- Let's take a look at the map
- How New Year is celebrated in Belgium
- Combine the useful with the pleasant
- Useful information for travelers
Celebrating your favorite winter holidays in the very heart of Europe is a good idea for lovers of the classics. The Old World is used to celebrating them in the best Christmas traditions: with fireworks and fairs, mulled wine and decorated Christmas trees, gifts and Santa Claus. The ideal scenario is to celebrate the New Year in Belgium, small, cozy, filled with aromas of hot chocolate and the glow of millions of lights that dot the streets, squares, houses and trees. You will be able to enjoy mulled wine and the world's best chocolate, wander through department stores where Christmas discounts will add a good mood, have fun in a nightclub and even witness falconry in the old count's castle with your own eyes.
Let's take a look at the map
Like many other countries of the Old World, Belgium is located in a zone of temperate maritime climate:
- Winter in the country is mild, warm, and often rainy. The weather is usually cloudy, snow falls very rarely.
- The air temperature in late December and January in Brussels rarely drops below 0 ° C, although ice sometimes appears on puddles at night.
- In Bruges, it is even warmer - the proximity of the sea affects. Classic Christmas weather is drizzling rain and air temperatures from + 5 ° C to + 10 ° C during the day.
- In Antwerp, during the New Year holidays, it is also usually cloudy and rainy, thermometers fluctuate around + 5 ° C during the day.
- Liege usually looks more welcoming to guests and the sun shines here more often than in other regions of the country. The air temperature on New Year's Eve hovers around 0 ° C.
Bring a hooded windbreaker, warm scarf and waterproof shoes to your New Year's Eve in Belgium. High humidity combined with a chilling wind in winter can affect your perception of air temperature, and even positive values will look like a light frost here.
How New Year is celebrated in Belgium
The main winter holiday for the Belgians, as well as for other inhabitants of Europe, is Christmas, but they also try to celebrate the New Year noisily and merrily.
Preparation begins many weeks before the cherished dates. Even in early November, the capital and other cities of the country dress up, erect Christmas trees and hang festive illumination on the streets and squares.
In mid-November, New Year's markets open in Brussels, where you can buy many useful and pleasant things: gifts for friends, delicious delicacies for the festive table, home decorations and handicrafts. A week before Christmas, an international culinary festival opens in Brussels, where everyone can taste hundreds of dishes from masters from all over the world. The Belgians themselves have no equal in preparing hot chocolate with all sorts of additives, fluffy waffles with whipped cream and strawberry jam, mulled wine and gingerbread sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Having met Christmas, the people of Belgium are gathering with renewed vigor and preparing to celebrate the New Year. The festive menu is sure to include spiced stews, mint ice cream and the famous chocolate in many varieties.
After a festive dinner, Belgians pour out into the streets and squares to enjoy the views of the decorated cities, meet friends, drink champagne in the fresh air and make a wish while the city's main clock strikes. In Brussels, grandiose folk festivals take place on the Grand Place, in Bruges - in the ice sculpture park opposite the train station.
Young people usually continue to celebrate the New Year in nightclubs or restaurants, and therefore, if you planned to do the same, book seats and tables well in advance.
Combine the useful with the pleasant
Do not forget that the Christmas holidays are the time for the start of grand sales in all shopping centers and outlets in Belgium and throughout Europe. You can combine walks and excursion programs with rich and profitable shopping, because the cost of certain categories of goods can be reduced by up to 70% or more.
Of particular interest to foreign tourists in Belgium are chocolate, chocolate-based confectionery and diamonds. And if you can put a tick in front of the first item on the list in any city and even a village, then you will have to go to Antwerp to find the girls' best friends.
The diamond capital of Belgium has been famous for its stones over the past several centuries, because the skill of the cutter is passed down from generation to generation. You can buy diamonds profitably in Antwerp at the Diamondland shopping center. To do this, you will need to sign up for a free 45-minute tour at www.diamondland.be. It is held, including in Russian, and during a walk in the center you will see the most beautiful stones, learn the history of Antwerp cutters, which dates back at least 400 years, get to know them personally and watch their work. The stones in the mall are sold with quality certificates and prices are considered very competitive.
Useful information for travelers
You can get from Russia to Belgium by plane and bus, but the first option, of course, takes much less time:
- Aeroflot planes fly directly from Moscow Sheremetyevo airport to Brussels, and Belgian airlines fly from Domodedovo. The price of the issue is from 200 euros round trip, the travel time is 3.5 hours.
- With a docking in Riga, passengers are delivered from the Russian to the Belgian capital on board Air Baltic. Ticket prices look a little nicer than direct flights. You will only pay € 180 for early booking.
You can be the first to know about discounts and special offers on ticket prices by subscribing to the email newsletter on the airlines' websites.
Ecolines buses travel between Moscow and Brussels for about 43 hours. They leave from Varshavskaya metro station late in the evening and arrive in the capital of Belgium the day after departure. The price of a one-way ticket starts from 100 euros, and this option is undoubtedly not only less convenient, but also financially not very profitable.
If you nevertheless decide to travel by land transport, the details of the schedule, prices and booking conditions are available on the official website of the road carrier - www.ecolines.net. Ecolines passengers are provided with comfortable seats, air conditioning, a spacious luggage compartment, a dry closet, multimedia and individual sockets for recharging electronic devices.
