During our Amsterdam and Belgium trip, Kendra and I have unfortunately followed the Hobbit Diet Plan: First breakfast, Second breakfast, Elevensies, Luncheon, Supper, Afternoon tea (beer), and Dinner.
For First breakfast, we split a waffle from a roadside shop near Hotel Academie. It wasn't Chez Albert quality (what is...), but it got the job done. The Belgians have a saying that relates to their affinity to build, which says, "Belgians are born with a brick in their stomach." Well, Kendra and I think this 'brick in the stomach' actually refers to these super-dense waffles.
The saying actually alludes to their innate desire to put down roots and build a brick home. They have the most densely populated country in Europe, to the extent that NASA astronauts in the International Space Station flying over the continent at night call the brightly lit country, "the Belgian Window." So now you have a new fun opener when you meet people at parties...
Good to go with a half-waffle, we set about on our day's itinerary. We were going to photograph some of the city's monuments in the morning light before the throngs of tourists descend, but happily stumbled upon the sign for a boat canal tour. Though touristy, it's a must-do in the town and gives you a fun perspective of Bruges. The Canal tour with Boten Stael was the one we happened upon, and on the first boat ride of the day (~9:45am) we had just four other people on board and got a 2 Euro discount when she spotted our Rick Steves travel book. Epic win. A fat, 'so ugly it's cute' bulldog kept us company and soon we set off on the canal tour. We took lots of photos and video of the 30 minute trip, which showcased St. John's hospital, the park with all the swans, and went by the Church of Our Lady and over to the statue of Jan Van Eych before flipping a U-turn.
Kendra and I then went window shopping, and were able to address her lace addiction with a fancy ornament from the shop, Serena. Belgium is known for its lace - the lace industry almost resurrected Bruges after its economic downfall. Today, many artisans still keep the tradition alive and lace shops are peppered throughout the city. Unlike knitting, it's very time-intensive so the price is high but the quality is worth it (the prices make clear what is hand-made and what isn't). A full lace baptism gown would make a great heirloom but at $125 was way out of our price range. Also, we don't have any kids to wear it.
Before coming to Belgium we heard about how really cool pubs here would have a couple hundred types of beer, and each would be served in its own glass specific to that individual beer. Some of the shops sell the glasses, so for fun, we figured we'd find out which glasses we liked best and track down those beers so we could buy our favorite one. We liked the Tripel Karmeliet, Duvel, and the LaTrappe Trappist glasses. We thought "why wait?" and bought a Tripel Karmaliet beer right from the fridge and sipped it walking down the street, along with...
Second breakfast! We got waffles again from the roadside shop. Obviously Belgian waffles with Belgian beer is the breakfast of champions. The Tripel Karmaliet was solid. It's a blonde 3-grain brewed in Carmelite tradition with wheat, oat, and barley. We'd actually come across a Carmelite Monastery later on in the trip.
Now we were satiated for food but we needed to quench (Kendra's) museum lust. I was actually looking forward to seeing St John's hospital and Memling museum, along with its apothecary (pharmacy). The medieval hospital had displays throughout with different medical texts and descriptions of the evolving practices of physicians, surgeons, barbers, and midwives. At this time, medicine, well, could barely we called that, and physicians were still prescribing bloodletting, giving random herbs and sulfur, and treating the bad humors of the body. Surgeons were initially derived from barbers (yep, the hair-cutting kind) but then branched off into their own group and ultimately joined with physicians. That might be the reason why, on my medical license, I'm a " Physician and Surgeon" since they were historically separate professions. Barbers had razors and would deal with skin tags, abscesses, etc, and that practiced developed into surgery. It was fascinating to read through the evolution of the professions and how archaic the practice was in medieval times shouldn't have been surprising...but it was.
The Memling museum in St John's hospital honored the revered Flemish painter, Jan Van Eych. We weren't terribly overwhelmed by his work but he did advance the practice of Flemish painting with innovations in perspective and realism, while also memorializing Saint Ursula, who famously resisted the overtures of a Turkish royal and was summarily slaughtered along with a reported 11,000 virgins. Her remains were presumably found and reside in a fancy box in the museum. The attached apothecary was neat to see as well. It spoke to the medieval practice of pharmacy and providing herb-laden bandages for wounds and splints for fractures.
After the museum we decided that we still hadn't eaten enough food that was terrible for us, so we tracked down gelato from Gelatoria da Vinci. Their shop was bumping and had giant mounds of phenomenal gelato of all different flavors. We settled on Panna cotta and Rocher (like the crispy, fancy chocolate) and it blew our minds.
We then wandered through the square near the Half Moon Brewery. There were tourists everywhere! The prices matched. Not wanting to spend 50 Euros on lunch, and at least having a slight bit of dignity to avoid a third waffle or fries, we settled on the creatively named "Cafe Cafe" for lunch, and got a Brussels panini (meatball) and Nordic panini (salmon, dill) for only 5€ each.
Then I got to go on a beer tour through Half Moon Brewery (Brouwerij De Halve Maan)! Kendra took off to visit a lace shop and commune with the swans and ducks of the nearby park. It was a lot of fun for me to wander with the tour group through the brewery and learn about how the fine Belgian beers were crafted. Highlights included: actually understanding the basics of how beer is made (what are hops? What does the barley do?), seeing the massive copper floor that used to serve as the cooling tank, and looking out over Bruges from the rooftop. The brewery even pipes the beer underground to a nearby maturation and bottling facility to avoid jostling it in a truck. When getting permission for the pipeline from the city, locals had recommended installing a tap into the line every 200m so they could assist with "quality control." The Belgians do love their beer.
Kendra and I sat in the cafe of the brewery afterward and each had a Brugse Zot blonde (mine included with the tour price), then wandered through the very picturesque Minnewater Park. We then collected our backpacks from Hotel Academie and wandered up to our final hotel in Bruges, the lovely Hotel Ter Duinen. These fancy digs were like staying in a luxurious Bruge home turned into a boutique hotel, and we had our own attic style room with a separate staircase.
After using the wifi to reserve an AirBnb in Ghent because the hotels were literally sold out (every single hotel we could find online was booked), we went on a quest to find the infamous De Garr pub. De Garr is located down a nondescript alley on the street between the Markt and the Burg (right near Chez Albert). We found the narrow entrance and wandered down the dark, narrow alley, which has been said to serve the purpose of giving toasted patrons a place to hold onto after downing many glasses of their famous triple-strength beer! Heading down the narrow alley we found the door was open and we could go in! This was exciting because they have random hours and can often be found closed (as we'd unfortunately found the day before). Heading into the pub, we found a table for two on the upper floor, and a suave Irish barkeep gave us the lowdown on their brews. We ordered a plate of sausage, cheese, bread, and mustard to go with a shared Tripel Van de Garr, their own brew. It was by far the best beer we had in Belgium and we were almost as intoxicated by the taste as we were on the beer itself. We got tipsy just splitting the one beer. Still on our quest to buy a beer glass, we ordered a Duvel beer and were woefully disappointed. It was basically a watery palate cleanser compared to De Garr's home brew. So we ordered two of their glasses (we couldn't afford anymore than that...) as a treasured souvenir. They were cash-only, though, and we were low on Euros, so I drunkenly sprinted to a nearby ATM to withdraw the necessary funds.
While I was gone, Kendra, being Kendra, struck up a conversation with both adjacent tables. The Aussie couple knew about Salesforce and the gents from the States worked for the electronic medical record system Epic in Wisconsin, so they knew all about Mayo! When I showed up they said, "We have to meet the doctor!" It was good fun.
Needing to walk off the De Garr, we set off to walk through the cool streets of Bruges, and decided on Gelatoria da Vinci, round two! Our shame knows no bounds. The worker there even recognized us. We ordered Stracciatella and the After Dark mint chocolate, and they were awesome, although all flavors paled in comparison to the Panna cotta.
Finally wrapping up for the day, we headed back for the hotel, but we knew we had to see the nearby Cafe Vlissinghe. We'd learned about it on our night tour and it sounded really cool. The cafe just celebrated it's 500th anniversary last year, opening in 1515. It was awesome to read through the history of the pub and, if you weren't as tired and full as we were, you could even take up classic Flemish bowling in the backyard garden. As it was, we needed to head out, but I enjoyed a Brugse Zot bruin - a solid brown Belgian from the local brewery - before heading back. It was a full and amazing day.
Addendum: Notes from the Beer tour!
The Half Moon Brewery offers four brews with six finishes. The two additional finishes add wild yeast for a fruity flavor in Spring or hold the beer in oak casks for a year for a winter flavor.
First the water and malt is heated, then while boiling they add hops, and the mixture is separated and cooled. They put out 4 million liters of this golden stuff. Heading upstairs past giant water and malted barley containers, we went into a room and learned about the ingredients. The Barley is germinated in the oven to allow for more starches, leading to more sugars and flavor. The pale blend of malted barley is used to make the beer, and they mix in a black roasted malt for color and flavor (5% usual, up to 25% for browns). The Belgians then also like to add spices, herbs and fruit for flavor. This originated from the practice of adding fruit to preserve it for later, usually berries and cherries (not bananas, our tour guide told us. Those are for tourists). They then add hops, which are a climbing plant like ivy. The oil is used from the hops, works as a natural preservative. It also gives it bitterness, and the hop plant is apparently related to cannabis, so "that's why beer makes you happy" our tour guide joked. Hops were even used to treat depression in medieval times. Heading to the roof we checked out the view, looking at the cathedral and the Tower of the Church of Our Lady. Up there they have the 40,000 liter fermenting vessels. They then pipe beer miles away to a site where it's matured and bottled. As our tour guide said, "Beer can be trucked but de beer hates being in de truck. The beer is shaken and stirred all the time, just like when you go to the fridge and shake the beer when you do your special, happy beer dance, open it, and voila, now one third of beer spilled."
Until 1965, the beer was cooled from boiling temp over a copper surface. These were really cool to see. Belgian beer itself is known for high alcohol content , up to 14%! The cooled beer was then historically filtered down from upper copper floor to a second, vertical copper cooler. After being cooled it was piped into holding tanks. Apprenticing Lads would clean these large tanks but fumes and limited oxygen meant they could faint or even die. So they had to whistle a tune while in there, and when the whistling stopped you knew they passed out. Maybe the "Whistle While You Work" Snow White dwarfs were fans of Belgian beer! Belgians then kept their beer in cellars, and it was used for meat and fish stews. Finally, when you pour the beer in a 30 cL glass, you must leave 3 cm of foam, so you can admire your lovely date, and lovelier beer, while the foam subsides.
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