O, The Places I'll Go...: Brews in Brugge

Our second day in Belgium we took a day trip to the town of Brugge (also known as Bruges). The town was about an hour away from Brussels and was much smaller. Now we debated the idea of getting tickets since no one ever checks one. We were running late for the train and in a hurry. Everyone got there tickets, or so we thought. We found our spots on the train and took a little nap. I awoke by Connor tapping me and saying we need to move. When I got to my sense I also noticed the attendant next to me asking for my ticket. It turns out we were sitting in first class (first wrong) and I did not have a ticket, I only had a receipt from some other ticket (second wrong). He let me off the hook and still made us move.

Upon arrival into Brugge we walked into the main town from the train station. We entered off of an old hospital which they have made into a museum. Then we made our way through the main city road. The town was very quaint and beautiful. It was a breath of fresh air compared to Brussels. There was chocolate, beer and waffles everywhere- our kind of place. We stopped in somewhere fast to grab lunch. Kyle and I ordered our food and went back to the table. Later Connor and Sean brought back their dishes. Sean noted they must have gotten his order wrong because he ordered lasagna instead of spaghetti. Shortly after they heard their number called, I guess you could say again since they “heard” their number before. Sure enough when Sean brought back the food it was the correct order. Connor had been eating a Salmon sandwich when he ordered a Italian meat sandwich and Sean dug into his spaghetti. After a lot of back and forth about what to do with the food a final decision was made: to set it at the table next to us and pretend nothing happened. I hope you all see the flaws with this decision as I did. Sure enough, the waitress came back and saw it. She gave a deep, frustrated stare at Sean and said “This is not your food!” Sean tried to apologize, but his blue eyes did not soften her any. We finished eating and got out of there as quickly as possible.

We made our way through the town and found ourselves winding through many tiny cobble stone streets with cute shops and restaurants lined along them. We stopped in ‘T Brugsch Bieratelier, which drew us in by their sign outside reading “Smile you’re on holiday and the sun is shining!” The place was small with a lot of wood and had a nice cabin like feel to it. We decided to all split several tastings. We ended up getting a sample of each of their beers and enjoyed everyone. After the bar we made our way to Halve Maan (Half Moon) brewery to schedule a brewery tour. We had some time to kill before the next one, so we decided to explore a little more. We found ourselves a beer wall with many famous and true quotes about beer, a lookout over the canals and a wonderful town square called The Market. The buildings framing the square were all very colorful with a large palace at the end of it. We went and enjoyed some beers at the Duvel bar where we enjoyed the balcony looking over the square.

We made our way back to the Halve Maan and thought we better grab a beer for the tour at their restaurant/ bar next door. When we met the rest of the group for the tour they informed us we could not take beers on the tour. As a natural reaction Connor and Sean looked at each other as said “Well, we better chug!” All three of the Halve Maan employees standing there shouted “No! No! This is not a beer you chug, the alcohol content is too high.” Sean became a little defensive by the fact that someone was telling him how to drink his beer. None-the-less, we finished our beers before the tour and our tour guide poked fun at Sean the entire time. The brewery was very old and unlike any I have seen in the states. Our tour consisted of climbing up and down ladders and watching our heads. I quickly understood why they do not allow beers on the tour. At one point on the tour we went up to the roof and were able to look out over the entire town of Brugge. At the end of the tour they rewarded us with their famous Brugse Zot. As a souvenir we purchased four large bottles to enjoy on the way home and throughout the rest of the evening.

Sean and Connor grabbed one waffle for the way back to the train station and we headed back to Brussels. Of course, we sat in first class and dozed off until they told us to move. Upon arrival in Brussels we went straight out to dinner and to the bars. I did not want to waste any time heading back to the apartment. We enjoyed a meal at a place near the Grand Place including mussels of course. We decided to have some wine as a change of pace from the beer. Nearby the restaurant we found a bar that had been recommended to us called Au Bon Vieux Temps, so we stopped there for a beer. After dinner we headed out to see the famous Manneken Pis (little boy peeing). He was a small statue on the corner of a building and we were all surprised by how small he was. While we were there we stopped at a bar across from the peeing boy called Poechenellekelder (puppet cellar). They had many puppets hanging around, which was sort of creepy. The atmosphere was nice though and there were a lot of people around. Next we made our way to Delirium Café once again. This time we stopped at a bar across the street to change things up a bit. Here we met a very large man and struck up a conversation with him. We thought it may be a good idea to strike up a political conversation with this fellow, and it turns out he does NOT like Americans. While the guys were debating and I was listening we met a confidant named Robert. He was a conservative from London who helped us in the debate/battle against this big man. After the man had left we bought Robert a beer and headed back to the Delirium café. Sean met some fellas celebrating a birthday and we all enjoyed the endless amount of Delirium, maybe a little too much.

The next day Connor headed back to London and Sean, Kyle and I did not wake up until around 2:00. We finally caught up on some much needed sleep. We decided to take it easy and headed to the Atomium, which is a large Atom like structure built for the 1958 Worlds Fair. We first went to the fun park in the area to get something to eat. We also saw a glimpse of the Mini Europe park from our Restaurant, unfortunately it was closed. Then we headed back to the Atomium structure. The structure was designed by Architect Andre Waterkeyn. It stands 335 feet tall and has nine 59 foot diameter stainless steel clad spheres connect to for a unit cell of an iron crystal. It shows the crystal magnified 165 billion times. Unfortunately we missed the ride up to the top of the Atomium, but we walked around the area, enjoyed a waffle. We were able to see it as dusk where it was lit up, it was simply spectacular. On our way back we walked through the Brussels park and stopped and wandered at the amazing structure and fountain. We walked through some new neighborhoods on our way back to the apartment.

Once we arrived at our apartment we got some pizza for dinner. We had an early flight to Vienna the next day so we needed to get to bed early. We started planning out how we were going to get to the airport for our 7:00 AM flight and began to get a little worried. The airport was an hour away and we had to get to a train station which was not walkable from our apartment. We could not book a taxi because you had to 24 hours in advance and none of the trains went to that station that early. We concluded we would need to wake up very early and walk to the train station and hope to find a cab on the way. Luckily, we caught a cab not even half a mile into our walk. We got there and there was a taxi service who offered to take us instead of the bus system. I admit, I was a bit skeptical of the taxi service, but we arrived in record time. The travel was smooth and we made it back to Vienna in time to get to his presentation Monday afternoon.