Belgium: Land of Delicious Frites, Beer, Chocolate, and Waffles!

Saturday, June 11 - Monday, June 13 2011

Pop quiz – which country is smaller, Belgium or Switzerland?  We both guessed Switzerland…and we were both wrong.  Point being?  Belgium is even easier to overlook than Switzerland as a great European destination.  For us, it was one of our most anticipated trips, mainly because we love the four things noted in the title of this post. :)

Monday, June 13 was bank holiday in Switzerland (‘bank holiday’ in Europe = ‘government holiday’ in the US), so we had three days to spend in Belgium.  We arrived into Brussels by plane on our last of five cheap easyJet flights, and of course that meant we arrived early (early enough that it was still appropriate to be craving a famous Belgian waffle).  We took a train from the airport into the city and once we arrived, it didn’t take more than a couple minutes to stumble upon a waffle shop and we soon discovered what all the craze is about.  On our plates: 1 waffle with strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce; and 1 waffle with straight up maple syrup (we find that the best way to tell if a restaurant is good is to order the basics).   Mmmm… both were phenomenal and the chocolate was good enough to drink! ;)

Our sugar-high kicked in and we were off to explore Brussels.  According to our research, if you were to be picky with your time in Belgium, Brussels wouldn’t be an overnight destination.  While there are certainly things to do, we planned to spend our nights in Bruges, just an hour away by train.  Until then though we had about 5 or 6 hours to kill so we hit all the sites we could…

Easily the must-see attraction in Brussels is the Grand Place.  It is appropriately titled because when you enter it, you can’t help but stare in awe at the large buildings with such ornate detail.  The square is usually bustling with activity but when you arrive before 9am, nothing is really going on.  Actually, at first we mistook the Town Hall building (the tallest in the photos below) for St. Michael’s Cathedral because we were expecting the Grand Place to be packed full of activity.  Since St. Michael’s opened early we decided to take a detour from the Grand Place for the time being.

St. Michael’s holds its significance in Belgium as the location of royal weddings and funerals.  For us, the most significant parts were the beautiful organ and stained glass windows.  While they were grand, they weren’t over-the-top like the same features in some other cathedrals we’ve seen.

While there are many fine museums and sights in Belgium, we saw more quirky aspects here than in any other country before.  Exhibit A (more in Bruges later): Manneken-Pis (which reads phonetically as it’s spelled), Brussels’ mascot, is a statue of a boy peeing.  It gets even quirkier when the statue is dressed up in different costumes throughout the year, supposedly sent to Brussels from all areas of the world (Brussels is the capital of the European Union after all).  Today he looked Spanish…

Out of all the museums in Brussels (most are either art or not highly rated), we chose to visit the Royal Army and Military History Museum, which holds an extensive collection of rare military artifacts.  It was a good visit except for the fact that all the exhibits were in French, although there was an audio guide in English for about 1/3 of the exhibits.  It turned out to be a pretty impressive collection of planes, tanks, and other artifacts, and in the end the lack of English helped us stay on a quick pace.  Ang also got to pretend she was a fighter pilot, so it was a worthwhile stop. :)

As we just mentioned, Brussels is the capitol of the European Union.  Unfortunately it was Saturday so everyone was enjoying his or her weekend instead of bustling around the European Parliament building for our amusement.  But it was still cool to get a glimpse of the building and flags.  And of course what major government building is complete without a political demonstration? (We see a lot of these over here.)

We completed our quick tour of Brussels by returning back to the Grand Place for some quick frites (fries) and beer.  On the way, we caught this nice view of the Town Hall in the background over an extravagant garden.  We waved one last goodbye to the Grand Place and caught the train to Bruges.

We made it into Bruges in the late afternoon.  A quick bus ride got us into the city center where we were both in awe of the grand buildings (very similar to the Grand Place in Brussels, only on a smaller scale) and the amount of people!  While it was very touristy, it didn’t detract at all from how much we loved this little city.  We call it a city (as opposed to a town, although it felt more town-like) because Bruges actually used to be quite prominent – in the 14^th century it’s population was 35,000, as large as London’s.  It lost its powerhouse status when the harbor that once came up to the town center, silted up, and trade moved elsewhere.  It’s primarily a tourist destination and from the looks of it, they are doing quite well!

We dropped off the bags at our hotel and took an evening stroll through the town center, while also keeping an eye out for a place to eat.  Bruges is just one of those places that you want to take a picture of everything.  Also, because the old town center isn’t that big, you walk by the same buildings multiple times but still find the urge to take more pictures even though you know you already have enough.  Since everything closes around 5pm, we strolled down to Minnewater, a picturesque lake setting where most people (including us) would fantasize about retiring in one of the historic homes overlooking the lake. 

Minnewater

In the midst of our wandering we found the perfect place to eat (so perfect that we went back the next night for dinner and would have gone one more time if we didn’t have to leave before dinner on Monday) – De Wijngaert.  It was mostly the smell that lured us in – a wood burning fireplace grilling all sorts of meats.  The most unique meat we had was the “bacon” which, if you can call it that, was a good centimeter thick.  It could have been the rosemary seasoning over everything, but this was one of the best restaurants we’ve eaten in, period.  Not to mention extremely friendly service, too.

On Sunday we set out to do anything without a huge line (did we mention there were a lot of people there?) :) since we’d be there pretty much all of Monday and hoped it would be less busy then.  We hit most of the major sights…

We started at the City Hall building that had paintings and busts of famous Belgians and those that helped put Bruges on the map.  The highlight was the extravagant Gothic Room that has murals and carvings depicting the wealthy history of Bruges.  It is still the active city hall so politicians still use this room today.  Something unique in the city hall was a map of Bruges in 1562, when gates and 28 windmills surrounded it.  Four of those windmills have survived to this day, which we saw later in the trip.

Our next two stops took us back to the quirky Belgium we talked about before.  First was The Choco-Story, a museum dedicated to history of chocolate.  There was a lot of information… (the history of chocolate dating back to the Mayans!), so we absorbed as many of the highlights as we could.  The most interesting parts was to see how chocolate is made in the live demonstration, and of course taste some of the famous Belgian chocolate.  Some of the quirky aspects of the museum were chocolate art, including Barak Obama, a replica of the Manneken-Pis although this time peeing out chocolate, and a chocolate man who couldn’t help but eat his own arm?  We also got a laugh from the chocolate fun-fact wall that answers common questions about chocolate.  This one was: “Does chocolate cause cavities?”  In a round about answer (which you can read by clicking on the picture below) the final verdict was actually the opposite - chocolate prevents cavities (of course)! :)

Next was the Friet Museum - yes, a museum dedicated to fries.  If you know us, we LOVE potatoes and especially fries, and they are a recurring staple (although baked, not fried) in our dinners each week—let’s be honest, breakfast and lunch are not safe from fries either.  It was kind of a no-brainer that we needed to learn more about their history.  First of all, fries are not French - they are most definitely Belgian! :)  The story told is that U.S soldiers in the First World War were offered fries by some French-speaking Belgian soldiers.  Unfortunately for Belgium, the U.S. solders thought they were from France… the rest is history.  History aside, we got a kick out of these other “artifacts”…

The Golden Cornet awards, which honors fry makers at different stages of service during their careers (with medals and titles!  Click on the picture to read more detail). 

Hanging samples of several of over 5,000 different potato varieties found in the world.  One variety is called the Puka Nawi Pasna, which the exhibit notes that, “Farmers say that the eyes of this potato seem to have been painted like those of some of the city girls”.  Amazing stuff.

Finally, there was a video of someone cutting strange holes into a potato.  It turns out they were making a whistle which became accompanied by the fry holders and baskets to make music.  This is all true, you can see them hanging on the wall here.

Clearly fries are entrenched in the culture of Belgium.  In fact, they are so popular that each year the town of Bruges organizes a lottery to see who will be able to lease the mobile fry shops for the next year.  The going price you have to pay if you win a lottery spot is 100,000 Euros!  Perhaps they are so popular because of the way they make them.  In Belgium, there are advanced rules for fry making.  Fries are fried once on a lower heat, removed and let to cool for a couple minutes, then finished off by a dip in higher temperature oil.  The end product is delicious so they clearly know what they are doing.  Of course the museum sold fresh fries at the end of the exhibit and we’d say they were in the running for some of the best fries we’ve ever had.

We followed the museums with a touch of culture.  The Church of Our Lady is hard to miss in the Bruges skyline.  It’s probably most famous for its statue Madonna and Child, the only Michelangelo piece to leave Italy in his lifetime (it’s said this was because of the wealth that Bruges had at the time).  

The next church we visited was the Basilica of the Holy Blood.  This church also has a unique relic, a six-inch tube of rock crystal, which is said to hold the blood of Jesus.  It is believed that Joseph of Arimathea (the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Christ) preserved the precious blood after he had washed Christ’s body.  The painting on the back wall depicts the event of the blood being given to Derrick of Alsace after he helped defend Bethlehem from Muslim invasions in the Second Crusade, and his return to Bruges to present the blood to the bishop.  The blood itself lives in the silver casing shown below.  Kind of mind blowing.

One of our last stops of the day was to the De Halve Maan Brewery, where we toured the only remaining brewery in Bruges (at one point there were hundreds of breweries).  The tour was pretty standard if you’ve ever toured a brewery.  However, enter the quirky aspect, when the tour guide posed the age-old question of whether beer is good for you.  Her response was to show us an old advertisement for a particular Belgian beer, which states that it has the nutritional value of 200g of bread, 180g of meat, and 72cl of milk.  “It saves on shopping and is a good excuse - what more do you want?”  We were convinced. :)  The brewery had 4 different beers so we did a taste test of them all (after a good amount of ‘research’, Dave didn’t find a beer in Belgium that he didn’t enjoy).

We ended our evening with yet another delicious dinner at De Wijngaert.  We weren’t disappointed!

Sure enough, our line theory worked and on Monday we did some of the more popular sites/activities without wasting time waiting.  The first was climbing to the top of the Bell Tower overlooking Market Square (and the rest of Bruges, really).  Just 366 narrow winding steps to the top!  On the way up there were different levels at which to stop – one being the mechanics of the clock and automated bell songs (which looked like a giant music box).  The bells are not solely automated though, there is also a floor for the official stadsbeiaardiers (bell composers) to perform their masterpieces.  As you can see by the list of previous stadsbeiaardiers, this is a title sacredly held in Bruges.

The views of surrounding Bruges were pretty amazing…

Our next no-line activity was a boat ride on the canal.  This is a must in Bruges, which is coined the ‘Venice of northern Europe’.  It was great winding through the narrow canals and under the low bridges (an especially low one is shown below), taking in all the quaint architecture that surrounded us.  We were even met by Fidel, a neighborhood dog who greets all those passing by.

We learned a few fun facts along the way too.  The first picture is the smallest window in Bruges (you can also see it in the video below).  Yes, it’s as small as it looks.  The building you see with filled-in windows was done on purpose.  At one point in the history of Bruges people were taxed according to how many windows they had facing the canal.  This just goes to show that tax avoidance has been going on for many years. :)  Finally, the tiny square hole above the top window on the red building was an entrance for bird messengers before there were more modern communications available.  

As you probably know, chocolate is very sacred to the Belgians.  One particular store, The Chocolate Line, is known for their creative flavors.  For example, the chocolate in Dave’s hand has a Cuban cigar on it – yes, it was made with Cuban tobacco leaves.  Some other unique flavors included curry (titled “Bollywood”), fried onions, wasabi, sun dried tomato and basil, and olive oil.  We tried all of the interesting flavors although our favorite ended up being the “Marrakech,” which was made with fresh mint leaves (as opposed to the mint flavor you typically find in candies).

Our next experience would best be described as “pleasant.”  We read that the ideal way to experience Bruges is to do so on bikes.  Furthermore the town of Damme was no more than 30 minutes from Bruges by bike and a perfect leisurely excursion (and actually, the border to The Netherlands was just an hour or so more).  But wait, it gets better.  We had always joked about getting a tandem bike because we thought they looked ridiculous.  What better time than now??  The best part about a tandem bike is that you are close enough to have a conversation with your riding partner all throughout your ride—and the person in the back can take photos along the way without having to stop the bike, super convenient!  The hardest part is getting down the control basics at first (we might have semi-crashed a couple of times).  Once we got the hang of it, we had a serene ride along a peaceful canal and green pastures all the way to Damme (the landscape actually reminded Dave a little bit of Lynden). 

Damme was even more picturesque than we had imagined.  A classic windmill greeted us as we arrived and we hung a right into the town center.  Damme had also seen its share of prosperity and fell to the wayside much like Bruges.  And, much like Bruges, it is now primarily a tourism town.  Perhaps you could call it a mini-Bruges.  Whatever comparisons we could make, all that mattered is that it was one of the highlights of our trip.  We swung by the City Hall (first picture below), The Church of Our Lady (with a serene graveyard to stroll around in), and then just wandered the streets discovering all that Damme had to offer.

 

We said goodbye to the windmill and homes on the canal and rode back to Bruges to catch our train to Brussels for the flight home.  After all the great experiences we’ve had this year, it’s hard to say what’s our favorite.  It’s easy to say, however, that Belgium would be toward the top of the list…