Day: 19
Countries: 6 Cities:
9
Bruges, Belgium
Delicacies
Day 19
Thursday 7 January 2016
Currently sitting in the waiting area of the demo room at
the Choco Story Chocolate Museum in Bruges, Belgium, waiting for the next
demonstration to begin at 3:55. It's 3:48.
The tour through the museum has been-----interesting, if not
all that informative. I guess we did learn a bit more about chocolate. And had
a good laugh at the flat-out silliness and goofiness of some of the exhibits
and explanations (i.e. the Chocolate Fairy that served as our guide, the Choco
mascot shaped like a brown tooth, or the FAQ response to the question “Will
chocolate make you fat?” [it said that if you are overweight you should slim
down first and then reintroduce chocolate into your diet… good to know.]).
So final review for you Choco story: if you're in Bruges,
maybe use the 7 euro you would have paid to get into the museum to instead go
enjoy some quality chocolate at one of the many (many!) chocolatiers lining the
streets. Unless you just want to have a good laugh—or you really want to see
the Chocolate Fairy. I mean, she is
pretty cool. Maybe Cinderella wouldn’t
have been so worried about her shoe or her pumpkin if her Fairy Godmother had
just given her chocolate instead…
Anyway. So that's where we are in our day. After falling fast
and fast asleep last night and then turning in a little after 10, we slept fast
until almost 10, when we finally got up and got ready for our day. The
no-towel-shower situation made our morning routine a bit interesting but we
both still managed to wash our hair before heading out. Although we realized
shortly after stepping out into the open air that we could have just waited
until we walked out the door and into the rain to take our shower.
The rain is a bit miserable but we are braving it and seeking
to enjoy one of our last days of adventure. I'm a bit strapped for cash so a
trip to the ATM shall have to be incorporated into our itinerary for today. Ah
well. It's about enjoying the experience anyway. I am fortunate and lucky
enough to have the luxury and privilege to be able to worry about money later
(one I too often take for granted).
Our first stop of the day was at the Books and Brunch place
the hostel guy recommended yesterday. Mmmmmmarvelous recommendation, indeed. It was cozy and warm and filled with books
(surprise, surprise) and served up a delicious, hearty, and organic breakfast.
Just what we needed after our soaking traipse up and down wet, cobblestone
streets. I'm realizing I've been doing breakfast long for so long. A platter
with a smattering of breads, croissants, jams, spreads, eggs, and cheeses is
really the way to go.
After we finished breakfast we stayed a while and
wrote/stamped postcards. I have 18 and need to get two more while I'm here so I
can ship them off. When we passed through the Market Square again later we
stopped by the post office so Gracie could replenish the stamps she lost and we
could both send ours on their way. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my
back—literally, though: a 20 postcard/stamp weight ;). I'm glad to have been
able to keep up with writing them and to ship them off before I leave this part
of Europe, even if they won’t all be postmarked from the same country in which
they were purchased. Though this might
need to be the last of the postcards I send for a while. It's quite an expensive
means of staying in touch… J
Anyway. After brunch and letter writing, which took us ‘till
about a quarter to one, we walked over, again in the rain, to the Halve Maan (aka
Half Moon) Brewery. It’s the only brewery still in the city center of Bruges, and family run, as they like to boast.
It was really neat, a nice, small, personal tour through the brewery, old and
new, with a free half pint of Brugse Zot (Bruges Fool), which we learned the
story behind yesterday on our “legends tour”. Our tour guide was an Alaskan
woman and we were two of a whopping four people in our group. But small was
kinda nice in this case. We enjoyed our free beer by the warmth of the fire and
let our coats semi-dry while we planned out next course of action.
Which was supposed to be a chocolate shop and then the Choco
Museum, but just ended up being the Chocolate Museum because the chocolate shop
was closed. Ah well. And you've heard all about the Chocolate Museum which
concluded with a decent and tasty demo. And now we are sitting in a cozy,
little, slate blue and off white, candlelit cafe called Blackbird Café, with
soft strains of music filtering through the warmth of the air to reach our
ears. A delicious caffe latte and lemon cake, and Gracie's hot chocolate which
she had to work for by slowly adding and continually stirring in chocolate
chips to her steaming hot cup of milk. I feel a bit more awake and alive. To be
warm. Dry. Caffeinated…
Left in our agenda for today is a possible dinner at a
fondue place and (pending we don't fall fast asleep again) a walk around town
this evening to explore more. So here's to our last night in Bruges and our
second to last night of the trip. Ohh. That's kinda sad. Make the most of it…
~
After Blackbird we bummed around for a bit, walking up and
down the streets of Bruges, against the howling winds, in and out of little
shops. We stopped at an H&M to kill some time and found all of these crazy
good deals. And the idea of clean clothes was really (REALLY!) appealing after
three weeks of living out of a backpack and recycling the same few outfits over
and over and over and... You know those math problems in school where you were
given like three shirts and three pairs of bottoms and you had to figure out
all the different permutations of them—all the possible different outfits you
could wear with those clothing items (i.e. if you have 3 tops and 3 bottoms,
you can pair them and wear them 6 different ways)… Well, let’s just say we’ve
been doing a lot of permuting on this trip, trying to defy the laws of
mathematics and stretch our clothes as far as they can be worn (without
actually stretching them out too much because who wants to walk around in dirty
clothes that are also baggy…). But
anyway.
So at the store, when we went to try them on we found the
dressing rooms roped off because they were closing in five minutes. At
6’o’clock. Which just seems really
early. But oh well. We may or may not make a trip back there
tomorrow. At any rate, now it was six o clock and so we could head over to the
fondue place where we were planning on going for dinner. But when we got there
we found out it was closed on Thursdays.
Which seemed like a megalo
bummer at the time, but which actually worked out for the better in the long
run because we ended up back at a place that may have been the best meal we've
had here. Lion Belge. Absolutely go there if you're ever in Bruges. The hostel
guy recommended it yesterday and so we figured we'd give it a shot if we didn't
find anything else along the way back. We didn't. Everywhere was either closed
or too expensive or not appetizing or both. But that's ok.
Because Lion Belge was amazing. It's this small little cozy
restaurant with rustic chairs and the coolest light fixtures (like clear old
light bulbs of different shapes with the exposed illuminated tungsten a glowing
squiqqel in the void…). It's a small, family-run place (or at least that's what
we assume because it looked like a dad back in the kitchen cooking, a mom in
and out behind the scenes doing what all moms do best and keeping everything
together, and a son manning the bar/host/wait or situation). It seemed
like a popular place with the locals too.
But anyway. The menu is written on the chalkboards hanging
in the restaurant and the waiter explains the choices to you. I chose to
splurge on the ribeye because I haven't had steak in a while and it sounded
good and I had cash because we had just stopped at the atm. But anyway. I'm
glad I chose the steak because it was so so so good. A huge ribeye
sitting in a sea of au jus. Perfectly cooked. With a bunch of fresh cooked
veggies (carrots and green beans and artichoke and Brussels sprouts). And then
big fresh cut, fresh made fries that were also quite good. It was delicious.
Worth every bite. And for what we would have gotten for that same price at any
other overpriced, chincy, tourist-trap restaurant in Bruges… So worth it. And
then for dessert we had a dame Blanche. Essentially vanilla ice cream with
chocolate sauce. But oh so good. Gracie and I split it. Truly one of the best
meals we've had on this trip if not in my entire life. And we've had quite a
few good meals so far. If we had another day in Bruges I’d seriously consider
just repeating today’s meals. But unfortunately we don't. So, until next time
Lion Belge... Thank you for the delicious gastronomical experience. My tummy is
quite content. J
After dinner we came back to our hostel and regrouped and
then just walked around a little bit more in the cool evening air. We went to
this underground cellar pub called Le Trappist. After we headed back our hostel
and didn't find anything along the way so we just hung out a bit at our hostel
before turning in for the night. And now caught up here so about time for bed.
Night world! Only one more full day remains...
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