Fancy hotel? Count me in.

At the end of March, Jim had to go to Brussels to close a deal. He was staying at the Conrad which is one of the high end Hilton Hotels. Although I have already seen Brussels, Sabine has not so we decided to tag along.

We left on a Thursday afternoon and didn’t get into Brussels until about 3:30. Jim and his coworker, Ross, had to go to a meeting right away so Sabine and I got settled in the room.

We had reserved a baby cot so the hotel had a teddy bear for Sabine along with some tasty almond cookies for us. The hotel also provided a diaper changing pad and bottle warmer. I doubt that they get too many kids but they were quite prepared.


When I saw the hotel, I was glad that I had tagged along. The hotel was located on the large leafy Louisa Boulevard sandwiched between high end shops and restaurants. The room was really big by European standards and even had a nespresso machine so we could make espressos in the morning. That was definitely Jim’s favorite perk of the hotel.


In case you were wondering what 8 euro Pringles look like, see below.


After settling into the room and checking out the room’s amenities, I decided to seek out Le Pain Quotidian for a very late lunch. I figured that it would be a fairly child friendly place. Thankfully there was one just down the street.

It was the perfect time to be there as the restaurant was almost completely empty. They have great salads, soups and open faced sandwiches and wonderful bread of course since the restaurant’s origin was as a bakery.

After lunch, the sun was peeking through a little and I decided to take the opportunity to go down to Le Grand Place to get some photos with a bit of sunlight. We were in Belgium so I didn’t know if we’d see the sun again.

On the way to the Grand Place we stopped at a little park with a fountain which Sabine found very entertaining. We eventually got kicked out when they closed the park at 5:00.


There was some bribery with cookies to get her to leave. What? Did I say I’d never use food to bribe my child? I think that must have been someone else who said that.


The last time we were in Brussels, there was an event happening in the Grand Place and the lights and bleacher seating marred the photos. I was happy to get some pictures of the Grand Place with Sabine and sans bleachers.


We walked back up to the hotel and met up with Jim and Ross after their meeting to venture out for dinner. Jim and I walked around for about 30 minutes to get Sabine to sleep in her stroller and then we enjoyed a great meal at a small little restaurant tucked around the corner of the hotel while Sabine slept snug as a bug in her Bugaboo.

The next day, Jim ran out to get some croissants and baguettes from Paul which is a bakery chain throughout France and Belgium. We boycotted the obscene 38 euro hotel breakfast and enjoyed some pastries to go with our hotel room espressos.

The next day I decided to thoroughly enjoy the room rather than getting out right away. I’d realized the day before that I really saw all of the things to see in Brussels. Plus it isn’t often that while Sabine sleeps during her nap, I actually relax. So for the 90 minutes while Sabine slept instead of doing dishes, laundry or cleaning, I took a bath and read a book in bed. It felt amazingly decadent.

After Sabine woke up, we ventured out and went back to the park with the fountain before going to a different Pain Quotidian for lunch. Yes, I know it is boring to eat at the same restaurant two days in a row and a chain restaurant at that. However, eating out with a toddler isn’t relaxing so if I know the restaurant has a highchair and I won’t have to spend time looking at a menu, I’m all over it. Gone are the days when I do extensive research on the restaurant scene of a city. Now my main criteria are a highchair, room for the stroller and if I’m really lucky, a diaper changing table in the bathroom.

After another tasty lunch, we walked past the Palais Royal to the Parc de Bruxelles where Sabine chased pigeons and attempted to sample the local dirt, rocks and wood chips.


Jim and Ross closed their deal and we all went out for a beer to celebrate and to give Sabine a chance to fall asleep before we went out for dinner. I had spotted a street with a number of restaurants on the way down to the Grand Place the night before so we headed there. We ended up at a restaurant where I was the only woman and Sabine was the only child so we got a few stares when we walked in. The couple next to us kept picking in the stroller to see Sabine. It was almost as if they’d never seen a child before.

We headed home after another breakfast in the room the next day. Unfortunately, it was probably the nicest day Brussels had all year so we hated to leave.

Liège Market

On a dreary Sunday in Bonn, we decided last minute to drive to Belgium and hit the Liège market. Some friends of ours go there pretty regularly and recommended it. I think for them it is an opportunity to speak French and do some shopping on a Sunday.

Jim had been suggesting a day trip to Liège for the last year. My trepidation regarding a visit to Liège was based largely on the fact that my father went to Liege for work. Since he was an industrial appraiser, he usually visited heavily industrialized cities which tended not to be very scenic unless of course you consider smokestacks to be good scenery.

However, the idea of going to one of the largest markets in Belgium and eating some good French food won me over.

We got a later start than planned so by the time we arrived both Jim and Sabine were ravenous and we needed to find a place to eat pronto. We picked the first place that looked like it had enough space for us and the stroller. Ross and Myriam came to meet us at the restaurant. Lunch was really tasty but the service was very slow. By the time we were done with lunch, the market was closing up.

I wasn’t planning to buy anything so it didn’t really bother me. Plus it was so cold and blustery that day that sitting in a warm restaurant was preferable to wandering around the market in my opinion.

After speeding through what was left of the market, we stopped at a park to let the kids play before getting back in the car to head back to Bonn.

Sabine loves to spin. I, however, started to get sick after about 10 minutes of spinning.

All in all, it was a pretty ok way to spend a Sunday but I'd rather go back when the weather is better. Maybe the city won't look so dreary if the sun is out. The city seemed to lack a lot of charm. Here's Ross, Eloise and I posing in front of a scrap metal barge.

The next time I find myself complaining about the dreary weather in Bonn, I’ll have to remember that it could be worse; we could be living in Belgium

Quick Trip to Antwerp

We decided last Wednesday that we needed one last little trip before the baby arrives and settled on Antwerp. Jim had been there a few times in the past but it was still unchecked on my list of must see European cities.

Since it was such a last minute trip, I had some trouble finding a place to stay. All of the reasonably priced places recommended by trip advisor were already booked. We ended up in the docklands area north of the city at a gallery / guest house (www.waterfront-art.be).

The docklands area is in the process of gentrification so a number of trendy bars and restaurants have sprung up in the area. I was glad that we decided to stay in that up and coming area because we would have completely missed that part of town otherwise. However, our accommodation wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. The room was really cold and had an awful moldy smell to it which kept both of us from sleeping very well. For 115 euros a night, you expect to not have a moldy room.

We arrived late on Friday night around 10:00 and walked around the area looking for a spot to have a drink. A lot of the bars were packed and smoky but we finally found one that was a little lower key so Jim could get his Belgian beer fix and I could sit down in a smoke free environment.

The next morning after breakfast we set out to see the town in the bright sunshine. The weather had called for rain but we were lucky that the rain held off until we started our drive home that evening. Everything always looks so much better in the sunshine.

We walked toward the old part of the city and found some very cute streets along the way. In one square we found a large church which had a wedding going on and a statue across the way holding a can of Jupiler (a cheap Belgian beer). Maybe some liquid courage for the bride or groom?

Our first stop was the Grote Markt (main town square). The town hall is the largest building surrounding the plaza and people were gathering in front of it for civil service wedding ceremonies. At the center of the square is a large fountain which is unusual in that it doesn’t have a basin for the water. The water from the fountain simply seeps down through the cobblestones into the reservoir below.

Antwerp’s main cathedral (Cathedral of Our Lady) is just down the street from the main square. The cathedral houses a lot of paintings from Antwerp’s native son, Peter Paul Rubens. The cathedral had a special exhibit at the moment with 15 additional alter paintings commissioned by the various guilds of Antwerp. Each guild was responsible for commissioning paintings to adorn their alter. The closer to the main alter a guild was, the higher their standing in society. Generally the subject matter of the painting was related to the guild. So for example, the fish mongers had a biblical scene representing the Miraculous Draught of Fishes and the wine taverners had a party scene - The Wedding at Cana when Jesus turns water into wine.

After the Cathedral we stopped for a quick simple lunch of sandwiches and tea at a spot that looked to be full of locals. It was reasonably good but more importantly, cheap. We planned to have a nice dinner before heading back to Bonn that evening so we were looking for something pretty basic for lunch.

Our next destination was the diamond museum to see how diamonds were cut. We headed that way via the main shopping street Meir. The Meir has all of the big name European shops that you can find in any big European city so wasn’t too thrilling. Apparently for more unique shops one needs to head south of the Cathedral to Nationalestraat and Kammenstraat. Since neither one of us were really in a shopping mood, we skipped the good shopping district and just walked along the Meir to the Diamond Museum.

Along the way we stopped for some tasty ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s so the pregnant lady could get her ice cream fix.

We also found the diamond shop he visited the last time he was there to buy an engagement ring. I suggested in jest that a good way to erase that bad memory would be to buy me some jewelry from the same place and that husbands are supposed to buy their wives a present for giving birth. However, after looking at the prices, we both decided that buying diamonds right before having a baby probably wasn’t the most financially savvy thing to do.

We found the Diamond museum but unfortunately they didn’t have live diamond cutters on the weekend so we were a little disappointed. We decided to visit the museum anyway. It is always fun to see the jewels and learn about the history of things. The exhibit was overall pretty disappointing. The jewels were actually replicas of the originals and a lot of the hands on parts about the way diamonds are made didn’t work. I wouldn’t recommend the museum to anyone visiting Antwerp. During the week you can see live diamond cutters at Diamond Land which is a huge diamond showroom. I would suggest that over the Diamond Museum.

On Saturdays, there is a huge market in Theaterplein which is supposed to be very interesting but it was already pretty late in the afternoon so we decided we’d try to see that on our next visit to Antwerp.

Jim wanted to find a chocolate shop he had been to 8 years ago on Carnotstraat. After walking about 5 minutes on Carnotstraat which is a very dirty street and in a seedy part of town, I was ready to give up the search but Jim was not. If you’ve read this blog before, I’m sure you can figure out how this ends.

After abandoning our search for the chocolate shop, we started to head back to the docklands area for dinner. I wanted to take the shortest possible route as my feet were killing me so it wasn’t a particularly scenic walk. At one point we actually ended up in the red light district which was just south of where we were staying. We had walked by the street in the morning and didn’t even notice it. However, I’m pretty sure no one was working at 10am on a Saturday morning so there wouldn’t have been anything to see.

I had read about Lux on the internet when I was researching food and drink options in the Harbor area. We decided to have dinner there and made a reservation for an hour later. Jim said he wanted to drop off some stuff at the car before dinner so we made our way there. In reality, he wanted to check on the car to make sure it was ok. We had been side swiped while parked the night before which Jim surprisingly took in stride.

On the walk over, Jim mistakenly made a comment that he thought I was walking so slowly on purpose. Of course, it wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that I was 37 weeks pregnant and had been on my feet for the last 7 hours walking all over Antwerp in a pair of boots which were cutting off my circulation. Jim realized his fatal error and spent the next hour apologizing to a very angry pregnant woman.

Thankfully, our dinner at Lux (www.luxantwerp.com) was so wonderful that I forgot all about being mad at him. We had a wonderful meal with great service in a really pleasant setting. I would definitely come back to Antwerp just to visit this restaurant. It was a great way to end our day in Antwerp.

Back to Belgium for Chocolate, Waffles and Beer

I planned another quick trip to Bruges for the weekend of Oct. 30th with Jim's parents. Jim’s dad was here for that weekend and his parents had never seen Bruges. I also figured that since I have been there 2 other times in the past year, it would be an easy, low stress trip since I already knew my way around.

The plan was to meet them in Bruges since they would be coming from spending a few days in Paris. Unfortunately, their trip took a bit longer than expected when they ran into some trouble during a small detour.

Sylvia’s quest to see just about every Catholic Church ever erected led them to a sketchy neighborhood in Paris called the Arrondissement of Saint Denis (named after the Saint Denis Basilica). According to the legend, St. Denis was a bishop who was beheaded at Montmartre and then picked his head up and walked two miles. The Basilica was then built in his honor.

They decided to visit the church last minute so didn’t let their friends in Paris or Jim know their plan because both would have advised against going to that specific neighborhood.

Jim and Sylvia had some difficulty finding the Basilica with their GPS and after three laps of the area had finally given up on visiting the church. However, their visit to the Saint Denis Arrondissement was extended by a few hours. While stopped in traffic, two men approached the car, shattered the back seat window with a large rock and reached in to grab Sylvia’s fanny pack which was sitting on the back seat. Thankfully they weren’t hurt but only shaken up. There were some students in the area who were very helpful and could speak some English.

After an hour, the police finally showed up and drove the car to the nearest police station to start the 3 hour process of filling out the police report. I guess being Americans, driving an Italian car that they rented in Germany and not speaking French added some confusion to the whole process.

So the moral of this story is either 1) that you should stay away from sketchy neighborhoods while travelling, 2) if you’ve seen one church you’ve seen them all, or 3) that you should never own a fanny pack.

We arrived in Bruges after 9:30 due to traffic near Brussels. Since it was so late we simply stopped for a quick bite at a burger and frites spot near the hotel and Jim was able to get his Bicky sauce fix. Bicky sauce is a Belgian creation that is used like ketchup and reminds me of the Big Mac special sauce.

We weren’t able to reserve a B&B for the two nights we were there because everything was booked up for the holiday weekend. We ended up in a small hotel (Gulden Vlies – www.guldenvlies.be) that was about a 10 minute walk from the center of town. It worked out quite well due to the free parking across the street so was really convenient for our late arrival. I’d definitely stay there again.

The next morning after breakfast we set out for the town and hit most of the main sights before lunch– the two main churches and the main square. We ended up having lunch at a pita place that my mom, Stacy and I had eaten at when we were in Bruges in the spring. It was even better this time around.

After lunch we went in search of a chocolate shop to satisfy Sylvia’s sweet tooth and then did a little shopping. I got the perfect shot of Sylvia in front of another chocolate shop.

We headed back down to the Begijnhof and stopped for a beer at the Half Moon Brewery and a Belgian waffle for Sylvia along the way. We all agreed that the Dutch waffles in Maastricht were better.

The weather turned rainy while we were at the Begijnhof so Jim and I headed back to the hotel while Jim and Sylvia entertained themselves by looking for more churches and getting lost.

That night for dinner we had reservations for Tom’s Diner. Jim and I had a great meal there when we visited Bruges the first time. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to our expectations on our second visit. Jim and I have decided that the dining gods have been against us lately. I consider it fortuitous since we soon won’t be dining out at nice restaurants with a new baby. It is better not to have the memory of great meals fresh in our minds.

The next day we headed to Ghent so Jim and Sylvia could see where Jim lived for two summers. Once again we did a drive by of Kiekenstraat where Jim lived. He took pictures of three or four different apartments figuring that one of those was the right one.

The main square was undergoing a huge construction project so Ghent wasn’t as charming as our last visit. The gray skies and rain didn’t help either.

We wandered around the main square and canals before grabbing a quick lunch at a deli-style restaurant. Sylvia couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get one last Belgian waffle with ice cream and dark chocolate sauce. And what self respecting chocoholic could order anything other than a hot chocolate to top off her waffle lunch?

Chateaus and Breakfast Cookies

About 6 months ago we received a book about the castles along the river Meuse. We finally picked one out of the book last Saturday to visit.

We chose one near Liege so that we could combine some sightseeing with a visit to Carrefour. Our stockpile of French breakfast cookies had reached dangerously low levels (thanks in part to me). In the past I had been critical of the breakfast cookie. Just because you put the word breakfast in front of the word cookie doesn’t change the fact that it is still a cookie you are eating at breakfast. Although the box does try to reassure you that these cookies are indeed part of a healthy breakfast --- when eaten with a yogurt, fruit and some other healthy stuff. I’m waiting for them to come out with some breakfast ice cream.

Of the 200 or so castles that line the river Meuse, many of them are still private residences or have been turned into hotels or restaurants. We chose to visit the Chateau de Jehay which was about 20 minutes outside of Liege.

The castle was surrounded by a large moat and had a very unique design. There were large blocks of sandstone in the wall which were intended to prevent a breach in the castle wall by enemy cannons.

In 1978 the castle was sold to the Province of Liege. The Van den Steen family had owned it since the 17th century. Much of the tour was about the last owner, Guy Van den Steen. He had been a painter and a sculptor as well as a champion skier who had a penchant for fast cars. Jim was a fan of his sculptures as you can see from the picture below.

During the time we were touring the 10 interior rooms which were on display and the surrounding gardens, we saw 2 wedding parties taking photographs at the castle. I’m sure that anyone getting married in the vicinity of the castle must come there to take pictures. The landscaping and the castle exterior are absolutely gorgeous.

In Bruges

I apologize for my lax blogging to the 1 or 2 people who actually read this on a regular basis. Jim and I just returned from Tuscany, but before I tell you about that trip I need to go back to late May when my mom and sister were here for 2 weeks. Thankfully my sister, Stacy, has some notes from her journal. So once again I have a ghost writer for the blog and my laziness continues.

In Amsterdam, we awoke to another nice day. Alison and I walked in Vogel Park again while mom did some yoga. Since we would be spending 4 hours on the train we decided to stock up on some snacks for the ride. We stopped at a market near the park for some fruit, hummus, crackers and veggies. Around 11 we headed downtown to the train station to catch our train to Bruges. After changing trains in Brussels, we got to Bruges around 4. The bus to get to our B&B was crowded so we were given the evil eye from a number of the locals when our luggage blocked the isle and we pretended not to notice. Alison's mad navigational skills got us the rest of the way.

The B&B was very conveniently located to the center of town and our hostess Annemarie was very accommodating. Our room however was on the third floor up two flights of precarious steps difficult to navigate with our heavy bags.

The sun was shining so we headed out to explore the city and check out our dinner options. The city is small compared to Amsterdam and a welcome respite from the masses. We walked along the lovely canals and decided to try a place for dinner that Alison had not been to before--Rock Fort. It was pricy but good, the bartender made Alison the most amazing non alcoholic drink while mom and I had Spanish champagne. After dinner we stopped into a cozy bar to try some of the Belgium beer Bruges offers-Yum! I think there might be more pictures of us drinking beer on this trip than any other activity.

Breakfast the next morning was offered in a nice dining room with the other guests. There were two American couples and an English one. Everyone was really friendly and of course had found the B&B through trusty Mr. Rick Steve.

We headed out to the main square to do a walking tour of the city. I climbed the bell tower alone since Alison had done it and Mom was too cheap for the 8 euro price tag. The climb was tough but the views were fantastic.
This Thursday was a Holiday (Ascension Day) so there were bleachers set up in the main square to watch the religious parades that were going to be weaving through the city.

Since, we were in Belgium we had to get some frites. We opted for one of the stands in the main square which had a line every time we passed it.

We next made our way to the Groeninge Museum which Alison had already visited, however, instead of their usual Flemish art collection; they had a special exhibit on Charles the Bold. After seeing mom read every little placard in the museum, we named her Mom the Slow. If you’ve ever witnessed my mother’s 2 hour morning routine to get out the door, you’ll understand how perfect that title is.

After wandering around the rest of Bruges for the morning, we decided to take a lunch break and ate at a great little restaurant called the Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant.

After refueling, we decided to rent bikes and ride to Damme. It was nice to get out into the country a little bit and was so peaceful riding along a tree lined canal with the wind in our hair. We passed a number of old fashioned wind mills along the way.

The town of Damme wasn’t much more than a few cafes, restaurants and a church. We wandered around a bit and then got back on the bikes for the trip back through a gorgeous section of woods on a dirt trail. We all agreed that our little bike adventure was our favorite experience in Bruges.

After returning our bikes, we passed the pita restaurant pictured below. I'm pretty sure that I don't want to eat somewhere that can't even say they are the best. Are they really worried that the pita police will come by and say, "I'm sorry this isn't the best pita in town you are going to have to change your sign." We decided to reward our biking efforts with some beverages as we were all a little parched. We stopped for a few beers in a small square just behind the row of touristy restaurants in the main square. The sun was out and it was a great spot to enjoy some good Belgian beer and some crappy non alcoholic beer.
For dinner that night we decided to go cheap and it was. We ate at a local restaurant that served up some basic Italian food. It was cheap and how can you go wrong with lasagna? You put enough cheese on anything and it tastes good.

We were leaving the next day but not until 2:00. We were a little worried that with the holiday everything would be closed and we’d have nothing to do. Although the museums were closed, we needn’t have worried; the chance to make a few Euros off of the throngs of tourists in Bruges kept a lot of the shops open. So we took the opportunity to buy some chocolates at one of the many chocolate shops in Bruges and a few other treasures we found at a little jewelry/ accessories shop.

Due to the parades, the buses were not running through the city so we had to walk to the train station. It was a bit of a hike but it was a beautiful day so we didn’t mind getting a little exercise before sitting on a train for 4 hours.

Ronde Van Vlaanderen

A few weekends ago, we joined 700,000 beer drinking, sausage eating Flemish Belgians to watch professional cyclists ride up a cobble stoned climb of 20% grade (Helligen).

Although I was dubious about the prospect of driving 300 km each way to watch the spectacle with Jim and his fellow cycling obsessed friend, Ben, I was glad to have witnessed one of the cornerstones of Belgian culture. In Belgium, cycling is the only sport that counts. I would compare it to America’s obsession with football. I found it really interesting to see a bunch of smoking, beer guzzling fans who look like they might never have ridden a bike in their lives, get so excited for a bike race. In the U.S., bike races are generally watched only by other cyclists. Since cyclists generally are white men from upper-middle class backgrounds, the crowd is pretty homogeneous. In Belgium though, cycling is really a blue collar sport. The spectators looked more like a European version of NASCAR fans.

Ton Boonen is a Belgian cyclist and has rock star status in his homeland. Belgians affectionately call him Tommeke so Jim and Ben began a relentless campaign of adding eke to everyone’s names. I had to hear them call each other Jimeke and Beneke nonstop for two days.

For those of you not married to a cycling fanatic who revels in his knowledge of obscure cycling trivia (aside from the occasional Team Discovery blunder), professional cycling has a series of races in the spring called the “Classics”. The Classics take place in March and April in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. These races are one day races in extremely difficult conditions. The weather is usually cold, gray and rainy which makes the cobblestones incredibly slippery and dangerous. Thankfully, the weather cooperated or I would probably have spent the day in a café rather than watching the race. We left early in the morning for the race so that we would be able to stake out a good spot on the climb. As we passed through sleepy Belgian towns, approaching Flanders, older people came out of their houses to watch the traffic going by. I’m guessing not a lot happens in some of these towns so a traffic jam counts as a special event.

Once we secured our rock star but illegal parking and calmed Jim’s fears of getting towed, we walked the course to get a sense of what the riders would endure and to scout out a spot from which to watch the race.

We decided to camp out in front of a huge screen T.V. so we could watch the finish of the race and also know when the riders were approaching. Since the riders were by in a flash, I’m glad to have been able to watch the race on the big screen or it would have been a bit anti-climactic to have driven 4 ½ hours for a couple of minutes of a bike race.

I couldn’t help but be swept up by the excitement of the race by the thousands of cheering fans around me. Unfortunately, I was rooting for Tom Boonen (completely based on his looks rather than any cycling statistics or ability) along with the rest of the Belgians around us, but it was his teammate, Stein, who actually won the race.

I’ve added a video down below so that you can get a sense of the excitement of the event. However, you may not be able to hear much else besides Ben screaming like a teenage girl at a Beatles concert. I was worried he was going to pass out with excitement, and I didn’t have any smelling salts on me.

Not to be outdone by some professional cyclists, a testosterone fueled Jim who I think may be doped to the gills (another expression I heard all day), had to make sure to drive home at high speeds on the autobahn.

It was a successful day, but I don’t see myself traipsing around Europe to watch bike races; no matter how cute their little butts are.

Ghent, Belgium

On Sunday we decided to go to Ghent on the way home from Bruges. Jim raced bikes for a few summers and lived in Ghent, Belgium. Reliving his glory days, (if living in squalor and racing bikes in the rain can be considered glory days) Jim wanted to do a drive by of the ramshackle apartment he lived in for those two summers. Not surprisingly, Jim found the street where he lived with our GPS system, but didn’t recognize any of the apartments. Shocker!

Since we were already there, we decided to check out the center of town. Jim kept trying to manage my expectations so much so that I was expecting a very industrial, ugly city. I thought Ghent was really pretty charming. The downtown area has canals running through it with huge churches, a castle from the 1100s and a belfry.

We walked through downtown looking for a place for lunch before checking out some of the sights. After getting a few Croque Monsiurs, we visited St. Nicholas’ Church which is one of the oldest landmarks in Ghent.

We next visited the Gravensteen castle which was built in the 1100s. Unlike a lot of other castles we have seen, it is right in the middle of downtown surrounded by shops and restaurants. For the most part, the rooms were empty except for a few that showcased instruments of torture and weaponry. It was recently restored so before the late 80s had been used as a prison, a factory, a courthouse and finally had houses built in the area, using some the old stones. The tour was pretty easy to follow, but didn’t provide all that much information. Every other room seemed to be used for torture. I’m glad I didn’t live in back then.

It was funny to see the signs saying no food allowed or in this case no ice cream. I think in the US the no food or drink allowed signs are of a McDonalds happy meal - soda, fries and a burger.

I enjoyed my day in Ghent and would like to go back in the summer. It seemed to be pretty free from the swarms of tourists that we saw in Bruges.

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?