Local Information

Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the administrative centre of the European Union. This has earned the city the title of the Capital of Europe. Brussels has been given its character by the coexistence of French and Flemish culture, and it is nowadays home to nationalities around the world, adding a cosmopolitan flavour to its atmosphere. The vibrant atmosphere of Brussels is further enhanced by picturesque medieval streets, lively squares, beautiful boulevards, impressive monuments, spacious parks, cosy cafés, interesting restaurants and an active cultural life.

Brussels Airport is an international airport located approximately 10 km of Brussels city center. The airport is home to around 260 companies and well connected to all major cities in Europe.

Conference place

The conference will be held in the Royal Windsor Hotel (http://www.royalwindsorbrussels.com), just off the world-famous Grand Place, in front of the Grand Casino Brussels. This Brussels hotel is within walking distance from Brussels' Central Station, the Antique Market on the Sablon, the Royal Covered Galleries and Brussels' Royal Palace Gardens. Brussels' Zaventem Airport is only a 20-minute journey away.

Social Event

The banquet will be held in the Belgian Comic Strip Center, less than a kilometer away from the conference hotel. In a masterpiece of Art Nouveau designed by Victor Horta (1906), the Belgian Comic Strip Center brings together everything related to the comic strip, from its prestigious beginnings to its most recent developments, on more than 4,000 square metres of museum floors.

A few "must-see"

Of course Brussels is synonymous with the Grand’Place, warm waffles, chocolates with all sorts of fillings, the Manneken-Pis, tasty beers and precious lace! But the city also has many other wonderful must-see sights, which contribute to its charm and its history. From the paintings of the Flemish Primitives, to the world’s most beautiful collection of musical instruments, from the remains of Emperor Charles V’s palace to the Art Deco or Art Nouveau designs of Victor Horta, the list is long! Fortunately, many of the kingdom’s greatest art treasures are concentrated around the Mont des Arts, close to the city’s royal district. So this time, make sure you don’t miss the unmissable!

Source: "Brussels Escapades" and www.trabel.com

Less than 1 kilometer from Royal Windsor Hotel

Grand' Place: "One of the most beautiful town squares in Europe, if not in the world", is a phrase often heard when visitors in Brussels try to describe the beauty of the central market square. The tourists of the 20th century are not alone in their admiration. Archduchess Isabella, daughter of Filip II of Spain wrote about the square during her visit to Brussels on September the 5th 1599: "Never have I seen something so beautiful and exquisite as the town square of the city where the town hall rises up into the sky. The decoration of the houses is most remarkable".
Royal Belgian Museums of Fine Art: The Museums of Modern and Ancient Art are veritable treasure-troves. Linked to each other by a large staircase, they make up the biggest museum complex in Belgium. Their collections contain a wide range of paintings, sculpture and the fine arts from the end of the fourteenth century to today. Visitors can enjoy famous masterpieces by Bruegel the Elder, Rubens, Memling, Bosch and Van Dyck, not forgetting paintings by Delvaux, Wouters, Ensor, Khnopff and Permeke.
Magritte Museum: The internationally-famous Belgian painter René Magritte deserved a museum that matched the quality of his work, situated in the centre of Brussels, his adopted city. In June 2009 this dream became a reality. Housed in the elegant Hôtel Altenloh, the Magritte museum has the world’s largest collection of the great Surrealist painter’s work, around 200 exceptional works of art.
Musical Instruments Museum (MIM): The former Old England department store was designed by the architect Saintenoy and represented a technical tour de force when it was completed in 1899. The building’s cast-iron and steel frame left plenty of place for huge glass windows, allowing daylight to illuminate the displays of fine clothes. The mim which now occupies the building has one of the largest collections of musical instruments in the world. Visitors wear infra-red head-phones which allow them to hear almost 200 musical excerpts, ranging from Ancient Greece to electrically-amplified twentieth-century sounds.

Slightly further...

The Atomium: The surprise star of the 1958 Universal Exhibition, this extraordinary building was visited by over 40 million people during the six months following its opening! It overlooks the cityscape from a height of more than 100m, still manages to symbolise Modernist optimism and is one of the most important buildings of the 1950s. Its recent restoration back its original glory and the installation of new facilities will ensure it is fit to last for years to come. Five of its nine spheres are open to the public. One houses a permanent exhibition about the 1958 Exhibition, another is home to temporary exhibitions about science, progress and the future. The topmost sphere contains a viewing gallery with a unique panoramic view of Brussels. In the evenings, 2,970 flashing lights make it look magical!
Royal Museum for Central Africa: This world famous museum is home to some truly remarkable collections. Its collection of ethnographic objects from Central Africa is in fact the only one of its kind in the world. It also has in its keeping the entire archives of Henry Morton Stanley. The scientists are active in the following five fields: cultural anthropology, zoology, geology, history and agriculture and forest economy. Only 15km from Brussels!
Bruge: Known as the Venice of the North, Bruges is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It was a justified motive that prompted UNESCO in 2000 to include the entire historical city centre on the World Heritage list. Walking along the maze of winding cobbled alleys and romantic canals, you imagine yourself to be in medieval times. The wealth of museums is a striking image of this city's stirring history.