Belgium Trip - Part 2 of 2

Day 3: We woke up this morning, and had breakfast at the B&B, where we learned that our Michel, one of our hosts, was a previous holder of Belgium’s Mr. Leather title. Turns out that he won Belgium’s Mr. Leather competition the first of time he ever wore a leather get-up, which earned him a trip to the International Mr. Leather contest in Chicago. He got 21st place – and retired from competition. Now, he works for Brussels’ sanitation department. You can’t make this stuff up, folks.

Our first stop of the day was the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), where we saw several beautiful examples of historical instruments, ranging from tribal drums that were more than 1000 years old to electronic instruments from this decade. From there, we made our way over to St. Boniface, which is in the heart of a trendy, diverse neighborhood with lots of interesting shops and restaurants. We stopped at one and had lunch, before continuing on to the Fortis district, which is near several universities. We window-shopped there for a while, particularly noticing the numerous second-hand comic book stores in the area (though comics weren’t invented in here, the Belgians are great aficionados of them). By then, we were ready to get off of our feet for a bit, so we found a bar and had some beers.

It was Saturday night, and that meant England v. France in the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup (held in France this year). So we picked up some take-away kebabs, and headed to Churchill’s, an English bar in Brussels, to watch this fierce match. It was truly an epic defensive battle, though fortunately, England came out on top with a 14-9 victory over the French hosts. Belgium is a popular destination for French holiday-seekers, so even though we were in an English pub, the fact that we were in Brussels meant that most of the other patrons of the pub were French. Aside from a few English ex-pats in the bar, we were pretty much the only England fans in the whole place. After the English victory, several of the French fans came over and shook our hands, wishing us “Bon chance” in the final.

Day 4: This morning, we got up pretty early (at least for us) and took a train to Bruges, a town whose history dates back to the middle ages. It is only about an hour’s trip from Brussels, and for the past 150 years, has long been a popular tourist destination. It is a little touristy, but the architecture is lovely, and weather-wise, it was a gorgeous day. Megan took a lot of great photos in town.

Our day in Bruges began by visiting the Markt (central square), followed by lots of wandering along the canals and through the parks, and stopping for lunch in a small square where we could watch horse-drawn carriages walking by. Here I had the chance to use some of my “advanced” French. Sitting next to us at lunch was a older couple with their dog, who were travelling around Europe in their “camping-car”. I complemented them on how well-behaved their dog was (he was sitting under the table during their meal), and told them that we also had a dog. They asked what kind of dog he was, but high school French didn’t teach me how to say “pug” en français… After lunch, we took the long way through Bruges to the Brouwerij De Halve Maan (“Half Moon Brewery”). We had a beer in the courtyard before taking a tour of the historic brewery – the original location of the Maes (a prominent Belgian brewer) brewery. On the tour, we met Nancy, an American woman who was travelling on her own. After the tour, we were given complimentary beers, so we invited her to join us at our table in the courtyard. We started chatting, and it quickly came out that we were both from Chicago. Crazily enough, this woman was also originally from Flossmoor (the tiny little town where I grew up)! She left the town when she was still in junior high, so she didn’t remember my family, but we still had a great time talking about our home town! File that one under “it’s a small world”…

After leaving Nancy in Bruges, we grabbed wafels, and headed to the train station for the trip back to Brussels. Tonight was the South Africa v. Argentina semi-final for the World Cup. Since we had a wonderful time at the pub the previous night (giant projection TV, delicious beers on tap, friendly service – what else do you need to watch a match?!?!), we decided to head back to Churchill’s for the second consecutive night. Unfortunately, South Africa crushed Argentina 37-13, making this match not nearly as exciting as the England/France match.

Day 5: Our last day in Belgium – and really just a half-day at that. We slept in again, and then headed to the Flanders Museum, a really weird toy museum. We thought it would be a sort of look at toys throughout history, but actually turned out to be some creepy old guy’s HUGE toy collection. It was a short visit. We then walked to the Botanical Gardens – on our way, we accidentally stumbled across the hostel where I had stayed during my previous visit to the city back in 2000 with Kate. The gardens were still as great as I had remembered, and we wandered around here for a bit, before heading back into Central Brussels, where we finally got frites in a cone – the best French fries imaginable, topped with mayo (not as gross as it sounds), and served in a paper cone. Megan was wanting to get these for our whole trip (they are iconically Belgian), and considering how it was our last day in town, I finally caved in…

We then headed back to our inn, grabbed our bags, and took the metro back to Gare Midi to catch our Eurostar train back to London. On the train back to our new home, my Spanish-speaking wife was ordering beers in French “deux Stellas, s’il vous plait”, which I think is the most important phrase an international traveler can learn when abroad…