A night on the town

The Grand Place is lit up dramatically at night.

On a Friday night, there's lots to see and do in Brussels. Folks are populating bars and cafes to have a celebratory drink with friends. Teenagers are bunched together like minnows in every dark corner or stairwell. There's lots of noisy buzz.

We left our neighborhood at dusk for a walk to the Grand Sablon area--full of upscale art galleries, antiques, jewelers and chocolatiers, whose products could easily be mistaken for jewels. We found a cozy-looking Greek tavern off the main route and had a light dinner of the Mezze platter, along with some delightful grilled squid. After dinner we made our way to the Fine Arts Center, where we bought tickets for the Belgian National Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra performed three pieces: Prokofiev, symphony 1, a concerto for clarinet composed originally for Benny Goodman by Aaron Copeland; and Mozart's symphony 40---all lovely, but I admit to dozing a bit here and there.

Here is the concert hall just as the musicians were entering. You're not suppose to take pix here, but I snuck one.

This gorgeous clock was along our walk.

The walk back to the Grand Place was lively and brisk and we were anxious to find a cozy bar where we could end the night with a glass of wine. We found such a spot right on the place--there is no shortage of happy, busy watering holes here. A long conversation near the fireplace and the next thing we knew it was nearly 1 a.m.