Tour of Belgium...the second try.

Pictures (top to bottom): Canal in Bruge, very neat castle in Gent, Delirium Bar in Brussels.

So I (Mark), already lost a race against time to publish a post about our time in Belgium, so I will try again, but this time with our first WIFI connection in Europe. From Paris, we made our way to Bruge. The city was everything good we had been told and more. Amazing sites, our introduction (sort of) to amazing Belgian beer, as well as our first bout of Frites covered in a variety of mayonnaise based sauces. The Belfry Tower was probably the highlight, 366 steps up an extremely narrow spiral staircase with traffic moving in both directions. Once at the top we were treated to panoramic views of Bruge and neighboring towns, as well as being treated to the booming ring of the bell only 2 feet away.

We then packed our things and took the lengthy 25-minute train to Gent. While not as quaint as Bruge, the city was still extremely mellow with an old town feel. The castle pictured above is one of the bigger attractions in the city and was a neat little tour, especially the torture museum. While we continued our consumption of Belgian brew, one of the highlights was going to a Jenever (Gin) bar that poured over 200 types of regular and flavored gin. Around 20 of them were actually made by the owner/bartender Pol himself. 

Brussels was next and the big city vibe was night and day compared to Bruge and Gent. We started off by making the mandatory visit to Mannekin Pis (peeing boy fountain). We spent a great deal walking the often confusing streets, but all was made well when we found our way to Delirium Bar. This is THE beer bar of beer bars, not just in Belgium but the world. 2004 different beers available at all times (a Guinness Book Record). Sounds like it could be a tourist trap, but it definitely is not. Prices were par for the course and the bar itself was probably the coolest we have ever been to.  All this, coupled with running into fellow beer loving Americans John and Marcus, led to a night of overindulgence in Belgian beer and eventually drinking with the bartenders until 6:30AM. This all seemed like a great idea until we got a knock on our door four hours later to remind us of the 4-hour lockout from our room. No worries though, as we treated ourselves to an extended stay in a beautiful Brussels park while sleeping in the grass....well, some worries, as we did both feel awful. Aside from that we went to the surprisingly cool Belgium History Museum, which included an underground tour of the ruins of the former royal palace (super creepy as we were the only ones down there). Next, we walked by the somewhat unimpressive EU building only to be treated to a free Belgium Army Museum, complete with tanks, a hangar full of war planes, and a very technologically advanced WWII exhibit from the perspective of the Belgians. Kaylin bumped her toe and got an owie while walking back to our hostel. We first thought it would require a stitch or two, but cooler heads prevailed as Dr. Mark cleaned it and applied a Band-Aid....or 4. 

We now sit in Antwerp in a nice downpour and will hopefully be able to update a bit more in the coming days.

Love,

Mark and Kaylin