Belgium Round-Up

We're in Lausanne (Switzerland) now, on the bank of magnificent Lake Geneva, but it has been some time since our last confession post so I thought I'd better do a quick précis of our Belgium adventure before moving on to talk about Lausanne.

Aside from our hot air balloon trip, we filled the time very easily in Bruges as the weather was mostly kind to us and we could get out and about to do whatever we pleased. On the day we arrived there was a massive food festival going on in the main city square. Michelin chefs were under small separate marquees, showing how clever they were by preparing fresh little dishes on the spot which you could buy using a tear-off ticket system. We bought a bunch of tickets and sampled about five tapas-style plates each, sitting down with a great Belgian beer each and chatting with the locals about how great Bruges is and how lucky they are to live there (they know).

Crepe filled with goat's cheese

Have I mentioned already that Belgian waffles are amaaaazing? I don't think I've talked about them enough, so while on the subject of food, here's another waffle photo - this one was from Brussels and if you are ever in that part of the world you have to go to Dandoy for waffles.

OK, so back to Bruges . . . we went on a great little river boat trip. That's a good thing to do in Bruges and indeed in any city you visit, because if they are nice they're even more attractive from the water and if they're not particularly fabulous, they always look a lot better seen from a boat. Bruges happens to be gorgeous from every angle - air, land and water.

I've mentioned in a previous post about yarn bombing in Copenhagen - we found it as social commentary in Bruges too. In the photo below the translated sign reads, "I work for more women in politics".

We climbed the belfry in Bruges, just as the guys do In Bruges. It was arduous but had to be done, for the sake of respecting the movie and with regard to the amount of chocolate, beer, waffles and fries we have consumed since arriving in Belgium. If truth be told, we should have climbed the belfry several times (two steps at a time...) given what we have put away.

A tour of the Halve Maan brewery in Bruges was unexpectedly interesting and worth doing. We've been drinking the local Zot beer and it was very good - the brewery is family-owned and the guided tour takes you through the process of creating the various beers produced there, from traditional methods through to the incorporation of new technology. A great rooftop visit of the brewery also allows you to view Bruges from another angle and affords a good photo opportunity.

We made a day trip to Ghent, from Bruges. The altarpiece in the church there is very famous, having been painted (mostly) by Jan Van Eyck. It's special because it's made up of several hinged panels, which is unusual, and the artwork is very beautiful. Sadly, some of the panels are currently elsewhere being restored, so we didn't see the full altarpiece. Ghent is a much larger town than I had thought, and worth a visit.

OK, last but not least and in the interests of full disclosure, I confess that I ate ALL of the mussels in the photo below. The waiter told me (afterwards) that there are approximately 70 mussels per serve, but I can't verify that - I was too busy scoffing them down to count. I've never eaten mussels like these - at home they taste of seafood and can be a bit chewy, but in Bruges they were soft and pillowy and tasted of the white wine and vegetables they were steamed with and they didn't have any aroma of seafood whatsoever. We've been watching people eating these "buckets" of mussels throughout our time in Brussels, then in Bruges, and I really wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Now I know. They really were sensational.

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Bruxelles - Brussels Minus the Sprouts

We've been really lucky with the weather up to now, and have been crossing fingers and toes about Belgium because it has notoriously wet weather and that would make things a bit trickier to manage, though I've told myself several times before coming away that you can't travel thousands of kilometres to Europe and sit inside your accommodation - that would be insane.

In my mind Belgium is known for the following: chocolate, the cartoon character Tintin, lacework, waffles, the surrealist artist Magritte, the Manneken Pis statue, the "actor" Jean-Clade Van Damme, the tennis player Kim Clijsters and beer. Those things are all in evidence as you walk about, but Brussels has lots of great surprises as well. It has a great deal of beautiful old architecture, while at the same time being very modern.

Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert at 7:00am - the only time it's not crowded!

Manneken Pis dressed up - at any time of the day, the little statue's costume can either change or disappear altogether.

Inside one of a billion chocolate shops.

The dome of the Palace of Justice

Wall art is a very big thing in Brussels and its great fun to walk about and suddenly come upon a gigantic cartoon painted in a hidden, awkward spot that's only a metre wide but four storeys tall. On a similar theme, many streets have alternate names - although there are enamel signs with the street name in French and Flemish, some also have a reference to a Belgian cartoon character.

We ate waffles, of course, though some of the optional toppings were surplus to requirements, as the below picture shows. You're supposed to choose which one you want and hold up the number of fingers to represent how many you want. Umm... none please, just wrap one in a serviette for me please. Au naturale.

We went to the Magritte Museum, which houses around 200 works of the artist; we also enjoyed a great little pub where Magritte and his buddies actually used to hang out - it's now covered by all sorts of protection orders which forbid it from being renovated or changed in any way. The walls are covered in photos, sketches and bits and pieces of framed memorabilia from the artists' circle.

Het Goud Blommeke in Papier - Magritte's hangout pub

All in all, Brussels was great and I highly recommend it for a visit.

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