October 14, Brugge (this is how they spell it themselves. You know it better as Bruges.)
Taken together, the Mannekin Pis in Brussels, the mermaid spraying water from her nipples in Brugge, and the giant inflatable naked man across the square, can only mean one thing: Belgium loves naked people. However, it is much too cold to test this out ourselves! hahaha... :) In case you are wondering about the giant inflatable man, it is apparently a self portrait, which is part of kicking off a few months of cultural events here. It is pretty funny to walk into a 500 year old square and see full frontal parade sized balloon nudity, so at the very least it is drawing attention to the festival and making some Americans giggle.
What we did instead was what I have deemed the "Brugge Stairmaster." 366 steps up to the top of the Tower in market square (as depicted in the movie, In Bruges). From there, a bell tower around 500 years old, you have a beautiful panoramic view of the city, as you can see in the photos. But don't worry- in order to build up energy for such a feat of strength and endurance, we first had french fries with sweet and spicy sauce on the square. Apparently french fries are the item of secondary fame in Belgium (next to its waffles). They were good- but so are most fresh french fries- these in particular were made from fresh potatoes which probably contributes.
As if 366 very tightly wound steep stairs made for much smaller feet from 500 years ago weren't enough, we also toured the De Halve Mann brewery and walked its over 200 steps. (For those keeping track, that's around 500+ stairs for today- 1000 if you count back down, which as they are extremely narrow for much smaller feet, quite trecherous both directions). De Halve Maan is the last remaining brewery here in Brugge, from the original 36(!!!). It was actually a very interesting tour- we saw the mash happening (that's the stage where the grains are mixed with hot water to extract the sugars before yeast is added), and the whole place smelled like an amazing bakery. In addition, because the brewery is now in its 6th generation of family ownership, the original brewing equipment from the mid-1800s was still present in addition to the newer machinery. It was an interesting look at not only old brewing techniques, but new as well.
We also took a lovely boat tour of the city through the canals- it was beautiful, and really amazing to see the architecture at work to make these canals work. Incredible to think of stepping out your kitchen door directly into the river, with nothing in between. There was also a large group of swans enjoying the day, though it was a bit cold and misty for us. (I did wear long underwear for the first time in my adult life- perhaps not the best choice on a day we did 500 stairs....but they kept me happily warm the rest of the day).
If this doesn't seem like enough for one day, we also saw the Michaelangelo Maddonna and Child marble sculpture in a beautiful cathedral, said to be the only Michaelangelo to have left Italy during his lifetime. It was beautiful and intricate- the Maddonna was amazingly lifelike (for marble), and overall I found the experience to be (suprisingly) moving.
Overall, a very busy day- and yet we still had time for a 2 hour nap :) (this should give you an idea how very small the city is!)
Tomorrow we head to Amsterdam! Should be an excellent contrast to Brugge... but a few random thoughts to leave you with:
- We had Chinese for dinner here, and realized that in Europe (based on the 2 we have been in), they don't even bother putting out the chopsticks. Funny how this has developed as an American custom to reflect the Chinese culture but is not bothered with here!!!
- Interesting brewery observation- at this point, basically no breweries do their own malting anymore, though they used to. This is done by allowing the grains to germinate, and then heating to whatever the approrpriate roasting temperature is for the particular brew being made. One possible advance to the "microbrew revolution" could be taking on this process again at a brewery level- though it is very hard, hot work (think giant room-sized oven in which a person must occasionally enter to turn the grains- though I am sure the industrial centers that do this now must have it mechanized).
- Funny story from the airport the other day in Dublin- someone was looking at a Guinness keychain/bottle opener with a small button on the side. Thinking it was a flashlight, the button was pushed a few times. Confused why no light was coming out, held it up to their eye- at which point flame shot out! Not only did this almost singe the eyebrows, but also cannot believe they are selling lighters in airports past security....
-Last night after dinner we ducked into a small bar with a nice smoldering fireplace, where I had my first hot red wine with lemon, sugar, and cloves (they call it hot wine here- I am not sure if it is any different than Mulled Wine...will let you know when we get to Germany?)
-Belgium beer is awesome (so many varieties and all so deeply flavorful). Belgium waffles are heavenly (so light and fluffy and sweet). Belgium chocolate is breathtaking (so rich and smooth). Belgium fries are lovely (so salty crisp and fresh). But what we cannot report on is Mulles and Frites- Mussels and Fries- only because something we can get in DC and Baltimore for under $10 is just not worth 20 euro a plate here (approximately $30).
-What I get for trying to wear clean clothing- we did the laundry yesterday, and as you can see in one of the photos, something bad must have been left in the wash by the last person, because my brown pants are now covered in white waxy material that won't come out even after 2 washes and trying to razor it off. Not happy....down to 2 pairs of pants until Thanksgiving- will see if I can pick up some new ones in Berlin.
-This is getting expensive, did not plan on having to pay for basically every single thing we do. But, we are headed away from the SUPER touristy places, and towards more "real" cities where there will be cheaper food and maybe more free museums.
-Please forgive the massive number of photos- I am doing my best to only post the best ones, but on a small netbook it is hard to see sometimes, and it takes FOREVER to go through them all...
-Please also forgive misspellings- the spell check integrated here thinks that I have misspelled everything because it is calibrated to Dutch and not English, and I haven't figured out how to tell it otherwise as we travel (it was fine in Dublin and London, so clearly its pulling based on ISP).
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