The Venice of Belgium

This was our day in the city of Brugge.

First, we went to the College of Europe and heard what that was all about (basically the training grounds for future EU officials).

Then we got a tour of Brugge. It is such a beautiful place; right on a small river with a big open square in the middle of town lined with chocolate shops and historical buildings. We took so many pictures it took me a while to pick which ones to put on the blog. Most of them are just pretty and don't need explanation.





We got to try the beer that got first place two years in a row at the Seattle World Beer Festival. It was clear why it won. It was a little like a Blue Moon. We loved it!
Yes, those are all different beers made by this brewery
The Brugge brewery





College of Europe














Despite the cold and rain, we enjoyed our day in Brugge. Complete with chocolate and beer, what else could we need?

Belgium in a night

Let me just make a general statement of our schedule in Belgium so that I don't repeat myself.

Every day we woke up between 6:30 and 7:30, went down for the continental breakfast, drove to some important EU or NATO location, 3 hours of "breifings" by important EU or NATO officials, enjoyed a ridiculously large gourmet lunch with as much wine as we could drink, 3 more hours of briefings, return to the hotel around 6 or 7pm, time on our own to explore and get dinner.

So our first free night in Brussels we decided to just do everything that 'is' Belgium in one night. Why not? Started with a walk from the hotel to the "Grand Square".

This is the view as we turned the corner from out hotel. Typical peek down the average alley in Brussels... Kind of stuck out... One of the main open squares... Bikes by the hour...good idea! We were told there were a lot of chocolate shops. What an understatement! It seemed like every other shop we passed was a chocolate shop, love it! We got very good at playing the roles of the interested tourists and we got a lot of free samples : ) Then we stumbled upon this beautiful establishment! This is what happy tourists look like... This was our dinner menu for that night:

Appitizer- Assorment of chocolates from 2 or 3 different shops Main course- Large serving of signiture Belgian fries complete with the ketchup/mayo combo Dessert- Belgian waffels with cream and powder sugar Then we took a little "walk-it-off" break and strolled around the city. Here is one of the "Arcades" that are so well known in this area. A very elegant, enclosed tunnel of sorts with very high ceilings lined with merchants. Some simple chocolate shops, some clothing stores, some cute cafes... Or you could stop in this place for a nice glass of champagne. Bottles range from just 50-800 Euros! At the other end of the Arcade we stepped out to find this bar which was reccommended to us by our guide for the week. A la Mort Subire means Sudden Death in French. After dinner drinks- A couple of home brewed Belgian beers. Just a cute little bunny outside the bar??? On our walk home we took the 'restaurant row' route. As people walk down this very long aisle of restaurants there are people standing outside each door beckoning you to come in. I have never experienced such encouragement to eat somewhere. A few shots of the Grand Square. Really beautiful, I wish we had a better camera, sorry. Many attempts to get a good pic of the two of us with the scenery... Then someone offered to help us, she was a German! It felt strangly welcoming to speak Deutsch! Couldn't pass this without taking a picture... Yet another lovely chocolate shop. "Gourmande" is one of Sam's GRE vocab words! A building across the main street from our Hotel... Enough pictures for one a blog I think! That was our first night in Brussels. Probably the worst possible nutritional experience one could have. Except maybe the MN State Fair : )