Thursday, March 17th (Part 3)

[Jared]:  We finished our beers and headed back out into the mist.  After a short walk along some of the beautiful canals, we made our way to the church of our lady.  The highlight here was a Michelangelo sculpture which is said to be the only one to have left Italy during Mich's lifetime.

We continued our stroll through Bruges and took some time to step inside a few reputable chocolatiers.  Their selection was vast and the quality and flavor surpassed my high expectations.  Notable creations we discovered here include a Havana chocolate - a truffle made with an infusion of Cuban tobacco - and a bacon truffle!  I could have eaten an entire box of the bacon chocolate.  Good lord, so tasty.

After our chocolates, we were ready to be even more adventurous.  I was anxious to tour a few of the many historic windmills in Bruges.  To do so, however, required renting a pair of bicycles and biking a few miles to the outskirts of downtown.  Although it was a chilly ride, Beth and I had lots of fun.  We love biking through European cities (ok, well, Bruges and Paris anyway) as it is the best way to see and experience parts of the city that you might not otherwise visit.  We passed historic buildings, rolled through beautiful courtyards, and followed the canals.  Finally we made it to the windmills!  [Side note: I once (along with two high school friends) built a pretty rockin working replica of a windmill for the Illinois state history fair.]  These windmills were amazingly well preserved and offered terrific views of the city.  I am so glad we were able to see them.

The ride back to Markt Square was even more canalicious (which is to say, we saw even more of the canals). We also crossed a few cute little bridges.  By the time we made it back to the square, all the lights were beginning to turn on and the city center had a beautiful glow about it.

With just a few hours left before catching our train back to Brussels, we decided some libations and sustenance were in order.  To satisfy our cravings we stopped by a beer hall recommended by some friends and then picked up some famous Belgian fries from a little shack on the square.  These turned out to be the best fries of the trip by far.  They were warm and golden and just flat out good. We liked them so much we posed in a few pictures with them.

Finally, we made our way back to the train station.  As you can imagine we were utterly exhausted - but the best kind of exhausted.  We made it back to Brussels and headed to bed to prepare for an early trip to Paris in the morning.

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...

Thursday, March 17th

[Beth]: This will be a short post, as we split Thursday into two parts.  In the morning, Jared went to the last few sessions of his conference, while I did more sight-seeing.  About 1pm, we caught a train for Bruges.  That will be another post.

Thursday morning I went to the City Museum, which is a small but fun museum right on the Grand Place.  The top floor has a chronological history of the city, with a fascinating photography section displaying pictures from 100 or so years ago next to pictures taken in the same places in 2008.  It was a creative way to show how much the city has (or in some cases has not) changed over time.

The museum also has all of the costumes of the Mannekin Pis.  Over the years, nearly all countries have sent costumes to be displayed on the statue for a time.  The variety of costumes from around the world was amazing – a few of my favorites are below.

Along with the costume displays, the museum also had a video of people’s reactions to the statute.  It plays on a loop, and was pretty hilarious to watch.  I think the little kids were the funniest.  They would say things like “He’s going to get in trouble with his mom,” or “He just keeps on going!”  I definitely watched the video for a good 25 minutes.

After the museum and before meeting Jared to catch our train, I went on a bit of a choco-crawl, as Rick Steves calls it.  On the Grand Place are four of the most famous chocolatiers in Belgium: Godiva, Neuhaus, Galler, and Leonidas.  Godiva is pretty famous world-wide, but the others are less well-known.  Galler is family-run, doesn’t export, and is the royal favorite.  Leonidas is not handmade but you get the most chocolates for your euro.  Even though I had sampled many of the varities during the week, it’s not too surprising that none of the truffles I bought made it back to Jared.  So I stopped at all four shops and bought about 4 to 6 truffles from each.  It was going to be a good train ride to Bruges!

 

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!

Brussels' Beautiful People (and their bathrooms)

[Jared]:  I think it's fair to suppose the blame for the three week delay in blogging about our trip to Europe rests largely on my shoulders.  These last few weeks have been a bit stressful.  However, you were promised a story of toilets, and I shall not disappoint!

After my first day at the European Wind Energy Conference, I was fully excited (or "stoked" as they say here in southern California) to see more of Brussels and to enjoy a nice meal.  We decided to head to a restaurant mentioned in our guidebook.  After wandering for some time and getting quite turned around, I am ashamed to admit that we resorted to using the map app on my iPhone.  Finally we approached the restaurant.  In his book, Rick mentioned that this was a restaurant where Belgians come "to see and be seen".  As much as we love food, Beth and I don't typically find our way to "trendy" locales so to speak. I for one was a little intimidated by this place; and I was not comforted by the door man in a hipster tuxedo and top hat.  And so we passed by.

We attempted to regroup as we peered inside. Should we go in?  Are we dressed cool enough?  We don't have reservations!  Our French isn't great... and so forth.  Finally, Beth imbibed me with the requisite courage.  We had come this far, why turn back?  Let's just go for it.  So we did!

The restaurant was indeed trendy.  An oyster bar to the left, a cocktail bar to the right.  The lobby and main dining room opening up straight ahead.  We informed the hostess that we had no reservations, and she was quite helpful.  Our options were to wait roughly 45 minutes for a table or they could make a place for us at a very tall table right by the entrance.  Given that it was late and we were hungry, we opted for the table - a decision I admit I regret.  The table was the only bar height table in the entire dining room which helped us feel nice and conspicuous.  Also our chairs were more like stools as they did not have backs, which meant that by the end of the meal, my lower back was screaming at me.  What was done was done, but Beth and I pride ourselves on our ability to look on the bright side in such situations and did not let trivial inconveniences keep us from enjoying our evening.

Despite a supremely tempting menu (i.e. foie gras), Beth and I decided the chef's tasting menu was the optimal choice.  We rarely order the same thing at a restaurant, but made an exception this evening.  Everything was delicious.  We both especially enjoyed the beer pairings with each course.

To top the meal off, we were treated to our choice of a classic cocktail on the house.  We never were able to translate why we were offered the free drinks.  As best we can tell, it was a relatively random thing.  Maybe they were training a new bartender?

After so much hydration, we each required a trip to the facilities where we encountered our final surprise of the evening.  Although our guidebook noted this restaurant as a place where people go "to be seen", I did not think this edict would apply to bathroom stalls.  And yet, there I stood, facing a bathroom of see-through glass walls.  Men and women's sections were noted with their respective gender symbols, yet still perfectly translucent.  I admit the consequences of this truth took a moment to sink in.  I cautiously approached a stall, entered, and closed the door behind me.  I could still see the common space and sinks.  By the transitive property of vision, I knew this meant my business would be on display to the world.  Then I locked the stall door.  The glass instantly became opaque!  It was mind boggling.  There weren't any shutters or sliding doors.  One minute I could see through the glass, the next instant I could not.  I once was exposed, but now I'm private.  Hallelujah!

There you have it.  It was quite an evening.  There's more fun and food stories to come.  I'm going to hand the blog back over to Beth who promises to be a more reliable blogger than I.

Brussels, Monday March 14th

[Beth]: Monday morning we awoke (mostly) refreshed and ready for a week in Brussels.  In making our hotel reservation, we were able to get breakfast for both of us included.  Which turned out to be an amazing – and delicious! – deal.  Each morning there was a full spread of pastries, eggs, meats, fruit, and juices.  We got our own pot of fresh-brewed coffee, and we quickly fell in love with croissants with chocolate spread.  I can think of no better way to start the day than with coffee and chocolate!

Jared went off to his wind energy conference, but since most of our readers aren’t in the industry, we will spare you the details.  However I will show you our balcony, which my businessman-husband just happened to be standing on!

While Jared was busy learning and networking, I got to explore the city and its sights!  On this first morning, I explored the area around the Grand Place and Hotel de Ville (aka City Hall).  I had planned on going to the Costume and Lace Museum, but sadly it was closed for a month for renovation.  So I took these pictures in a nearby courtyard.

I had lunch at the quaint yet bustling Maison des Crepes.  Since it was sunny and relatively warm outside, I ate my ham, cheese, and egg crepe at one of the sidewalk tables.  Along with my Lindeman’s Peche (peach) beer, I enjoyed people-watching as I ate.  I love people-watching, especially in a new and foreign country.  What a wonderful way to learn about a new locale!

After lunch, I headed for St. Michael’s church.  But, on the way, I somehow got pulled into Neuhaus Chocolatiers.  As would become a habit in the coming days, I stopped in, bought two or three (or four…) truffles to sample, and took them to a picturesque location.  In this case, I sat in a little park at St. Michael’s and again enjoyed some people-watching whilst indulging my sweet tooth.

St. Michael’s is a wonderful, Gothic cathedral that has been the center of Brussels religious life for more than 1000 years.  The white stone building is gorgeous and has a wonderful view of the Lower Town.  Inside, I was able to see excavations of the medieval church walls displayed under glass floor panels.  It is so amazing to think of people worshipping, getting baptized and married, and holding funerals here for 10 centuries.  And as an architecture fanatic, I love getting to see all of the historic elements.

Upon leaving the cathedral, I headed uphill and cut through the Parc de Bruxelles.  Even with the trees bare for winter, the expansive park was pleasant to stroll through.  I even happened upon a man warming up on the bagpipes and was treated to some Scottish tunes as I headed for the European Parliament.  In contrast to the very old buildings in the Lower Town, the complex that houses the European Parliament is modern and sleek.  I went on a half-hour audio tour, which ended in the “hemi-cycle” where the members meet and do their world-leadership thing.  Even though the U.S. isn’t part of the E.U. and all the videos about the importance of the Parliament were a bit over-dramatic, it was pretty cool to see the room.  There are boxes around the back, like the booths at a baseball stadium, where the proceedings are translated into 26 or so different languages.  That way, each delegate can hear and participate in his own language.  Pretty cool.

After this, I walked further afield and through another park, Park of the Cinquantenaire, to visit Auto World.  I feel like I have a healthier interest in cars than most girls, so this museum was pretty cool.  The museum has hundreds of automobiles, starting with the first Benz up to more modern cars.  I really enjoyed the older ones from the 20’s to 40’s.  My favorite, though, was the 1965 Triumph: a car that is also a boat.  It is both street- and sea-legal!  Oh, the silly inventions of the 1960’s.

By this time, it was 5pm and I was exhausted from all the walking.  So I hopped the metro back to the hotel and met Jared for dinner.  Possibly the coolest restaurant for ambience we went to all trip, and definitely the craziest bathrooms.  Stay tuned….