Two Beers and a Pretzel

As a tourist in Belgium, you’ll see waffle shops, chocolate shops, chocolate waffle shops, museums, waffle shops, bars, chocolate shops, a few canals, the occasional handmade lace shop, and more waffle and chocolate shops. 

I think the only way these people are still skinny is that they walk or bike everywhere – even in cold, drizzling weather.  I´m pretty sure we could solve America´s weight issues by forcing everyone to just walk for 1 mile a day – then replace the plethora of medeocre fast food joints with gourmet bistros.

Before you see too many of these pics, I had to use the high ISO settings on the Olympus, so some of the night shots (like the one above) have a lot of noise artifacting.

I arrived in Brussels around 11AM on Wednesday and immediately started looking for a cheap room.  Now, since this town is the seat of the European Union, hotels are about 120€ (or $180).  I found a hostel dorm for $30 that was just a short walk from the city center.  Back toward town, I happened by the famous statue of the little boy peeing.  He’s surprizingly small for such a famous statue - under 2ft tall.

Then on to the very interresting Musical Instrument Museum.  I won’t bore you with pics of all the different instruments, but it has some reall odd ones mixed in with ones you would expect.  There was a very cool audio tour included where as you stand on marked spots on the floor, your headphones play sounds from the instrument you´re currently viewing.

And on to an exhibitt of Magritte – the Flemish surrealist.  As always, no photography allowed in the museum, but this should give you an idea of his work…

Once I left there, it was getting dark, so I went for a meal and some people-watching in the town square. 

As you can imagine, the capital of the EU had a lot of really neat little bistro´s.

Unfortunately my surfing buddy Arnaud had to work late and couldn’t meet me for drinks, but I found an interresting little bar with live music, good beer, and a greasy pickpocket rifling thru other people’s jackets.  The hostel locked up at 1 AM, so I had to get back and get some sleep.

FYI- the band was a ukelele, guitar, acoustic bass, drummer, and trombone player – and they were pretty darn good.

The next morning I took the train to Brugge, stashed my bag in a locker at the train station, and decided to climb the city bell tower.  They have a 15 Euro pass that is good for all the Brugge city museums, like 20 of them…. And it the tower had a nice view of the town. 

At the base of the tower was a small exhibit on Salvador Dali.  Man, that guy was messed up and full of himself.

Then I wandered to the town hall.  You can see the bell tower in the background.  The dark building in the corner on the left is the Basilica of the Holy Blood which contains a bit of what is supposed to be Christ´s blood preserved by Joseph of Arimithea shortly after his death, and given to a crusading knight in the 1150´s.

Then I wandered around town a bit to see the scenic canals.

After dark, I checked out the Christmas Market at the town square – which has a decent ice skating rink in the center… to I rented some skates and went for a slide.

Ingrid was having a late dinner with a friend, so I was in no hurry to catch the train.  I found a little bar and had 2 things that you can´t get in the USA…  Paddy Irish Whiskey, and a Cuban Cigar!

Finally, it was time to catch the train, but I got one last decent picture on the way out of town.

On the way back, I had a layover in the massive and modern Antwerp train station.

Ingrid´s train was arriving about an hour after mine, so I found a bar around the corner from her place and shared a few drinks with some locals before she finally arrived.  Then it was off to a long winter´s nap…

Friday night Ingrid and I are going out with a few of her friends.  Prior to the festivities, my task is to figure out what I´m doing the rest of the weekend and next week.  Saturday night Ingrid has plans to stay over with a friend in another city who will apparently freak if an American guy comes along.  That kinda puts me in a hard spot for lodging, but I´m trying to meet with some more of my friends from MojoSurf camp, or possibly Mandy from New Zealand.  Jenny in Dublin is busy until Sunday, so that won´t work.  I´m thinking if I can´t confirm with any of my friends (and find a place to crash) by tonight, I´ll probably book a last minute trip to Berlin.  Bummer I didn´t bring my ski bibs, or I´d go to the Alps.