Trailing Off....: October 2015

view from the apartment balcony

In between glasses of frothy goodness and after the publicans close shop for the night, we had to amuse ourselves somehow.

First and foremost was spending time in this amazing apartment overlooking the Bourse. The Bourse is the Stock Exchange building so I felt like I was staying in a penthouse on Wall Street. Not only was the apartment about 4x the size of my actual apartment in Dublin, but it was HALF the cost of a room at the Marriot across the street. Airbnb is the way to go. We made sure to have long leisurely mornings, eating croissants, drinking coffee, and flipping through the hundreds of BBC channels. When you don’t have a TV and then are confronted with one, any program is fascinating. I didn’t remember how hilarious “3^rd Rock from the Sun” is!

The best way to keep from getting too locked is to walk, walk, and walk some more. Like most European cities, Brussels has the winding cobblestone streets, impressive cathedrals, and because it is a monarchy, a grand palace. The City Hall of Brussels is a really cool Gothic structure that is worthy of a few snapshots.

I appreciate a nicely constructed cathedral as much as the next guy, especially if it has spectacular stained-glass windows. But I always feel the atmosphere inside is cold and austere.

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, Brussels

So I mostly just look up at them like this and move on.

Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp

The most fun architecture was the Butcher’s Hall in Antwerp that looks like meat. How ingenious to make your building look like what you sell.

Vleeshuis (literally "Meat House"), Antwerp

Also, I can never resist a castle. The Het Steen is a medieval fortress on the harbour.

But what makes a trip most memorable for me is seeing something that you wouldn’t see anywhere else. Because I’m American and just assume everything is created there, I never knew that the Smurfs were Belgian. Wandering through the very thorough and well-organized comic book museum, I had so much nostalgia for that time in my life when I collected those little plastic blue statues and on Saturdays watched the cartoons. S, on the other hand, went down Tin Tin memory lane and thought fondly of his own Snowy (RIP).

I still have a lot of questions about how a society can survive with only one female

When I was a child and my Dad still lived in on the north side of Marshalltown, he had a small house and on the bathroom was a plaque of a boy pissing. I always thought it was hilarious and had no idea that 30 plus years later, I’d find out the origin of that icon. The Manneken Pis is a bronze statue of a boy pissing into a fountain. It was originally built in the 1300s and there are about a hundred theories as to why it was created. Nowadays a different outfit/costume is put on it (everyday?) and the symbol is as ubiquitous as chocolate.

I wonder who gets to decide the attire

Speaking of chocolate, we did hand pick about 12 chocolates at Neuhaus, a Belgian institution since 1857. With our bag in hand, we walked the streets, me making sounds that likely confused passers-by. It was by far the best, most decadent chocolate I’ve ever had in my life.

lots and lots of shops like these

Other than the Comic Strip Museum, we just walked and took it all in. We saw palaces of kings and the canals of the common man, street graffiti and flea markets and fashion emporiums.

paintworthy canal view

But nothing compared to the explosion of flavour of a good kriek, the subtle sour spiciness of a gueze, or the deep caramelly sweetness of a faro. And most important, the bonhomie of an old pub, full of old friends and imposters such as myself.