarter are finished.
Brussels National Airport
The Belgian National Airport is about 20 min outside of Brussels and knows a great connection by train and car to the capital. You travel to the airport preferably by train as Brussels has like every major city quite a rush hour problem. One can take a train to the Airport in every trainstation in Brussels and it should not take more than 20 minutes to arrive in the Airport.
