Thursday, March 17th (Part 2)

[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...

Tuesday, March 15th

[Beth]: Now that Jared has told you of our adventure eating at the Belga Queen Brasserie on Monday evening, I can move on to the following days.  I also spent Tuesday and Wednesday sight-seeing (and doing lots of walking) around the city.  On Tuesday morning, I toured Coudenberg Palace, or rather it’s remains.  The Palace was a 12^th century creation, sited on the hills of the Upper Town when Brussels was still small and confined to the Lower Town area.  In the following centuries, the hill was leveled and new palaces built atop it.  So all that remains today are well-preserved ruins.  It was remarkable to be underneath today’s buildings and imagine all the events and history that took place below street level.

After spending the morning in the cool, dark ruins below ground, I was ready for some sunshine!  Jared came back from the conference over his lunch hour, and we met at the hotel.  We walked two blocks to the Galeries Royales St. Hubert, which is Europe’s oldest still-operating shopping mall.  It was built in 1847, and is glass-covered for convenient window-shopping.  The ground floor has boutique shops, theatres, and restaurants with apartments on the upper stories.  Originally, people had to pay to get in, and the architecture still makes it feel quite upscale.  We ate lunch “outside” at Le Mokafe in the galleries and spent a pleasant hour eating and people-watching.  As we may have mentioned before, much of Brussels feels Parisian, especially in restaurants.  At Le Mokafe, the chairs at the patio tables were turned facing to the walkway, rather than facing each other.  It greatly enhances the people-watching – and sharing lunch with your spouse!

After lunch, we had a bit more time before Jared’s next conference session.  So we walked to the Grand Place to the Brewery Museum.  It is a small museum, made up of only two rooms.  The first is a room with old brewing paraphernalia, which was pretty neat.  The second was less exciting as it has modern equipment and a little video on modern beer-brewing.  The best part was that the admission fee included a glass of beer for each of us!  The ambience of having a true Belgian beer in an old cellar couldn’t be beat.

Once Jared headed to the metro to go back to the conference, I walked back uphill to the BELvue museum, the buildings that are on top of the Coudenberg Palace.  The walk uphill wasn’t too long, but it was quite strenuous, and I can’t count the numbers of times I climbed it that week.  By my logic, though, every trip I made uphill entitled me to more truffles!  The BELvue museum is basically a national history museum.  It covered nearly all of the country’s history from declaring independence from the Netherlands in 1830 until today.  The museum also had extensive displays on the royal family, which I think is even more beloved by the people than the William and Kate by the British.  (Like that reference to the wedding just yesterday?  I must say, I really enjoyed the Bishop’s sermon at their wedding).  I learned a good deal about the country and its people that afternoon.

Guess what I did after that?  I bought more chocolate!  I also bought some beers from the local grocery store, so that we could enjoy them on our hotel room balcony.  It was a bit cold outside, but we enjoyed the pre-dinner treat.

For dinner, we met some of Jared’s French counterparts on the Grand Place.  We sat at one of the many restaurants on the square for some beers.  It was a gorgeous evening, and it was fun to again sit, relax, and take in the atmosphere.  We finally tried the traditional Kwak beer, which is served in a tall, thin glass with a wooden contraption to hold it up.  When you drink it, you pick up the wooden holder and all, and as the glass gets closer to empty, the remaining beer comes out with a “Kwak Kwak Kwak” sound.  It wasn’t the best beer we tried, but it was one of the most fun to drink.

After the beers, we wandered for a while looking for a place to eat dinner.  I shall not waste much time describing that because we ended up at a touristy, cookie-cutter place on the Rue du Bouchers (i.e. Restaurant Row).  This old narrow street is lined with restaurants, all serving stereotypical Belgian food to unknowing tourists.  The meal was ok, and we had to wait almost a full hour to get our food.  So after that experience, we were ready for some more beer.

Thankfully, close by was the Delirium Café, a place recommended by friends of friends and some French guys.  Delirium is an enormous bar and pub with an even bigger beer list – supposedly over 2000 varieties.  Between the four of us, we managed to try a good number that evening.  One guy even ordered the cactus beer, a drink that was in fact beer, but looked more like nuclear lime juice.  It tasted pretty gross.

It was great to experience some of the city’s nightlife, and thankfully we were able to sleep in the next morning.  Next up is Wednesday and even more delicious restaurant reviews!