Trip Recap Part 3- Bruges, Belgium

So, we said goodbye to Reims and were off to Bruges.  We had a long day of driving on Monday and planned to stop by the Westvleteran Abbey to try and get some of their world famous #12.  Being the beer connoisseur that he is, John had done some reading on trappist breweries before and the word among the beer publications was that this beer was the best in the world.  Just a little background info- unlike most beers, trappist beers are not brewed for profit, they are simply a way to keep the monasteries going.  There are only a few trappist monasteries that brew beer and all but 1 happen to be in Belgium.  Since this was supposed to be the best beer, we wanted to make sure and try some while we were there.  This particular beer is only available at the abbey, and they only sell it a few days a week- first come, first serve.  A few weeks prior, we tried to reserve some which you can do when they put it on sale- they open the phone lines for 2 hours a few days a week and if you can get through, you can reserve it.  John woke up at 4 am to start calling and could not get through.  We found out later that they get 400 calls a minute when they put #12 on sale so we really had no chance. The drive was pretty easy and we found the abbey which had a small restaurant and visitor's center.  We were fortunate because they still had some of the #12 when we arrived so we were able to taste some in the restaurant and get a 6 pack each (that was the limit- One 6 pack/person).  Here is John with what he agrees to be the best beer in the world.

Unfortunately the whole monastery was under construction, so I could not get any other pictures of the place. The next stop was to the town of Ypres where we were going to see the In Flanders Fields Museum about WW1.  This museum was very powerful and humbling to experience.  The collection of memorabilia that they have is very impressive!

The museum is the large building on the right... it was pouring rain so I did not get many pics here.

Onto Bruges! We arrived in the late afternoon, turned in our rental car, and found our fabulous Bed and Breakfast, B&B Setola.  This was another Rick Steve's recommendation and the place was perfect and in a great location just a block from the main square.  Bruges was my favorite city, it was small enough to have a cozy feeling, but there was plenty to see and do.  We really wanted to do a bike tour while we were there, but the weather was so windy and cold that I know I would be miserable.  We decided on a walking tour instead.  Some of the highlights are below.  We also had a great time eating and drinking in Bruges.  There were the best cafes and bars tucked away in alleys off the cobblestone streets.  And of course the canals were so beautiful I felt like I was walking into a picture every time I turned a corner.

One of the first things we did was climbed the Belfry.  Unfortunately they were doing construction at the top, so part of the view was obstructed, be we still got to see out 2 sides.

 
 The Market Square- opposite the Belfry

 

 After that, while we were in Bruges, we...

Sampled Belgian waffles.  In Belgium, they are not traditionally served at breakfast like in the US.  Mostly you will find them for desserts or an afternoon treat.  They have a variety of toppings, but we just tried the powdered sugar one.

Found our favorite pub/cafe- DeGarre.  John liked the beer too, but at this point our bag was already full :(

 
 Toured and tasted at De Halve Maan brewery- the only brewery in Bruges

View from De Halve Maan brewery

 

 Saw some windmills

  
 Walked the streets

 

 Ate at a wonderful restaurant that has been continuously open since 1515.

 
 Toured the Chocolate Museum- with a nice chocolate making demo afterwords

 
 Stopped by the Vismarkt

Did some laundry..

Saw one of Michelangelo's only pieces outside of Italy- Madonna and Child

 Enjoyed the Gothic architecture- below is the City Hall

   And walked through the Bruges Begijnhof

After Bruges, we were on to the last leg of our trip- Amsterdam! Stay tuned...

Trip Recap Part 2- Reims, France

So, we woke up in Brussels which was so.hard. considering that at 8 it was like 1 am our time and we had spent the night before sleeping on the airplane.  But we managed, which is a good thing because we had a packed day planned and we still had to figure out how to get out of Brussels.
On my master plan for the day (yes I have to plan everything out), we were supposed to go to Waterloo on our way out of town, then stop by the Orval brewery and finally make it into Reims for our 3:00 tour at Mumm. 
We asked our hotel for a detailed map and instructions out of the city.  Once we got onto the highway, it looked to be pretty easy.  It turns out that even locals have a hard time navigating this town because we reached our 2nd turn- which was a one way the opposite way we were supposed to be going.  Proceeded to make several more wrong turns and ended up right back by the hotel.  It was like deja vu from the day before, except today we were both antsy since we wanted to see things.  After several u-turns and stops to look at our map, we finally made it out to the main road we were looking for.
Since it had taken us so long to get out of the city, we missed Waterloo completely and headed straight for Orval.  It was much nicer to be out of the big city and we were feeling pretty good about our day, except when we started seeing signs for "Bastogne" which was the opposite way we were supposed to be going.  Oops, must have taken a wrong turn at one of the roundabouts!  We finally made it to Orval and it was beautiful, wish we had more time but we did not even have time to stop for lunch if we wanted to make our tour at Mumm.  Got a few pictures though...

We bought a case of Orval and were on our way to Reims.  We found out the it is much easier getting around France than Belgium.  Once we crossed over into France, the road signs were much better and more frequent.  Me made it to Mumm on time and learned all about making champagne.  We have been to wineries and plenty of breweries but making champagne is much more complex.  It was interesting to learn about it, and of course the cellars were very neat.

 

We found our B&B after the tour and walked around the town of Reims.  Unfortunately it was a bank holiday the weekend we were there, so many of the local restaurants were closed, but we still enjoyed the city.

 Our B&B- Les Telliers

The next day was one of my favorite days on the trip.  We drove along the champagne trail and stopped at a few of the villages along the way.  There are so many mom and pop champagne operations in the small cities, it would be impossible to see every one.  Most of them don't spend any money on marketing or anything so you really just have to go to the towns and stop once you see the signs.  Again, many of them were closed but we did stop and have a tasting in a town called "Bouzy" and enjoyed the scenery along the way.  It was so beautiful and exactly how I would imagine the French countryside to be:

We made it back to Reims and toured the two big cathedrals in town: Notre Dame- Reims, and Saint Remi Basilica.  Pictures do not do these places justice either, they were huge and the detail was so amazing.

Notre Dame- Reims

 

Inside Notre Dame

 

St Remi Basilica

 Inside the Basilica

Then it was time for our champagne tour at Pommery.  I enjoyed this tour but the tasting was even better! We got a flight of 5 different champagnes- John and I don't have a champagne pallet at all, but we did blind taste tests and neither one of us could tell a difference between the super expensive "vintage" and the everyday "brut" - they both tasted good to me! 
 

It was a great day in Reims and I would love to go back to the champagne region another time!  The next day, we were off to Bruges with a stop at  Westvleteran Abbey where they supposedly sell the best beer in the world- according to several beer ranking publications.

Trip Recap Part 1- Brussels

Were back! Last weekend, we returned from our trip to Europe. We had perfect travel on the way over there, and on the way back, we were about 5 hours late due to the volcanic ash, but not a big deal.  We both expected some big hangup since it seems like every time we go on a big trip, we always have a travel horror story, but this one was pretty smooth.
We arrived in Brussels on Friday morning and picked up a car at the airport.  I seriously underestimated how hard it would be to get around Brussels- we had maps- several of them, but this town was so hard to navigate.  To start with, some of the street signs are in French and some are in Dutch, which would not be a big deal, except that you can't see the street sign until after you have already turned down the street.  Many times, the streets would change names (like every block) and there was always some construction or one way streets that got in the way.  Anyway, we finally found the Marriott- we stayed downtown by the Grand Place so the location was great.  It took us close to 2 hours to get to the hotel from the airport and when we left the following week in a cab, it took 15 minutes, so clearly we made a few wrong turns!

After a quick shower, we decided to walk around the city.  The first stop was the Grand Place.  This is a central square that houses the town hall, restaurants, chocolate shoppes, and the city museum among other things.  The Gothic architecture was amazing on these buildings! 

I took advantage of the close proximity of chocolate shops and decided to get a few pieces from each one.  I sampled my chocolates throughout the afternoon, and decided that Neuhaus has the best chocolates! My favorite one was called a "caprice", it had a dark chocolate coating and was filled with this amazing vanilla cream.

After I had my chocolate craving satisfied, we headed over to the beer museum where John had his first Belgian beer.

We took a self guided walking tour and saw Mannekin Pis.  It was much smaller than I expected and very crowded, but I managed to get a few shots of the him.

John found his first of many beer stores:

We went to the comic strip museum, but after John learned that they only had comic strip info on Belgian comics, he did not want to pay to tour the place.  Belgium has more comic strip artists per square km than anywhere else in the world, so it was not uncommon to see cartoon sketches on the sides of buildings or walls.  The smurfs originated in Belgium and that was the only character that I recognized. 

We found a great place to eat through the Rick Steve's travel guide (best travel guide author ever), although I did not get any pictures of us at dinner. 


The next morning, we were off to Reims, France, but first we had to figure out how to navigate our way out of the city..