Brussels

UNESCO-listed and quite possibly Europe's most theatrical square: gilded guild houses, the Gothic town hall, and every August of even years a giant flower carpet. Come back after dark when it's lit.

An iron crystal magnified 165 billion times, built for Expo 58 and never taken down. Escalators through the tubes, a panoramic sphere at 92 m, and gloriously retro-futuristic interiors.

The world's largest Magritte collection — bowler hats, pipes that are not pipes and skies full of baguettes — in an elegant townhouse on the Mont des Arts.

Bruegel's Fall of Icarus, Rubens, David's Death of Marat and six centuries of Flemish masters, right next to the Magritte Museum — a combined ticket makes it one great art afternoon.

Tintin, the Smurfs and the whole ninth art inside a gorgeous Victor Horta Art Nouveau warehouse — two Belgian obsessions in one building.

The postcard view over the lower town from the geometric garden, framed by the Royal Library and palace. Sunset here, then downhill past street musicians to the Grand-Place.

Yes, he's tiny — that's the joke, and he's often in costume (1,000+ outfits). Combine with the glass-roofed Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert (1847), Europe's first shopping arcade, for chocolate window-shopping.