TRAVEL GUIDE TO BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

The site of that mammoth EU bureaucracy, thousands of uniformly-dressed Eurocrats pacing the streets, and the favorite place for French farmers' protests: Brussels.

Well, many Brussels dwellers would object to their city being seen for the mammoth EU institutions (let alone NATO, which is also headquartered in Brussels). Brussels is interesting enough without the European Parliament, it is said. On the other hand, the presence of the international decision-makers gives the city an even more cosmopolitan feeling, even for a city which has been cosmopolitan ever since the Middle Ages. Today, it is a city of nearly a million people, bridging Belgium's French and Flemish speaking parts. Some 20 percent of the city's population is composed of foreigners, however, working for various European and NATO institutions.

But if Eurocrats at work are not what your sightseeing dreams are about, then discover the other face of the city, as far from the daily routine of the EU bureaucracy as is possible. Its true character is quite different. Given Brussels centuries-long traditions, the EU institutions have only been a recent addition. Brussels has long been one of the quintessential trade cities of Europe. Few other cities can surpass it in terms of its favorable location, where trade and travel routes cross. So aside from being a destination unto itself, Brussels is an important communications hub of northern Europe, including the recently enacted possibility of catching cheap flights to nearby Charleroi Airport.

But the city's history is, in fact, the history of traders and business people. This merchant tradition is overwhelming, overshadowing the comings and goings of the wars and changing rulers that make up the history of Brussels; they did not manage to eclipse the true character of the city.

Like many European cities west of the river Rhine, Brussels had a Roman period in its history when some of the better-off Roman citizens settled there in the 1st and 2nd Centuries AD, considering the climate a bit more relaxing than the heat of Rome, perhaps.

Brussels' golden age, however, came along with the craftsmen and traders of the Middle Ages who established their businesses within the city. Combined with Brussels' exceptionally favorable location, this trend could only result in the barely-interrupted growth which has continued until today. The Napoleonic Wars, both World Wars and a series of minor conflicts could not undermine the merchant tradition. From every period of trouble, Brussels emerged with even more desire to develop and evolve.

Brussels became the capital city of Belgium only as a result of the Revolution of 1831, as it previously had been a part of the Netherlands, France, or the European Empire of the Hapsburgs. The European powers had always strived to have this trading gem in their possession. After World War II, which the city survived intact, Belgium was one of the frontrunners of the European Union, which has most of its institutions headquartered there. Brussels is also where the headquarters of NATO are situated. The merchant tradition has thus been supplemented with big politics.

Wandering a few miles south of the city, you can see Waterloo, the site of Napolean's famous defeat in 1815.