Brews through Belgium

Brussels

Welcome to Belgium! Kris and I had a happy reunion at the train station in Brussels on the afternoon of 1 May and used the capital city as the home base for our five days of Belgian adventures. Kris is a big fan of delicious beers, so he was especially excited to visit Belgium for the first time and experience the ultimate European beer culture.  

After we found our AirBnB accommodations in the Saint Gilles neighborhood, we grabbed our cameras and headed into the heart of downtown. Brussels is a huge, spread out city. From our location to the Grand Place (pictured below), it took about 25 minutes by foot. It was fun to wander though several different neighborhoods and see how they transitioned from the 'banlieues' into the swanky, historical central district.

Gold leafing everywhere!

Behind the Grand Place are lots of cramped streets filled with great bars, restaurants, and chocolate shops. After meandering around and snooping a bit, we made our way to the Delirium Cafe, a Belgian/European classic. What an awesome place! The building housed four or five different bars, which we wandered through, but we finally settled on the basement bar, the coolest one by far. 

The decor, as you can see below, is eclectic and awesome, the lighting was juuuuuuust right, and with a selection of 2,000ish beers, you can't go wrong. We wound up visiting the Delirium Cafe three or four times during our trip, and during one of those visits, I discovered a delicious coconut beer, which I proceeded to enjoy again on the next visit. YUM.

My coconut beer and Kris' delicious stout!

Some of the beer-themed serving trays and pink elephant stickers
that absolutely covered the ceilings. Such great decor!

We had a lazy start to our Thursday (2 May), but we wound up on the metro headed towards the edge of town and the Atomium in the late morning. The Atomium is an incredible atom-shaped building that was built for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. It was so iconic and cool that they kept it around, and Kris and I were glad they did! We went inside and explored the different spheres and architectural expositions therein, and we really liked the escalators that were in the 'arm' tubes that span between the spheres. The whole thing felt like a time machine back to the art deco / space-agey feel of the late '50s.

The spheres, up close.

One escalator tube had a sweet light and sound show!

Similar to the Space Needle (another contemporary World's Fair icon), there's a restaurant at the top of the building. Kris and I felt compelled to enjoy a latte amidst all the chrome, glass, and funky throw-back decoration, and we enjoyed some great, albeit hazy, views of Brussels and the surrounding areas.

Once we left the building and again entered the modern day, we decided to take the long way back into town and walk through the nearby parks and gardens along the way. The spring flowers were just gorgeous! Trees and plants alike were in full bloom, and the garden areas were lovely to wander through and explore. The sculptures and street art around town were pretty impressive, too.

Ultimately, we wound up at another bar with a beer in hand (this is Belgium, you know). We found some different, tasty brews at a great retro bar called "A la Mort Subite" ('Sudden Death', referring to a card game that patrons would play there back in the day). I had a raspberry beer; I tell ya, those Belgians aren't afraid to experiment with beer flavors!

Bruges

Friday morning found us on our way to Bruges for the day. We had a blast in this old trading city.

"We comin' on in ta Bruges!"
Haha, I LOVED this! Dutch is awesome.

One thing Belgians love (besides beer) is to have a big belfry in the middle of town with a carillon in the very top part of the tower. The belfry in Bruges was ancient and beautiful. If you've been following my blog for long, then it will come as no surprise that we climbed that tower as soon as we possibly could! For a few euros and 200-300 stairs worth of effort, I can guarantee you that climbing European towers is your best bet for the most amazing view in town. The Bruges belfry was no exception! We had lovely views of the main plaza below and the city's red roofs all around us. 

Other highlights of the day included: the Church of Our Lady, which housed a statue of the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo - one of a small handfull of his works which isn't in Italy! ; delicious chocolates in so many gourmet chocolate shops ; and De Halve Maan ('The Half Moon' in Dutch) brewery and brewery tour. 

While doing some research about Belgium and the cities we were going to visit, I came across a Rick Steves video highlighting this brewery and its great tour (you can seriously always count on Rick Steves!). He gave it a glowing review, and Kris loves brewery tours, so I knew we had to go. It was as fun and interesting as we were hoping and we got a kick out of following our tour guide through all the nooks and crannies of this old brewery, all the way from the basement to the attic to the roof and back down!

The view from the roof.

After a long walk in the afternoon, we found ourselves at a park at the north end of town. We played on the swings for a while, enjoyed a short nap in the sun, and then it was off again to see more of the city. We were walking along a quiet, neighborhood street when suddenly, we noticed this crazy cellar door entrance to a mysterious place... It turns out, it was an underground bar in what looked to be an old wine or storage cellar. How cool! We had to make a pit stop.

This is the entrance from the street. How could you NOT want to go in?!

The inside!

Two delicious, dark Trappist beers later, we made our way back to the main square and hit up the Duvel bar overlooking the square before we found ourselves a supermarket, made a picnic dinner, and then headed back to Brussels.

Although Bruges is a rather touristy-feeling town, it was quaint and relatively peaceful and very beautiful. You could see and feel the history. We had a great day!!

Ghent

Saturday was our day to visit Ghent. We absolutely loved it there! What a beautiful, livable, vibrant, ancient city! We spent the day walking along the canals, climbing the belfry, rummaging through a huge and awesomely chaotic stamp and currency shop, finding crazy flea markets and fashion displays inside of cathedrals, having a picnic lunch while listening to a free open-air orchestra concert, visiting the castle (soooo cool!!), playing Scrabble and drinking coffee in a cute canal-side coffee shop, trying the local beers (Gruut and Gulden Draak), visiting chocolate shops, laughing at all the crazy stag and hen parties that were going on (at least a dozen, and all of the parties in costume!), trying "magic biscuits" from a hole-in-the-wall stand (it was a bagel slathered with butter and brown sugar and then ironed to a flat, toasted mess of deliciousness), and ending the day with a lovely Moroccan meal along a canal right downtown.

Of the three Belgian cities we visited, Ghent took the cake by far. I wish we could have spent another day there and seen even more of town!

Sunday was our departure day, but fortunately, our train didn't leave until the evening, so we had most of another day to explore. We started out by visiting a positively gigantic flea market / swap meet in a big square near our accommodations. Although we didn't buy anything, it's great fun to pick through all these random piles of antiques. Think of the most random household item or bit of nostalgia and you could probably find it here!

We then went for an epic walk across town to get to the European Parliament buildings and the Parliamentarium, the free, interactive visitors' center that explained the European Union, how it functions, where it's been, and where it's headed. We didn't have a lot of time there, but I was in hog heaven! Preparing to start a Masters in International Studies with a focus on Europe, this place was right up my alley.

Bright! New! Interactive!

Bring it on, grad school!

One last beer at Delirium and we were on our way to the train station to head to Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris. We had an overnight stay at an airport hotel before our early flight out to Istanbul!

All in all, Belgium is a must on any thorough trip through Europe. Just like so many other countries in Europe, I had visited Brussels, Bruges, and Ghent with my family as a little girl, but had very limited memories of the cities, so I was happy to return to this great country with Kris and see things anew. We absolutely loved each of the three cities, the history, the beer and beer culture, and everything else! I was especially happy to have more opportunities to speak French while I had the chance, too. :)

Look for a post (or two, more likely) about Turkey in the near future. :)