Today was two capital cities for the price of one: Luxembourg then Brussels. Spent the morning wandering around the old central part of Luxembourg, admiring the views from atop the cliffs / walls that encircle it. It really has a marvellous setting, this sort of plateau bounded by cliffs, with the modern part of the city on the other side of a river gorge. Sort of hard to explain without a diagram.
Hopped on a train, and after a surprisingly long ride, arrived in Brussels. For a start, Brussels has actual skyscrapers, which I haven't really seen since London. Like very other city in Europe, it has plenty of Old Stuff too. Of Brussel's best-known landmarks, the Grand Place is certainly grand - it's a big square of lots of beautiful buildings, but there's nothing actually happening there, unlike La Rambla or Djemma el-Fna; the second, Manneken Pis, is a very small statue of a boy peeing. Meh.
The street squares and arcades around the Grand Place, however, are absolutely charming. Lots of restaurants and shops, but neither sketchy nor pretentious - just warm and inviting. The sort of fun mishmash that I found in Montmartre, but was missing from more central parts of Paris or Vienna, which are too busy thinking about how important they are to look like they're having any fun. I also found lots of chocolate shops and a street full of really nice (again, warm and inviting, not stuck up) seafood restaurants. If only I liked mussels...