I was really excited to visit Brugge (and Belgium) again after going there for a conference in 2011. I did have some time to enjoy the town, but there is always the pressure of being there for work and not vacation. If you haven't been to Brugge before you can get a glimpse of it in the dark comedy, In Bruges, featuring Colin Farrell. Warning: there is a lot of swearing. The town is very lovely, despite what Colin Farrell says (although there a TON of tourists during cruise ship season). Brugge is in western Flanders near the North Sea. The highlights of Brugge are the canals (which you can do a boat tour on), many tourist shops selling lace, moules and frites, chocolate, and beer. I loved Italy, but I would take a good beer over wine any day.
The hidden entrance to De Garre
On Friday morning I took a Thalys train from Paris to Brussels and then caught a local train to Brugge. I went straight to the hotel (which was next to the hotel I stayed at last time) and dropped off my bags. Amy would not be arriving from Amsterdam for another few hours so I decided to walk around town and maybe get some lunch. It was so nice to already be familiar with the area, or so I thought... Garrett, a friend from my Davis Rocknasium days, recommended the pub De Garre located between Grote Markt and Burg Markt off of Breidelstraat. Despite his very specific directions to look for La Cure Gourmande and to the left would be a small red doorway, I still missed it the first time. On my second attempt I located the little alley and the wonderful little pub that is the only location you can try the Garre Triple. The menu was in Dutch but the bartender was nice enough to translate it for me. I was starving and so I ordered the Triple and some cheese and bread with veggies. This was be the first of many meals that consisted of just cheese, bread and beer.
Yummy Triple with a side of cheese
Success!
I still had some time to kill so I decided to head over to the De Biertempel to see what sort of a selection of Belgium beers they had available. I was hoping to find the much coveted Westvleteren 12. For those of you that are not big into Belgium beers, Westvleteren is produced by the Trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren, one of six Trappist breweries in Belgium. Westvleteren 12 has been named one of the best beers in the world and it can be very had to get. The beer is only supposed to be available at the abbey or the abbey owned pub, In de Vrede. Obviously this is not completely true since it can be found at various beer shops, but there is quite a mark up on the price. I paid about 12 Euro per bottle even though it is sold at the abbey for about 2 Euro, too bad all this money is not going to the monks. The bottles do not have labels on them, the only marking of the brewery name is on the bottle cap.
After purchasing some Westvleteren 12 to take back to the United States, I headed back to the train station to meet up with Amy. We dropped off her bags and headed straight to a pub so she could try some delicious Belgium beer. On the walk to the pub we got to see the painstaking process of them building one of the cobble roads by hand.
I don't want this job
First Belgium beer with Amy!
On Saturday morning I did a 6 mile run and took in some of the sights before Amy woke up. More photos I took during my run can be seen here.
One of four windmills
I think this a medieval high containment suit
After showering we headed to my favorite spot, Caffe da Noi, and had some tea and pastries. After breakfast we walked around town and then we went for a tour of the the great local brewery De Halve Maan. I toured this place in 2011, but it was definitely worth another visit. The tour guides I have had are really informative and very funny. After the tour ended we got our free beer and order some (surprise) cheese and bread.
Sometime social media pays off
After the brewery Amy wanted to visit Onze-Lievevrouwekerl, a 13th century church that houses Michelangelo's Madonna and Child. I had been there already and needed to go back to De Biertempel. I had noticed on twitter that Ted King, an American rider for Cannondale, was looking to score some Westvleteren and so I tweeted him that I had some. We made a deal to exchange some beer for swag and photographs the next morning before the start of the Ronde Van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders). I secured two bottles and on my walk back to the hotel to meet Amy was rewarded with a viewing of all the team cars parked at the start of the RVV.
Another new beer to try
We finished off our day in Brugge with a beer at De Garre followed by a waffle from a van parked in Burg Markt (another Garrett recommendation). Next up was our first big day of watching professional cycling in Europe!
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