SHOPPING AND SPENDING MONEY

MONEY

Since 1 January 2002 the EURO (€) is the official currency of Belgium (together with 10 other European countries.

Around the main town square (Grand'Place) there are a lot of money exchange booths (some open until late at night), banks and automatic money machines.

Most shops, restaurants and hotels except all major Credit Cards.

SOUVENIRS

Much bought souvenirs are :

CHOCOLATES:

Everywhere in the city you will find chocolate shops. The chocolate shops around the 'Grand'Place' stay open until 9 or 10 P.M.

BEER :

Belgium is the best beer country in the world. There are nowadays numerous beer shops around the 'Grand'Place' where you can buy most of the Belgian beers. New are the cardboard boxes which contain a few bottles of one specific kind of beer together with the matching beer glass (Note: in Belgium every beer has its own specially designed glass. Belgian beers do not taste good when drunk from a non-matching glass. Typical for Brussels are the fruit beers (cherry, raspberry, peach....)

LACE :

still the most bought souvenir of Brussels. Plenty of lace shops sell are different kinds of lace and tapestries.

COMIC STRIPS :

In Belgium comic strips have become something like the 7th art, thanks to the popularity of comic strips characters like TINTIN. In the shop of the Comic Strip museum you can buy comic strip albums in different languages, as well as different items with comic strip heroes on it (ties, T-shirts, beakers, keyhangers, towels, underwear, etc....)

SHOPPING CENTERS / MARKETS

Most shopping centers are on the outskirts of the city. In the immediate center you can find two supermarkets near the Stock Exchange building.

Sunday is market day in Brussels. On the Sablon square is the Antiques market (Saturdays from 9 A.M. till 6 P.M. and Sundays from 9 A.M. till 1.30 P.M). Every day there is a flea market at the 'Place du Jeu de balles / Vossenplein' near the palace of Justice. On Sundays there are numerous food-markets. The most important ones are situated near Place Bara (Midi station) and at the Slaughterhouse (Abattoir) of the suburb of Anderlecht. All through the year different flea markets take place at different intervals in the entire Brussels area.