Sunday, January 21, 2007
Chocolate, French, Beer, Seafood, Coffee, and Waffles (not necessarily in that order)
Another weekend away and another country. This weekend it was Belgium (12JAN)…Brussels to be exact. Just a hop away from London and you are in the land of chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. Of course, it probably helped that Annette, my travel partner for the weekend, is a bit of a chocaholic. Our 40 minute flight from London and we were in the Siru Hotel in Brussels after a full day of work. We had very small but comfortable room in the major hotel district just outside of the centre of Brussels. We dropped off our stuff in our room and went out. The hotel desk was quite helpful with a free map and several suggestions.
We were tired and hungry and headed off towards the Grand Plas. Drug Opera, what a name for a giant pub! I had my first Chimay (blue label) in Belgium and they had 4 different types. As a bottle fermented beer, it allows other taste opportunities and higher alcohol content than is achieved in cask or barrel ale. Annette had a lovely Croquette Monsieur and I had a nice Parma ham pizza.
Saturday morning brought our hotel breakfast which was generous and adequate but nothing special. Of course for £150 for the flight, 2 nights hotel, and breakfast, we could not complain much. We didn’t have to walk too far until we started to see the chocolate shops…many, many, many Belgium chocolate shops with piles of fabulous looking chocolate in all shapes and sizes in the many windows.
As we wandered around in the city we stumbled upon an Umpa Band, probably not what it is called but what it sounded like to me, polka type music with lots of horns. We noticed everyone gathered around a statue, many with cups in their hands. The statue was the Mannequin Pis which is a small boy standing naked and peeing. It is a very famous statue and most of us have likely seen images of it at one time or another. As we learned the following day at the museum, the statue gets lots of attention in Brussels. The story goes that a young boy was lost in the city and his father was desperately searching for him. When he finally found him, he was in the position of the statue, taking a pee. In the museum we saw the hundreds of costumes that have been donated to the city for the statue and he is frequently dressed in them. On this day he was dressed similar to the folks in the band. They had set a special contraption so beer was coming out of the statue. In this case it was a red colour to which Annette and I immediately likened to hematuria or blood in the urine. Medical humour, we nurses can’t resist. Everyone certainly seemed to be enjoying the beer.
The main square is really lovely with incredibly ornate buildings, one of which is the castle where the monarchs lived at one time. We also saw the very old St. Catherine’s church which seems to be a Greek Orthodox church at the present time.
Saturday afternoon we sampled some delicious Belgium beers in an area recommended by our hotel reception. The suggestions turned out to be great and we enjoyed the less touristy areas very much. We learned that double beers are light and triples are dark and somewhat sweet. The vast amount of variation in Belgian beer is not possible to learn in a weekend and there are many varieties. A lot of the beer is bottle fermented so you don’t see the variation in beer available from the cask like you do in the UK. Annette has a fantastic natural French accent and it was really fun to hear her talk to folks in French. I think the weekend has inspired her to study French again.
Our waiter told us about the Pierre Marcolini Chocolatier, winner of the world’s best chocolate in 2006, which was a 15 min walk from the center of town. Of course we had to go and when we arrived it seemed to be more like a art gallery than a chocolatier. It really is the best chocolate I have ever tasted. They had 5 or 6 different types of dark chocolate with cocoa beans from various places around the world. Even with a super high cocoa content (72%), it is the smoothest and most delicious chocolate I have ever tasted. My favourite purchase was the sea shells…fantastic white chocolate filled with delicate caramel and hazelnut. YUM!!! The white chocolate is also the best I have ever tasted. Although not “officially” chocolate it does have a huge cocoa butter content so that is why it is named as such. White chocolate that does not have cocoa butter is not allowed to be called white chocolate.
Saturday night we went to a seafood restaurant where I had a delicious whole lobster. Annette and I tried to enjoy the escargot offered as a starter for free but we struggled a bit. The escargot were served in a brine of some sort and just wasn’t our thing. We did notice how everyone in the restaurant gobbled them up when served. If I am going to eat snails they need to be drowned in garlic and butter.
Sunday we enjoyed a Catholic Mass in French in a very old and gorgeous church in the centre of town. Annette has a good understanding of French and a enormous understanding of Catholic services so definitely absorbed more than I did. The service was interrupted by a Muslim protestor of some sort which was the first time I had ever seen anything like that. We certainly didn’t feel at risk but it was odd.
After church we set out for waffles. I had one with chocolate, bananas, and whipped cream. I had a lovely espresso to accompany it as well. The espresso in Belgium is milder than in other countried on the continent. It has almost no bitter taste at all.
We were able to take the train back to the airport and save quite a bit of money over a taxi. Before we knew it were back in London Sunday evening. We had a bit of a delay on the Heathrow Express and it ended up taking longer to get from Heathrow to Paddington than it took to get from Brussels to London. Funny how things happen.
I will enjoy the chocolate and beer I brought back and would definitely like to explore Belgium again.
We were tired and hungry and headed off towards the Grand Plas. Drug Opera, what a name for a giant pub! I had my first Chimay (blue label) in Belgium and they had 4 different types. As a bottle fermented beer, it allows other taste opportunities and higher alcohol content than is achieved in cask or barrel ale. Annette had a lovely Croquette Monsieur and I had a nice Parma ham pizza.
Saturday morning brought our hotel breakfast which was generous and adequate but nothing special. Of course for £150 for the flight, 2 nights hotel, and breakfast, we could not complain much. We didn’t have to walk too far until we started to see the chocolate shops…many, many, many Belgium chocolate shops with piles of fabulous looking chocolate in all shapes and sizes in the many windows.
As we wandered around in the city we stumbled upon an Umpa Band, probably not what it is called but what it sounded like to me, polka type music with lots of horns. We noticed everyone gathered around a statue, many with cups in their hands. The statue was the Mannequin Pis which is a small boy standing naked and peeing. It is a very famous statue and most of us have likely seen images of it at one time or another. As we learned the following day at the museum, the statue gets lots of attention in Brussels. The story goes that a young boy was lost in the city and his father was desperately searching for him. When he finally found him, he was in the position of the statue, taking a pee. In the museum we saw the hundreds of costumes that have been donated to the city for the statue and he is frequently dressed in them. On this day he was dressed similar to the folks in the band. They had set a special contraption so beer was coming out of the statue. In this case it was a red colour to which Annette and I immediately likened to hematuria or blood in the urine. Medical humour, we nurses can’t resist. Everyone certainly seemed to be enjoying the beer.
The main square is really lovely with incredibly ornate buildings, one of which is the castle where the monarchs lived at one time. We also saw the very old St. Catherine’s church which seems to be a Greek Orthodox church at the present time.
Saturday afternoon we sampled some delicious Belgium beers in an area recommended by our hotel reception. The suggestions turned out to be great and we enjoyed the less touristy areas very much. We learned that double beers are light and triples are dark and somewhat sweet. The vast amount of variation in Belgian beer is not possible to learn in a weekend and there are many varieties. A lot of the beer is bottle fermented so you don’t see the variation in beer available from the cask like you do in the UK. Annette has a fantastic natural French accent and it was really fun to hear her talk to folks in French. I think the weekend has inspired her to study French again.
Our waiter told us about the Pierre Marcolini Chocolatier, winner of the world’s best chocolate in 2006, which was a 15 min walk from the center of town. Of course we had to go and when we arrived it seemed to be more like a art gallery than a chocolatier. It really is the best chocolate I have ever tasted. They had 5 or 6 different types of dark chocolate with cocoa beans from various places around the world. Even with a super high cocoa content (72%), it is the smoothest and most delicious chocolate I have ever tasted. My favourite purchase was the sea shells…fantastic white chocolate filled with delicate caramel and hazelnut. YUM!!! The white chocolate is also the best I have ever tasted. Although not “officially” chocolate it does have a huge cocoa butter content so that is why it is named as such. White chocolate that does not have cocoa butter is not allowed to be called white chocolate.
Saturday night we went to a seafood restaurant where I had a delicious whole lobster. Annette and I tried to enjoy the escargot offered as a starter for free but we struggled a bit. The escargot were served in a brine of some sort and just wasn’t our thing. We did notice how everyone in the restaurant gobbled them up when served. If I am going to eat snails they need to be drowned in garlic and butter.
Sunday we enjoyed a Catholic Mass in French in a very old and gorgeous church in the centre of town. Annette has a good understanding of French and a enormous understanding of Catholic services so definitely absorbed more than I did. The service was interrupted by a Muslim protestor of some sort which was the first time I had ever seen anything like that. We certainly didn’t feel at risk but it was odd.
After church we set out for waffles. I had one with chocolate, bananas, and whipped cream. I had a lovely espresso to accompany it as well. The espresso in Belgium is milder than in other countried on the continent. It has almost no bitter taste at all.
We were able to take the train back to the airport and save quite a bit of money over a taxi. Before we knew it were back in London Sunday evening. We had a bit of a delay on the Heathrow Express and it ended up taking longer to get from Heathrow to Paddington than it took to get from Brussels to London. Funny how things happen.
I will enjoy the chocolate and beer I brought back and would definitely like to explore Belgium again.
# posted by Joy and Blues @ 9:32 am 
