[Jared]: First, some exciting news. Today an essay about our trip to Belgium appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune! Check it out...
Thus I thought it fitting to conclude the blog series for the Belgian portion of our trip. Don't worry, France is still to come. I'm sure we'll get through it by the end of the summer.
As Beth said in her last Brussels post, Thursday was only a half day for the conference. Unfortunately one of the topics I was most interested in was covered in the last session of the day or I would have slipped away sooner. After the session, I bolted for the metro so that I could meet up with my wife at the train station. She was so kind as to pick up some sandwiches and salads for our train ride. She also carried a suspicious amount of empty chocolate boxes. :-) Kidding! She brought us lots of truffles to share on the ride.
We were able to catch a train even earlier than we expected which had us in a good mood from the start since it meant more time in Bruges. We settled in for a smooth and comfortable ride. I know Beth is the transportation geek in the family, so you might expect she'd be the one to sing the praises of trains, but seriously - high speed rail rules. After lunch I tasted one of my favorite chocolates of the trip. It was a whiskey truffle. So good. Unfortunately, I was expecting more of a whiskey-flavored creamy filling and was therefore caught off-guard when it turned out the center was filled with... a shot of whiskey. In addition to our chocolate, we enjoyed reading, listening to podcasts, and a misty view of the countryside which included a few wind farms.
The train drops you off a good distance from the historic city center in Bruges, so the first thing we did was hop on a bus. Eventually we hopped off at the Markt Square.
This historic square was even more charming than the Grand Place in Brussels, if less grandiose. We quickly got our bearings and set off on another famous Rick Steves walking tour. Our first stop was the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Ever since college I've been fascinated by church architecture and this site was no exception. The lower chapel was very dark and Romanesque, while the upper chapel was ornate and Gothic. The upper chapel contains a vial which is said to contain drops of Jesus Christ's blood. Supposedly the vial was brought to Bruges during the second crusade.
Next we headed where any fun loving (reformed) Christians might go... to the brewery! I've been on several tours of modern breweries, but never enjoyed a tour as much as this one. It was amazing to see some of the equipment and learn the processes people have been using for centuries. I was especially blown away to learn about the spontaneous fermentation process used to produce lambics. Due to a variety of geographical factors, there are wild yeasts and bacterias present in the air surrounding Brussels and Bruges. The wort is simply pumped onto copper vats on the roof and exposed to the air. Fermentation occurs and voila... delicious beer. Our tour guide also hit us with this piece of wisdom:
All profits from Trappist beers are given to the poor. So, in Belgium we say, if you drink a Trappist beer you have done your good deed for the day!
Some of the most beautiful views of our trip were from atop the brewery. It occurs to me that I have yet to mention that in addition to medieval architecture, Bruges also boasts canals throughout the city. If it hadn't been drizzly, we would have certainly taken a cruise.
And what brewery tour would be complete without a free sample?
To be continued...
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