Brussels in 4 days

A Gothic town hall and gilded baroque guildhouses, rebuilt in one burst after the 1695 bombardment, each named after its guild's emblem.

Gueuze, lambic and Trappist ales in century-old cafés, from the 1928 tiles of À la Mort Subite to Poechenellekelder beside the Manneken Pis.

Terraced gardens between the lower and upper town, facing the town hall spire, beside the Magritte Museum and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts.

Around the Gothic church of Notre-Dame du Sablon: Marcolini, Wittamer, Mary and Neuhaus, the house that invented the praline, among antique dealers.

Held on Place du Jeu de Balle every day of the year since 1873, from dawn: records, brass, lace, fifties furniture and plain junk.

Victor Horta's own house and studio in Saint-Gilles, Art Nouveau down to the door handles, with a wrought-iron staircase that grows like a plant.

Original artwork from Tintin, the Smurfs, Gaston and newer names, housed in a former Art Nouveau fabric store designed by Horta.

The giant iron crystal of Expo 58: nine steel spheres, 102 metres high, linked by escalators, with a view over the city from the top.