In Brugge

Before starting my post about Brugge, I'd like to post a picture from my continuing (although this is the first on the web) series "Is it Europe, or the midwest?" I found this picture on my computer a while back, and thought I should post it.

Nah, just kidding. That's a picture of Jess and I on the way to Brugge by Train. I have to admit that much of the countryside reminds me very much of rural Illinois, Minnesota, or Wisconsin. It's very comforting to see that and remember traveling throughout that region over the holidays to visit family.

Then, we arrived in Brugge and were reminded that we are, indeed in Europe. Check out this bike parking lot.

Fortunately, there was a great reminder of America in Brugge... A starbucks, where I could continue taking a picture of Starbucks in every city I visit and get an actual drip coffee (albeit for 3 Euro!)

Basically, every turn in Brugge resulted in another picturesque shot. Here are just a few. The view walking between the Begijnhof and the river in Brugge. Although, this picture reminded me a lot of views in South Bend as well, maybe I'm just missing the midwest this time of year.

Here is a picture of Jess at a Watch tower near the entrance to Brugge by the train station. This is also where boat traffic was controlled by a series of locks (if I remember correctly, although I probably don't).

Here is a picture of the Brugge Begijnhoff, very similar to the one we stayed at with Sue and Steve.

Here is a picture of me by a dam across the river. Pretty cool to see such sturdy old buildings built right over the water.

Here is a picture right by that dam looking towards the city center and the MARKT. This is possibly my favorite view. Totally a postcard.

Here is a picture of Jess by one of the pictures along a canal.

Here's a view of the Church of our lady, really the epicenter of our visit. There were also several museums we visited (of Dutch primatives) and the Groothouse nearby.As an aside, the Groothouse is super cool. Back in the day, using hops was banned for brewing, and a family owned a monopoly on the spices allowed for making beer. They essentially taxed the people who wanted to make beer by selling these herbs and spices at a super high price. I guess that isn't cool at all, but kind of interesting.

 I don't know if this picture really shows it, but the main church here really dominates the skyline. It is super-tall compared to everything else. I imagine how impressive these structures must have looked to people who aren't used to skyscrapers.

We actually went inside the church of our lady to check out one of only three Michaelangelos outside Italy. The other two are in the Louvre, so we might get a chance to see them. Anyways, here it is. Apparently Brugge is super-excited about Mary, so they fought hard to get this picture. I don't know how Brugge is more excited about Mary than any other Catholic town, but who knows.

I'd say there was a lot more exciting inside the Church of our lady than this Michaelangelo. First and foremost were the tombs. This picture shows several tombs in the floor beneath the church from the 12th and 13th century. I think it's interesting that they have all these drawings inside them kind of like Egyptian sarcophogi have.

Above the ground were the tombs of a king and queen (I forget who they are. One of them lost a big war, and another's descendants ultimately married a hapsburg, which lead to Belgium becoming part of the Austrian empire for a while). Anyways, these tombs are super-cool. I like that they have copper or bronze reliefs of their bodies on top. Bury me like this, please!

At the king and queens feet were some really beautiful stained-glass windows. Reminds me of my time at Daprato Rigali. I can only imagine how much maintenance is required for all the stained glass of Europe.

There was also amazing wood carving. I can only imagine how hard the wood would have to be to be shaped like this. Also, It is super-astonishing to imagine the time and care that went into the production of every aspect of these churches and other structures, from the masonry, to the sculpture, to the windows, to the wood paneling.

Is brewing a religion? If so count me in! One of the other big things we did was check out the Halve Maan (half moon) brewery. The only remaining brewery in Brugge. This has to be among the best brewery tours I've ever taken. The guide was one of the grandsons of the owner (among a long line of family owners). He was animated, excited about the brewery, excited about beer, and proud of belgium and his beer. He also had some great jokes. Jess favorite was that "In belgium, any beer below 6% ABV is considered pop"

Here's a picture of the entrance to the brewery. Notice no one is seated outside on this below-zero day. Although people occasionally do. I don't get that at all!

Here's a picture of a picture of their old malting room, where they'd germinate the barley to create malt. Also, some beautiful copper kettles. This was in the attic of the main building and it smelled like hops! 

They also had this novelty bottle of their beer. Notice me trying to drink from it. I guess I needed a straw. 

The brewery was vertically designed. Water would be brought to the top and mixed with malt to sparge the malt and get all the sugar out. Then the boil would happen on the next level , where hops and yeast would be added. Finally, they wort would move to fermenters on the next level down. Ultimately, bottling occurred at the ground level to allow for ready shipping. In this way, the brewery efficiently used gravity to brew their beer.

Also, we got a beautiful view of brugge from the rooftop, where the water would be brought for sparging. Despite all the narrow, steep staircases, our tour guide reassured us (about 50 times, until the reassuring became a joke, that no one has ever died on the tour).

Here's an image of one of their old timey wort chillers.

Here's our trusty guide leaning against one of the many fermentation vats they had so they could brew and store many beers at once.

They would clean out the vats with corrosive ammonia. Of course, an adult couldn't fit in there, so they'd have children go inside, and brush the vats down. No one ever died from this process (our trusty guide reassured us) because they'd tie a rope around the kids ankle, and if they passed out from the fumes, they'd pull them out. Here's a picture of Jess trying to fit inside.

After the tour, we each got a free blonde ale from the bar. Here's a picture of us cheersing at the bar. I should mention we also had some delicious soup there before the tour, and a cheese plate with our beer that must have been a 1/2 pound of cheese cubes.

Jess and I weren't too impressed with the blonde ale (a little light for us, not yeasty enough and surprisingly watery). So we decided to test the remaining beers -  a double, a triple, and a quadruple. Unfortunately, we only had 45 minutes to get to the Historium before the close, and the bar closed too. So we decided we could go without trying the other beers, or forge ahead and try to make the historium too. What did we decide?

Here's your answer. Pictured from left to right are the blonde, the double, the tripel, and the quadrupel. Also in order by ascending alcohol content - 5.5, 7, 9 and 11%.

We definitely made the right choice because the tripel and quadrupel were also amongst the best beers we've had in europe. The quadrupel tasted a lot like a delicious barley wine and was far and away the best. The tripel was yeasty and delicious.

Needless to say, after those beers, we got lost and missed the Historium. But, we did find an ice rink in the MARKT and decided that would be a good place to work off some of our beer calories. Here's Jess making her way along the lighted tree in the center, a little unsteady.

Here's Jess speeding along after some practice. She never fell. Good job! I fell once (trying to show off and hitting a rut, of course)

Here's me by the tree as well, showing my good balance.

Behind the tree was another gorgeous Stadhuis.

We left for Leuven at around 8:30. It felt like a million o'clock as the sun sets around 3:30, and it must feel like that to everyone else, as we were the only ones in our train car until brussels.

Pretty much as perfect a day as you can get. Beer, sights, venison, and a cozy train ride home.

I got yer horse right here

I have a rule that if I see something on a menu that I've never seen before, I should eat it. This is a dangerous rule in Europe. Then again on our last night in town, Steve and Sue took us to the Troubador in Leuven - a great place for traditional Belgian (Flemmish) cuisine. There I saw HORSE on the menu. Now many people would say "nay" to such an option.

There is no doubt I was hesitant. I learned, however from Sue that most edible horse comes from Canada from horses that actually had useful lives. I think she was telling me this to dissuade me, but I actually liked the idea that the animal wasn't bred explicitly for consumption and, in fact, lived out its days doing normal horse-things. Anyways, it tasted a lot like a really lean cut of steak. Not too sinewy and chewy, but not fatty at all. It had a little gamey taste, but nothing like venison. Here's all of us at dinner.


here's a picture of me cutting my horse into tiny pieces and moving it around the plate to look like I've eaten it (just kidding, it was delicious).

Here's a picture of the whole crew. Jess more wisely picked the pheasant, Steve picked a game bird only found in northern Europe, and I believe Sue had the venison. Notice also the belgian endive in the foreground. Apparently it grows really well in the dark, so people grew it in their cellars during WWII. It has an extremely bitter taste if eaten raw, but is super-delicious as it was prepared here.

Eating Horse wasn't the only surreal experience I had that day in brussels. We also got a chance to visit the Magritte museum (and pick up some friches and waffels on the way!).

Here's one of my favorite Magrittes. It was illustrated in Scott Adams' Understanding Comics to great effect to show that comics and other art really only depict real life, but in fact are not real life. Magritte took this understanding to great effect.

A sketch of  Magrittes "The treachery of images" the translated text reads "This continues not to be a pipe"

Magritte seemed to have an obsession with smoking. I can easily understand what he was getting at here.

Magritte and I agree that cigars smell gross.

One of the most suprising aspects of the Magritte museum was his "Surrealism in the Sun" period. Here he continued to produce very surreal paintings, but used more light and airy colors and media. He did this during WWII, perhaps because everything around was so gloomy and depressing there wasn't a need for art to emphasize that. I think it also shows his mastery of other styles, including impressionism. It's unfortunate this period was generally panned by art critics.

This is not a pig.

The surreality of the day spread to the outside world as Jess and I visited the Atomium - a giant structure meant to represent the crystal structure of a unit cell an iron molecule magnified 165 billion times. It was built for the world's fair in 1958 (four years before Seattle and the Space Needle). While I love the Space Needle (it's DEFINITELY my favorite needle-structure), I'm super-glad the Atomium was built. There are too many World's Fair, or other needles (like the CN tower, the Oriental Pearl Tower, etc). This is definitely a unique structure and was totally worth it to go see.

Here's me and Jess outside the Atomium.

Here's Jess standing directly under the Atomium.

Neither of these pictures give you a sense of exactly how big this structure is (102 meters tall, or about 33 stories). This picture of the lower ball by the entrance gives you a better sense.

Inside the Atomium, you can access 5 different balls. Another three are for private events. To get to the top ball, you can take an elevator. Here's a view toward Leuven from the top.

Here's a view of Mini Europe (1/25 scale) from the top. It looks even smaller from so high!

To get to the other balls, you take escalators or stairs in the connecting tubes. Here's a picture of Jess escalating up one of the tubes.

You can see the ports on the top of the tubes. Some of them have a real great view of the rest of the structure.

It can get really confusing how to find your way around the Atomium. Fortunately they have these crazy maps throughout. They look a little like something from the Death Star.

Here's a great view of the inside of one of the balls, to give you a sense of space and what it's like in there. This was a part of their temporary design exhibit, hence the crazy white benches.

To leave, you go through a super-trippy escalator. Pretty great light show and space music.

Finally on the ground level, you can see the original control and monitoring center. It looks super 50's and space-aged.

That's all for now. Over all a super surreal day, but overall super awesome. I guess I love surrealism in art, and in real life.

Mussels in Brussels

Steve and Sue have a great saying, "Best to visit a new place with an open... mouth". That's definitely what Jess and I did today. The first thing we did in Brussels is find some mussels.

Mussels! (And Frites)

We also got cappuchinos to go with the mussels and quiche. The mussels were delicious and in a real hearty vegetable broth that made them real meaty. I don't know if cappuchino really goes with that, but that quiche in the background sure did.

Great looking cappuchinos. Too bad you can barely ever find a cup of black, drip coffee around (except at anyone's home)

In the same square where we found the mussels (the Grand Place), we made it a grand total of about 50 yards before deciding to stop for waffels (apparently we were hungry. These were super delicious, and went well with more cappuchino. The view was equally delicious.

My (delicious) view of Jess and Waffels.

The waffel's delicious (albeit transient) view of the grand place.

I'll get back to the beautiful views in a moment, but there is one more delicious food thing for the day. When we got back from Brussels, Steve and Sue took us to one of their favorite local restaurants. I got a hearty rabbit stew, and Jess got some delicious fish. Most importantly we washed these hearty dishes down with some amazing beers. Steve had been plying us with amazing belgian ales (both trappist and abbey and other ales) for two days now, and each beer was somehow better than the next. Here's me and steve with some Triples.

Beer number two of ??? for the brussels trip. A delicious triple by duvel. Definitely putting me off the lagers I've been drinking.

Of course, food is only one half of any dining experience. The other half is ambiance, and brussels has got that in spades. Just a few blocks from the central station, before we even made it to the gastronomic part of our journey, we got this delicious view of the town cathedral as an appetizer.

Flying buttresses! Yum!

Immediately after our mussels and waffels hunt, we got this hilarious view of a classic brussels fountain. Apparently brussels is famous for this statue of the peeing boy called the Manneken Pis. That's funny enough as it is, but of course, for the season he's dressed up as Cinterklaas. I almost lost my lunch from laughter.

Manneken Pis keeps his stream going even in this cold weather.

After that, we hiked up to the Palais de Beaux arts to check out some old art from the flemmish primatives (although they didn't see themselves as primative, and were quite advanced at the time).

Here's a view from the palace that looks down the hill towards the stadhuis and the grand place. (BTW, I've missed hills and it was great to do some uphill and downhill walking in brussels to earn those waffels.)

Looking in the opposite direction, here's a beautiful view of Jess looking towards the church and the palace right by the Beaux Arts museum.

At night we got treated to a new view of everything. The same view towards the stadhuis above is brilliantly lit. This garden is lit with crazy rainbow patterns.

Fortunately, we also decided to visit the grand place one last time before hopping the train and were treated to this amazing light show featuring a techno / classical sound track and real church bells.

Needless to say, both the food and the views were immensely satisfiying. I left brussels with an aching belly as well as aching feet.