Belgium - Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Flanders, Antwerp

28 May - 4 June 2017

Brussels

The border crossing from Luxembourg into Belgium. Sometimes in this Euro Zone, there's just a sign at the border, sometimes there still are structures used before the new border crossing agreements.

Below, now in Brussels on the main square.  These are the elaborate facades of guild houses.

"A guild is an association of artisans or merchants who oversee the practice of their craft in a particular town. They were organized in a manner something between a professional association, a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society.  A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the guildhalls constructed and used as meeting places."

To the left - a sign of days to come (a lot of rain in the Netherlands, our next country to visit).  The other photo the finale of a Jazz and Brews festival from the day before.

Some of our first tastes of awesome Belgian beer.              "Where is good beer, it's there!"

Famous statuette in Brussels - the peeing little boy, from 1618, only 24 inches tall.  Many tourists stopped here for photos and a laugh.  It's not even the original, as previously it was repeatedly stolen - the original is now in a museum.

We had no idea that mussels is a traditional Belgium specialty food - but they were excellent.  Gerri had hers steamed in white wine, mine in Chimay beer.  And Belgian fries - not sure what to say about them, they were just regular fries anywhere we tried them - maybe it's the lack of skins, but I've had far superior fries in the New World (after all the potato came from there originally).

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These large murals of comics are all over Brussels.

Remnants of the early town's defensive wall.  A glitzy cafe.

Another specialty - Belgian waffles, these were very good - gooey and warm.  Leffe beer - I don't think we ever were served beer that wasn't poured in the brewery's own stylized glass, even at pubs unrelated to the brew houses.

Cantillon Brewry.  "Unlike most beers, which are fermented with carefully cultivated strains of brewer's yeast, lambic is fermented spontaneously by being exposed to wild yeasts and bacteria native to the Zenne valley in which Brussels lies. This process gives the beer its distinctive flavor: dry, vinous, and cidery, usually with a sour aftertaste."  They provide a self guided tour here.  The big copper vat is where the beer is exposed to the elements of the outside air to take on wild yeast and bacteria.

Ghent

It's like we're back in Venice, but without the gondoliers - as we now get into the lowlands of those parts of Belgium and the Netherlands, the canals are everywhere.

Gerri buying Belgian chocolate - yeah, another specialty, and very rich.

A very, very old warehouse on the water - the end looks a bit like a jack-o-latern.  At the end of a 3 hour beer tour, the jolly looking guy our tour guide - he's known to all the brew masters across Belgium.  Warm chocolate cake and Golden Draak beer - a combo he had served up for us.

Barges, over 100 years old, converted to live-on-the-river dwellings.  Very jealous.

Bruges

More canals, more great beer.

The town hall and belfry (bell tower).  On the right, an "almshouse" - charitable housing provided to enable indigent people (typically elderly people, and often widowed women, who can no longer work to earn enough to pay rent) to live in a particular community.  We actually stayed in this one for three nights - kinda small, but fully equipped.  Beer kegs (metallic) would clang in and out of that grey door from 7am.

This was our favorite tavern in Bruges.  Kinda "Cheers"-like - you enter at street level and walk down to it.  And, although not by name, people there recognized us on our return to it.  See interior shot below Gerri's picture.  Many good beers on tap and even more bottles - the right brewery glass for any beer.  We met a Naval Academy young guy now out after 6 years, a Brit visiting his Brit expat friend now living in Bruges, and a 38-year Belgian military vet - all avid beer fans also (of course).  This bar keep, with his dragon, was a trip - a young guy of 25-ish with a voice of present-day Sylvester Stallone.

A boy and his dragon.  The Golden Draak mascot.

Below - symbols and the coat-of-arms of Bruges.

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More almshouses.  Those on the right have evolved to house senior independent living - kinda the same, but they're paying their own rent these days.

Not Holland (or the Netherlands) yet, but we have a windmill - and Dutch speaking peoples here.

Finally, we have rented bicycles for the day, and found more cool barge house living.

Tomorrow we visit Flanders Fields, but today we found some poppies nearby, along the canal.
On the right, Tim ahead of Gerri leaving Bruges, among our favorite locales in recent times.

Flanders

Thousands of World War One soldiers are buried here in cemeteries around Flanders.  Thousands more were never found and many of their names are on the wall to the right.  Poppies, long ago, based on a Canadian Lt Col surgeon's poem, have become synonymous with Flanders' war cemeteries and remembrance of the fallen of WWI, and beyond.  However, these flowers are actually roses - I think they have longer blossom time over the season here in Flanders; actually we saw no poppies blooming here in Flanders.

On the left, poppies as a modern artistic remembrance, at a German cemetery.  Canadian war dead on the right.

And then, while still in Flanders, we had a quest - to acquire what some beer lovers claim is the best beer ever brewed - Westvleteren 12.  Trappist monks brew it within their abbey here.  Across their three beers, the "8,10, and 12" they make 60,000 cases/year, or 1.44 million bottles a year.  Sounds like a lot doesn't it, but by typical craft brewery standards that's not.  Their distribution process - it's simple - you go to the abbey and either buy it by the 6-pack at the tavern across the street, or you make an appointment to buy a limit of two cases per month directly from the abbey.  The tavern is open 5 days/week. 

We picked the right day and made our attempt to buy the vaunted Westvleteren 12 - success!  The aerial photo below is not ours, but that's the abbey.  The photo of the boxed beer is ours - we bought our limit of two per car - 50 Euro total - we didn't want the two glasses in each box, but that's how it comes.

We also tried the "12" and the "8" on site - they are awesome Belgian beers.  "The best beer in the world" - that's hard to claim - it's like what's the best car in the world, it depends on what you want in a car, and opinions can be unlimited.  But the quest was complete, and that's all that matters.

Antwerp

Sunset view from our apartment.  That building wasn't on fire - just a cloud effect.

Antwerp downtown - the ferris wheel seemed new, it wasn't in the guide book.  The train station from 1900, or so.

Sculptures from around the city.

Corne beer in a horn!  To the right, Peter, who we met in Venice, along with his wife, in a restaurant.  We told them we'd try to look them up in Antwerp, where they live.  His wife was at a previous engagement, and he was in France helping a friend with car issues, but on return his was able to drop into one of his favorite taverns to see us again.  We exchanged travel stories for a couple hours.

On the left, another neat tavern, and a good place to talk with locals, one a young guy who works at the huge shipyard moving those containers off/on gigantic cargo ships.  Another resident, a woman, is of Jordanese and Italian parents, who now works for the city's housing policy department.

On the right photo, and the wide view below it, this yacht can be rented for trips.

We lived here in this tall building for three nights, our apartment is at middle right at that double corner, lighter colored facade.  A good set-up, and one of the more modern places we've come across - and surprisingly inexpensive at 75 Euro a night (about $85 US).

Off to Holland (Netherlands) next!