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.

May I Offer a Recap?

[Jared]:  Get it?  May?  A quick hit list of what we've been up to...

We saw a baby hippo swimming at the zoo and fish swimming at the aquarium.

I spent a week in the desert for a work trip.

Then we went on a weekend camping trip with our church.

Next, some friends from Virginia stopped by for a visit.  We cooked for them and took them to the Wild Animal Park.

We went wine tasting!

We did some spring cleaning (yeah, no picture for that one).

I spent a few days in Anaheim for the AWEA WindPower conference.  We got a private night at Disney!

We went to two Cardinals-Padres games and took a stadium tour of Petco.

Finally, we went on a long bike ride this morning.

All this blogging is making me thirsty.

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.

Breath

[Jared]: Hi all, my friends at Be The Groove put together a video that is in a contest to be screened at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. It's an incredible video and I am tremendously proud to know these performers. (You may recognize them from Beth's and my wedding!) Please enjoy the clip below and then visit this link to vote for Breath. You can vote once a day!

Love is Burning Fossil Fuel

[Jared]: For several months now, I have been anticipating a very important milestone in the life of my car, Tracy. For those of you who have not met her, she is a light blue '94 Toyota Tercel. She gets 40mpg on the highway and has been with me for almost 8 years now. She's taken me from St. Louis, to Chicago, to Virginia, DC, and NYC, and even survived a cross country drive from Richmond, VA to San Diego, CA. It's fair to say I love my car. As such, I've been eagerly looking forward to her turning 200,000 miles old.

Unfortunately, about a week ago it became clear that I was going to be out of the country for this milestone. I am (theoretically) going to be in Warsaw, Poland, next week for the European Wind Energy Conference (EWEC). Assuming the Icelandic volcano does not interrupt my travel, I'll be flying out tomorrow. Anyway, needless to say, I have been a little sad that I wasn't going to get to see Tracy roll over to 200K. What I forgot to account for was that I have a thoughtful wife who loves me a lot! Yesterday Beth ran some extra errands (and took the very long way to get there) to purposefully run up Tracy's mileage so that she would flip this morning on my way to work. It was sweet of her and made for a fun morning: