Belgium

Hello, and welcome back.

Today, we are in the Kingdom of Belgium, located in Northwestern Europe. It has 11 million residents. The capital is Brussels, and French, Dutch, and German are spoken here. 

While Belgium is likely best known for the chocolates, it is also where the saxophone and asphalt were invented. Also,  voting is compulsory here (and you can be jailed for not voting) and it has more catches per square mile and anywhere in Europe. 

My favorite fun fact is, Belgium was the home of my favorite painter, Peter Paul Rubens. I had planned for 2 years to take an Uber two towns over to the artist’s home town, where is home has been turned into a museum. Unfortunately, I discovered several days before arriving that the exhibit was temporarily closed.
🙁
But, one must be flexible.

Zeebrugge 
Having crossed back over the English Channel overnight, we were now directly north of France and West of Germany in the port city of Zeebrugge, the port city of the famous Bruges. So after a short visit to Zeebrugge, we boarded a local bus.

Bruges
Today’s destination Bruges (pronounced “broozh” or (in Dutch) pronounced “brooha”) lies a half-hour inland. We had debated going to Brussels, but the excursions offered were not our cup of tea. 

The historic “Centre of Brugge” town center is well known from the plethora of movies filmed here over the years, including two recent hits,  In  Bruges starring Colin Farrell, the 1959 classic The Nun’s Story starring Audrey Hepburn, and Monument Men, starring George Clooney. Coincidentally, a large number of actors from the various Harry Potter movies call the medieval town home. 

We really enjoyed this town. It is very much like Venice in that it is built around a system of canals. In fact, the main canal goes back to Zeebrugge, and was used to ship cargo to and from Bruges in the olden days.

Many of the castle and buildings here have gargoyles above the doors and windows. These are intended to keep the spirits out. When I was a kid, I was fascinated with gargoyles. Not so much any more though.
😉

After walking along the canals, we were in agreement that this was, by far, the best smelling city so far. Flowers, flowers everywhere. Nice!

After exploring some meandering cobblestone streets, we found a fabulous place for lunch. If you ever find yourself in Bruges, try out Bistrosbar Boreas. Excellent service, location and the food is so good I can honestly say it was one of the best meals since leaving home. We had all of the house specialties. First, the local Prosecco for Karen, and the local beer, Brug’es Zot for me. Appetizers consisting of pulled pork tacos with micro greens and Pequillo peppers. Then, the most amazing short ribs I’ve ever had. They were braised in the local dark beer (with hints of chocolate, apricots, and almonds).

I loved Ms. Karen’s response when I gave her a taste. She said “Oh my God. There are no words to describe that!”

So everything we ate were solid tens. (Karen had mussels. They were also top of the line.) before leaving, we saw something that we did not know existed. They had Chandon (one of our favorite California champagnes) but they had a version called a Garden Spritzer. It was awesome! It is so strange that you cannot get this in NM, but you can in Europe. Hmmm…

After our late lunch, we explored the city a bit more. Very beautiful. We especially liked all of the puppeteers, and everyone’s has cool dogs here. We also really enjoyed a boat ride on the canal. What a great city.

Before returning home, we shopped for some Belgium chocolates. I enjoyed the champagne truffles the best. Yummo!

And so, we have come to the end of today’s journey. Check back in a few days, and we’ll share some Baltic tales.

Thanks.
– Mike
”I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird