A visit to the Cinquantenaire Museum (a.k.a. the Mummy museum)

Ah, Autumn holidays! It's only one month since classes started and already we have a week of school holidays! Hurray!

It's a tricky holiday, as it's only 1 week (not even, just 4 days this year), too close to Christmas holidays and weather can only be relied upon being thoroughly unpredictable. Most working parents either pack up their kids to grandparents or inscribe them into a stage and hope for the best, or resign themselves and take some days off.

We were a bit late this year to sign Bibu up for a stage, so it meant I had to provide all the entertainment. Thankfully, baby Pingu's creche is open, so it meant I could organise something really focused on a 5-year old.

I wanted to go to a museum (being out of the cold rainy weather and all that) so we finally decided to pay a visit to the Cinquantenaire Museum (History and Art Museum) at the Place de Cinquantenaire.

We took public transport to get there (walking distance from both Merode and Schuman metro stations) but there is also parking space available closer to the "Autoworld" entrance. The entrance to the Cinquantenaire Museum itself is on the side (the left side of the park if you're coming from Merode station) at the top of some stairs. The entrance fee for adults is 5 EUR and free for kids under 6 years old (4 EUR for kids until 12 years old)

The building in itself is huge and beautiful. It's a big, welcome surprise, as you don't really expect it from outside. The permanent exhibitions are mainly divided in two. Once you are in the entrance hall, on your left are all the non-European collections (American, Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Chinese antiquity) and on your right the European part.

We checked our coats in the free cloakroom and we headed immediately to the Egypt part, where the mummies were. Now, I have to say that after having visited the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London, which are much bigger museums, the mummies exhibited in the Cinquantenaire Museum are of the highest quality. They might not be the ones of Tutankamon, but they are incredibly preserved and they do provide that spooky feeling that 5-year old boys love (but hopefully won't dream about). Bibu was properly cautious around them, asking lots of questions about who they where, why they were so small, etc.

The rest of the museum, we did in a bit of a hurry. Bibu was hungry, so we headed straight into the museum restaurant. A word to the wise: if you can, avoid it. To start with, it's a proper restaurant, as in they do not serve snack food or let you pic-nic. They serve proper restaurant food, which I have to say it's not bad, but the service is less than charming and the prices are quite steep (kid meal for 10 EUR). Bibu and I arrived at 12 sharp and managed to get a table without much hassle, but people coming just 10 minutes later did not have the same luck and were dispatched by a "no-friends" looking waitress. Also, there is no space really for a stroller and they don't have high chairs. So if you're with really small kids, this is not the place to go for a relaxing lunch.

On the subject of baby-friendly facilities, there is a baby diaper changing station inside the women's loo on the groundfloor. Otherwise, there are lots of stairs, so I guess going around with a stroller is not very advisable.

I think in general that the Cinquantenaire Museum is a surprising little gem of a museum. Interesting to kids and adults alike. It still has that somewhat neglected look most museums in Belgium have, some dark rooms, some empty rooms, dingy loos, a thoroughly uninteresting museum shop, etc. but the quality of the pieces in exhibition is great.

For a few months now, they are also offering an organised activity called "Fly with the dragons" for kids 6-2 years old where your kid gets a dragon-shaped backpack (which has to be returned to the information desk when you leave) full of hints of things kids need to find in the museum. You need to pay an extra 3 EUR to do the activity, and be lucky enough so that there are enough backpacks available for your kids when you arrive. We did not try it as they had run out of backpacks, but if anyone has tried it, it would be great to hear some feedback.

So, all in all, the Cinquantenaire Museum is a good idea for a bad weather day, just avoid the restaurant if you are in a hurry/ have a tight budget or want to see some happy faces. :-)

Escape to Parc Tenbosch (Ixelles)

So, what do you do when, suddenly, both your children are at home during school holidays (the baby one and also the one you counted on being at the quite expensive hockey one-week stage you signed him up for but that he emphatically refused to go to after three days ?

Well, if you live in the Ixelles/ Uccle area, you escape to Parc Tenbosch for a spot of pic-nic. Obviously.

It's the yummy mummy park par-excellence here in Brussels, I think. Today, though, not a mummy and baby yoga class in sight. It was all very quiet and peaceful. All the loungers were empty, so Bibu and I settled and proceeded to attack our picnic sandwiches while baby Pingu proceeded to attack us (and steal some bites of my sandwich, after having eaten his own appropriate warm baby-meal)

As usual, picnics with two boys tend to last about 6 minutes, just long enough for Bibu to scoff his food as fast as he can and declare that he is ready to go to the playground. So there we went, wallking along the brick road, past the romantic, beautiful wooden benches:

And into the strange red wood chip playground

Parc Tenbosch is incredibly beautiful, definitely one of my favourite parks in the cityl. It's small, but big enough to house a couple of gated playgrounds (the woodchip one and one which is just a sandpit), a tennis, a petanque and a basquetball field, plus all the nice benches and greenery galore. The only thing missing is a toilet, preferably with a nappy changing station. Many other less nice parks in the area have toilets, so it's baffling why such a well maintained park doesn't.

That, and a nice coffee place just across the street is what would make Tenbosch the über-park. In the meantime, though, not to be missed. Boys and mamma very pleased with the bit of fresh air.

Dinos and bagels

On Friday, I decided to make the most of the last day of the Krokusvakantie and the fact that baby Pingu was at daycare to take Bibu to his favourite museum: the Natural Science museum in Ixelles (a.k.a. the dino museum)

We have been there a few times already and it's funny to see how each time is like the first time for Bibu, albeit with the already acquired knowledge on how to best navigate the museum and the best perks of the visit.

We arrived to an entrance hall full of parents and kids in similar states of excitement, mostly Flemish. For some unfathomable reason known only to the high powers of the museum and the two grumpy ladies behind the ticket desks, the museum was still shut at 9:45am, when it states in their website that it opens at 9:30 on weekdays. So, a word to the wise, better arrive 10-ish.

We did the grand tour, Bibu happily inaugurated the sand box where you can "dig a dino" and we visited the museum shop (and managed not to buy anything) When the the time came around lunchtime, I already knew that the musuem cafe was really a no-go. It's small, the offer of food is terrible (dubious hot dogs and soggy sandwiches) and one look at the enormous queue that had formed had Bibu and I going for the exit in search of a more human place to eat. I knew that there were plenty of places around Place de Luxemburg, so we headed there.

We ended up going into Karsmakers, which is one of those places I intended to go to for some time but never quite found the time. It specialises in coffee and NY-style bagels. There was a bit of a queue at the door (you need to order first and they bring it to your table) but we stayed and hoped for the best. Bibu ordered the ham, tomato and creme cheese plain bagel and I had the poppy "bagel of the month", which consisted of a roast pumpkin, ricotta and pesto filling (de-li-ci-ous!). Luckily, we found two empty spots at the sofas in the back and settled there (quite cozy, but one of the tables with regular chair would be easier for a kid to eat from, provided they are available).

VEREDICT: It was not an obvious choice to go with small kids: I think quite ok for a 4-year old but more tricky with babies or toddlers, specially at lunchtime when the place is packed with with Euro-interns. The service at the counter was very efficient and quite fast and the waiter that tended to us was a Spanish-speaker and very nice (he even reminded us I was leaving my umbrella behind). The toilets were nice and clean and even had a folding changing table, but you had to go down a flight of narrow stairs to get there. I would definitely go again but sans les kids, or maybe on a Sunday with Mr M and the kids for a late breakfast.