Sightseeing
© CC-BY-2.0 by Jim Linwood
Starting in 2009, FOSDEM has hired professional guides each year to offer free guided tours of Brussels to the spouses/partners of FOSDEM visitors. If your partner would like to accompany you to Brussels but is not interested in the FOSDEM conference, this will make their stay worthwhile. Brussels has a rich historical past and a cosmopolitan present.
The free tours will take place on both afternoons of the conference. Each tour will give you a view of a different part of the city, and the tours offered this year will be different from those offered in previous years. The meeting point is at the infodesk in the H building, and the tours end there as well.
| Meeting point | Start | End | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday | Infodesk H building | 14:00 | 18:30 |
| Sunday | Infodesk H building | 12:15 | 15:45 |
© CC-BY-SA-3.0 by Ben2
Children are welcome to join, but bear in mind that these are walking tours, and that it is February. Your children must be old enough to walk around for three hours in winter temperatures (the responsibility is entirely yours).
Participation is free but you must register beforehand. Please send an e-mail to tour@fosdem.org to register for these tours (you can join the tour on Saturday, Sunday or both).
Destinations
Saturday: A tram ride to the centre of Brussels followed by a guided tour in the historic city centre, not only looking at the highlights, such as the Grote Markt, Manneken Pis, the Sint-Hubertusgalerijen etc..., but moreover explaining how the city of Brussels markets the city centre as ‘mediaeval’ and does everything not to shock the tourist with modern buildings. This results in a series of new buildings with old fashioned façades. During the tour, the guide will try to let you look through the façades and show you the modern city.
Sunday: A walk in the neighbourhood of FOSDEM, Ter Kameren, the ponds and Flagey, with time for a coffee break. A stone's throw from the ULB campus lies the Place Flagey. This lively square, with the Flagey building in Art Deco on the edge, has had a revival since its redesign. People come from all over the city to watch and be watched from the terrace of Café Belga. The road to it is very nice too, along Cambre Abbey, with the idyllic sources of Maelbeek, along the Ixelles ponds, surrounded by beautiful villas and the streets around the Place Flagey, still marked by the Portuguese migration
To register, or if you have any questions about the sightseeing tours, please mail tour@fosdem.org.