I think the most surprising part of my trip was Brussels. I didn't imagine that I would be as charmed by it as I was. I guess where good beer dwells, one can do no wrong!
We stayed in a guesthouse called Carmelite, and we loved the owner Pascal. He was just the most witty funny and honestly nice host we have ever come across. We followed his instructions to his favorite church and it's easy to see why.
The painted glass was so breath-taking and beautiful!
We also walked by this courthouse, and I took a picture of its stairs. Man, even their stairs are beautiful!
Not sure where I took this picture, or when. Hmm.
And I love the tightly clustered buildings together. So quaint!
And of course, the grand place. It is as grand as the name suggests, and I could just spend the whole afternoon on the square looking at all the beautiful buildings......
Another view of the Grand Place.
Other views of the Grand Place. Did I mention that I love this place?
A typical chocolate shop on the streets. There's dozens of them, it's crazy. Luckily we weren't chocolate lovers, or these shops would have bled us dry. Hehe.
And here is one of the signature monuments of Brussels, the Manneqin Pis. Not sure why it is, but it is largely popular. Pascal said it ranked the top of "the world's most disappointing places of interest" apparently, because it is so small and underwhelming. Haha.
Deron's favorite beer bar. Very modern, very good, and I love the roasted barley they serve with the beer.
Our attic room.I love the quaintness of it all!
The next day, we took a day trip to Brugge, because our friends said it is pretty, and we can visit a brewery there.
Deron trying to figure out the way. He's not so great with the maps......
The town center. The most interesting thing I found about Brugge is that everyone speaks Dutch, whereas in Brussels, everyone converses in French. It's really weird to me because they are only separated by an hour on the train.....
Beautiful cakes!!
The best meal of my trip, at Restaurant Zeno. Will blog about that later.
Me about to have the best meal of my trip!
Brugge is really quaint!
We arrived at the half moon brewery. It was again more modern than I expected. Oh well.
Beautiful trees!
We went to the Dali exhibition. It was pretty cool.
My favorite painting by Dali.
This is supposedly modeled after the 14 stations.
A small sculpture by Dali on sale. Should I buy this or another new bag. Duh!
A beautiful side street.
Us at the Delirium Cafe drinking super awesome beer.
The Grand Place at night. Ahhhhh. :)
We also went to the Da Vinci exhibition, but nothing was interesting except for this where they tried to use software to reproduce what the Mona Lisa looked like back in the day. So on the right is the image of it present day, and the one on the left is what it should look like at the point when Da Vinci painted it.
Again, Deron's telling smile. We are on a beer tour!
Our choices for the first leg. I have to say that the beers there taste so different from the same bottle of beer sold here. Just more flavor, and more fresh.
Our beer host bitching about Leffe beer, and how it contains preservatives and corn syrup and not actually brewed in a trappist. And hence, we will never drink Leffe ever again. Hehe.
It's really funny, but the respectable beer bars we went to, none of them served Leffe!
The bar where we tasted our first Westvletern, the best beer in the world!
We went on to this lambic brewery, Cantillon.
In the old days, they will brew the beers in these huge vessels!
And buy wine barrels to contain their beers.
The most interesting thing I learnt was that they do not add yeast on their own to make the beer. They just expose the beer to the natural yeast in the air, so I guess it's true that you will never be able to reproduce the beer anywhere else in the world!
Us back at Moeder Lambic with May Yin (who works in Brussels now) having a post-dinner drink.
My last night view of the Grand Place. So pretty!
The next day we woke up, Mannequin Pis was dressed up like this. So cute! *squeals* Apparently, time from time, there will be some brewery or winery promoting their alcohol, and they will make Mannequin piss out alcohol, and you'll get to see college kids trying to drink his piss. Pleasant indeed. Ha.
My last picture of the kitchen of Carmelite guesthouse. Thanks Pascal for making us feel so welcome!
And this concludes my whole trip. Will blog about the yummy food next! :D
Love,
Keira
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