Bruges

Jim and I went to Bruges on Friday. After seeing the movie “In Bruges” and reading what Rick Steve had to say about the city, I was excited to check out this medieval town which is sometimes called “The Venice of the North”.

I was able to get a room at the Camers B&B, a Rick Steve’s recommendation. Unfortunately our host wasn’t home when we arrived so we started to worry that we might be wandering the very quiet, cold streets trying to find a place to sleep. We called him and luckily our host was drinking at the bar next door so was able to pop over and let us in. He had somehow mixed up the dates and wasn’t expecting us until the next day.

We decided to head out for a beer after dropping our stuff off at the room. We found a great little bar and had two of the house brews on tap, deciding that we should start there before wading through the 50 page beer list. The Belgians really take their beer seriously. The beers were both great so we ordered a second round before calling it quits. The Belgian beer must have higher alcohol content because I was feeling it after just two beers.

The next day we walked to the main market square and climbed the Bell Tower. We were lucky that it was sunny so the view from the top was clear. However, it was really quite windy and cold so we didn’t spend too much time up there. The square was a lot like the Grand Place in Brussels with lots of outdoor café/ restaurants lining the square and the surrounding streets, providing their guests with great views and ambiance albeit not very good food.

After doing the amount of travel we have done in the last five months, I have learned one very important lesson. Don’t plan to see too much and view getting lost as an adventure. So we decided that our main objectives for the day were to go to the Groeninge Museum and the De Halve Brewery and find a good place for dinner.

We decided to get lunch on the way to the Groeninge Museum. We searched for the crowded vegetarian restaurant we had seen the night before, but when we finally found it they had a sign indicating they would be closed for the weekend. We were pretty hungry so went to the next place we saw. We ordered the obligatory – steak frites and mussels with frites for lunch. Frites are a big thing in Belgium. They even have a french fry museum!

Our next stop was the Groeninge Museum which houses the largest collection of Primitive Flemish art from the 1500s. The use of the word Primitive isn’t intended to be pejorative but rather to designate that they were completed before the Renaissance. Torture and religion seemed to be common themes in the paintings.

We next went in search of the De Halve Brewery, but of course it took us a while to get there. The narrow, winding streets can be so confusing. Along the way, we found a little antique market on one of the canals.

We also found the Minnewater which is a canalized lake surrounded by flowers and swans. In Dutch, Minnewater means the lake of love. Apparently a lot of people come to take their wedding pictures here, but we didn’t see any wedding parties at this time of year. We did however see a Japanese tourist taunting a swan with her sucker. I’m not sure what she was hoping to accomplish. She obviously doesn’t know much about swans because she was surprised when it attacked her. That was entertaining.

When we finally found the brewery, we were able to get one of the last tours of the day. Surprisingly, neither one of us had ever been to a brewery before. It was a really interesting but slightly stinky tour. We learned that hops only grow on a certain latitude which is why England, Ireland, Belgium and Portland are such havens for beer producers. Our guide also told us that they used to only serve beer in the hospitals. At that time, the doctors didn’t know anything about sterilization but they knew that water made people sick and beer didn’t.

The brewery was definitely not a good place to work back in the day. They used kids to clean the fermentation tanks because the entry was so small. There wasn’t much oxygen in the tank so they had the kids whistle while they cleaned. When the child began whistling out of key, they knew he or she was in trouble and needed to be taken out.

Like all brewery tours, we finished ours with a beer while we made some calls to make a restaurant reservation for dinner. We were able to get in at Tom’s Diner. It was a restaurant recommended by our host at the B&B as well as Rick Steve.

The dinner we had at Tom’s Diner was easily the best meal we’ve had since we’ve been here. I was a little worried that it was called a Diner in the first place, but Rick described it as more of a bistro. It was also a little worrisome that when we arrived, the door was locked. We were early for our reservation but it was 6:30 so I figured it would be open. We walked around for another 15 minutes before going back and luckily it was open. Our server was great. She steered us to a bottle of wine which was 10 euro cheaper because it was a better wine in her opinion. She was also happy to help us translate the menu. We shared the beef Carpaccio to start. For our mains we chose the specials of the day. I ordered the grilled sole with shrimp and scallops in a mustard seed sauce with mashed potatoes. Jim got the rabbit with a cranberry sauce, fried little potato things and bacon. After such a great meal, we had to indulge in some dessert and got the chocolat au moliere (I’m sure I didn’t spell that correctly).

It will be pretty easy to bribe me to come back. Another dinner at Tom’s Diner is all it will take. 3 ½ hours isn’t too far to drive for dinner is it?