On a sunny afternoon in early October last year, which happened to be the day of my birth, I sat in one of the most enchanted rooms I’ve ever been in. It is a café located on the 5th floor of an Art Nouveau building in Brussels, which used to be a department store and was then turned into a Musical Instrument Museum.
But calling it a café or restaurant sounds way too mundane and ordinary for this place. It is a large sun-lit room with huge windows on all sides and a terrace with a magnificent 360° view of Brussels.
I liked the plainness of the furnishings. This place was so gorgeous in itself, any plush would have been over the top.
Sitting on the terrace, sipping my coffee and enjoying the extraordinary view, I experienced one of those rare moments when you are aware of being happy.
And this is the view:
With Place de l’Albertine in the foreground, and the tower of the gothic Town Hall and the Basilique Nationale du Sacré-Coeur in the background.
If you want to see more of my trip to Brussels, go here.
And here is the link to the enchanted room. Don’t miss it when you happen to be in Brussels.
KleesButterfly - A TravelBlog 
I’ve only passed through the city. I shall have to go back and spend some time there.
And I’ll have a beer. Can’t forget that…
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It was maybe an enchanted beer 🙂
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It’s very elegant, I like your sentence about “you are aware of being happy”. I’m glad you were aware of it in that beautiful place.
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It was indeed a wonderful day, I have very fond memories of it.
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What a beautiful room. I will just have to go back to Brussels again to go there. I recognise Place de l’Albertine. We came across it one day when we were just wandering and exploring the streets.
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Yes, next time you’re in Brussels, you definitely should stop by.
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What a gorgeous space, and your photos of it are wonderful. I was wondering how you managed to get photos of the empty interior – until I saw the outside shots – too nice a day to be inside 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing. You provided me a mini-vacation!
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You’re welcome! The strange thing is that this café wasn’t crowded at all. I was wondering too why there weren’t more people. Maybe because it’s not in the city center, and it was a weekday.
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This place is so graaaand. If I can sip coffees in places like that, I think I’m gonna have too much caffeine on my body ’cause I’d never want to leave! Your photos are so lovely. Thank you so much for sharing this. (:
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Thank you for your kind words! This cafe in Brussels was actually epic. I was there on my birthday, and you can imagine: sunshine, french-speaking people, this beautiful cafe and a great view – I was very happy on this day.
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I’m so happy for you that you celebrated you birthday here. You are so lucky! (: I wish I could spend my birthday on a place as lovely as this too. Is Brussels in France? Sorry I’m really bad at Geography. 😦
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Brussels is the capital of Belgium, Don’t worry, I don’t know the capitals of your neighboring countries either (capital of Malaysia???)
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Ohhhh I see. I think I’m gonna have to learn more about that (Europe) because we’re migrating to Ireland pretty soon. 🙂 Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia’s capital. 🙂
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Ireland, that’s great! You will be able to visit all the European countries. Everything is so close here. I live in Germany, and I’m doing day trips by plane to Austria.
And thanks for the Malaysia tip, we’re even now 🙂
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Yes I’m really looking forward to that. 😀 Wow! How often do you go to Austria? I really hope you also get to visit the Asian countries someday!
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I would love to visit the the Asian countries more!! My “asianest” country has been Turkey so far. But I think this is not comparable to South-East Asia.
Everybody in Europe is traveling around here. I can go to Autria, Switzerland, the Benelux Countries, France, Spain etc. in a 1 or 2 hour flight. You will see when you’re here.
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Wow I’ve never been to Turkey! Hope I can also visit there soon. Yeah you should definitely travel to Southeast Asia too. You won’t regret it, I promise! 🙂 Really?? I wanna fly in there like right now!! Aren’t plane tickets expensive there?
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No, plane tickets aren’t expensive any more in Europe. We have a lot of low-cost carriers. You can go from my place in Germany to London for about 40 Euro (return flight). I paid for a return ticket to Vienna 70 Euro.
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OH WOOOOW! Thank you very much. This makes me really really excited to go to Europe!
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Hey. I’m planning a trip to Brussels with my friends (12 of us), and I was wondering, how the prices were? I checked the site. However, there wasn’t much on there. So, would you say it’s relatively expensive? Also, is it a cafe or a restaurant?
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Hi, sorry for my late response, but I’m currently taking a break from blogging.
The restaurant in the Musical Instruments Museum is both, a cafe and restaurant. It’s perfectly ok to just have a coffee there. And unfortunately, I found it a bit overpriced. I just had a coffee and a piece of cake, and I paid more than at a usual coffee shop. But still, it was worth it. The view from the terrace is priceless.
Hope my answer didn’t come too late.
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