Boy....Brussels...you are one cold hearted lover.
So far along the trip we have been pretty lucky with hotels, the people we have met and the places we have chosen to spend our money on...
Brussels has been another story. After leaving the quaintness of Brugge we headed into the big city of Brussels. Pumped and excited for the upcoming few days we jumped off the train station and began looking for the hotel. As we found our way there we began to realize what a very bad looking neighborhood we were in and it just kept getting worse and worse. We found the hotel and both looked at each other with terror. Where are we and how did this happen? Since we couldn't cancel our reservation we decided to stay but we were very cautious to not leave anything of any value in the room.
Our first evening in town was nice. We hit up the grand plaza and saw a few cathedrals...the usual. We saw the famous manneken pis (a tiny peeing statue) and we visited the famous beer bar: delirium cafe, which had a published 50 or so page book with all the beers they have in bottles. Delirium was awesome but not quite the laid back vibe we were looking for so we headed over to our new favorite beer place: Moeder Lambic Fountains.
The bar was amazingly chill and not too busy and they had some fantastic beers on tap. We made friends with a couple of the bartenders and they told us that they we having a big Stone Brewing Co. event on Friday that we had to come back for. Greg and I agreed and then headed off to Beir Circus for an amazing pub style dinner made with beer. We met the owner Patrick who served us and he was super nice. Overall, besides our concerns about the hotel, we had a good first day in Brussels.
The second day started out shaky with a confusing breakfast at the hotel followed by a pretty big waste of money at the Atomium exhibit from the world's fair of 1958. They made this GIGANTIC metal looking replica of a crystalized iron molecule that you can go up inside of and move between the different atom balls that are connected by the crystal lattice. It looks amazing from the outside, but inside the museum was pretty terrible. It looked like it hadn't been updated since 1958 and somewhere in the museum it became an exhibit about immigration. We were pretty bummed out to say the least since it was the priciest admission we had paid since coming to Belgium. We cracked a few jokes and told ourselves that things would get better and headed into the grand plaza area to check out the brewery museum and have lunch before we headed to Cantillon to see the brewery.
On our way to the brewery museum we took a few swipes at the famous statue in the square that you are suppose to rub for good luck. Feeling as though our luck was changing we headed down into the brewery museum. Unfortunately I guess we touched the wrong part of the statue as that museum was equally disappointing. Feeling hungry we dashed out of there and headed out for some amazing pita sandwiches and a cold beer to wash it down. We rubbed the statue again just for good measure.
Thanks to our friends Kat and David we were lucky enough to go to the legendary Lambic brewery Cantillon and meet with the brewmaster Jean Van Roy. Things were super busy there since they just got a batch of grapes in for one of their fruit beers and things had to be done that day in order to make a specific beer. We took the tour which was amazing. It has been in the family for over 100 years and they still use all the same equipment. We got to try an amazing gueze, their fabulous cherry blend and one of the lambics. Sophie and Jean were very nice and Greg got a sweater there that I don't think he will ever take off. We left feeling as though Brussels was turning around. That night we went for a very along walk and ended the night with more beers at Moeder Lambic and some delicious chinese food from around the block.
Friday brought a renewed spirit of adventure as we got on a very early train out of Brussels and rode about 2 hours south to the very tiny town of Florenville to go to the Orval open house. The Trappist brewery only opens their doors to the public for 2 days once a year and boy is it an event. You have to make reservations months in advance if you want a shot at going in. Greg and I found out about 5 months ago that we were going to be in Belgium during that specific weekend so we grabbed up a reservation.
The abbey is about 10km from the train station but we were able to take a bus there with a couple other people who were also going to the Abbey. We met an adorable couple from New Zealand who were on a four month trip around Europe etc and hung out with them for lunch and also took the tour with them. There was also another couple that we chatted with on the bus who were on a month long beer trip and were from Colorado. Needless to say we were in like-minded company on our bus to Orval.
The tour was amazing. Cars everywhere, small groups, big groups, groups of children, groups of older people. It was an EVENT! We entered the reservation tent and they gave us information and bottle openers. We were thrilled. The tour was about 45 minutes give or take and boy can I say it is the most beautiful brewery I have ever seen. It is like a church and a brewery combined. The kettles are surrounded by beer themed stained glass windows and there were crosses hanging over the brewing computers. They wrapped up the tour with monkish looking men serving beers and giving out cheese. Awesome! Belgium had done it again.
After our free beer at the brewery we headed over to the "cafe of angels" for a glass of the elusive Petit Orval which is like orval but slightly different in taste, served on draft and can only be drunk at the abbey cafe. Let me just say that this beer will go down as one of my absolute favorites. It tastes like Orval but lighter and drier. We could have stayed there all day drinking but the day was moving on and we really wanted to try to catch an earlier train out of Florenville so we could catch that high speed train that was connecting at Libramont with an express route back to Brussels.
The next bus however was not going to get us to the early train and so we decided to try to catch a ride to the train station from someone heading out of the Abbey. Joyously the second person we tried picked us up immediately. It was a very nice older Belgian couple who spoke no english but understood, Florenville and train station. We made very small talk with them and listened to them talk on their speaker phone with their good friend Jean Claude who was eagerly awaiting their arrival with the Whiskey ready.
We hopped out of the fancy car and made it to the train station with plenty of time to spare, waving goodbye to the nice Belgian couple and bidding adieu to Jean Claude.
Things just kept getting better. We made the connection to the high speed train and got back to Brussels earlier than we anticipated. Plenty of time to make a quick stop off at our lovely hotel and then head back out to go to the Stone party at Moeder Lambic Fountians. We had imagined that things would be so busy that we might not get a seat but it was not as jam packed as we expected and we got seats at the bar with our new favorite bartenders. Both Greg and I got to try some stone beers that neither of us have had and to top it all off we got to talk to Greg Koch, the CEO of stone. He was so nice and we got a fabulous picture of the 3 of us doing his signature "Greg face." We headed back to the hotel soon after as we had a busy morning ahead of us on our way out of Brussels to Poperinge for the hop festival.
Unfortunately morning brought on the realization that between the time we were at the Stone event someone had come into our room and stolen our big camera. We went crazy looking for it in the room but to no avail. Of course the reception didn't care and thought we were lying. We asked them to call the police so we could make a report but they said we had to go to the police station ourselves. We walked to the police station by the train and had anther dose of reality forced fed into our throats as we watched the train police and ambulance workers perform CPR on a poor woman limp on the floor. We said a prayer for her as we walked through, realizing that there are worse things than a stolen camera.
The police station was not helpful and said we must go back to our hotel and file the claim with the police there. We headed back to the hotel where we were verbally accosted by the manger who told us that we were lying and that he was going to file a complaint against us. Luckily he did eventually call the police who came by shortly after and took our statement. They then took us, bags and all, to the police station in their car where we filled out a police report. I am sure we will never see the camera again. But at least we still have our health, our iPad and each other.
We are currently breathing a sigh of relief as we wind our way through the western part of Belgium on our way to Poperinge and the hop festival this weekend. We got a bit later start then we had anticipated but nothing can ever be perfect in is world. We are excited to continue on with the journey and we both agreed that worse things could have happened and we are lucky to be on this trip no matter what.
What greatness Brussels giveth, it also taketh away.
Onward and upwards.
Missy and Greg
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