Mussels in Brussels

---

Due to an unexpected 4-day weekend, I had to come up with decent plans for maximizing the travel opportunity. I decided to do Belgium; hitting Brussels on one day, Antwerp the next.

Brussel's main attraction (besides the beer in general) is Mannekken Pis, who is about 2 feet tall, naked, and peeing. What a great reason for everybody to congregate from around the globe!

I also checked out some dinosaur bones at the natural science museum and soaked up some art by Rubens at the Fine Arts Museum. Still don't know what dinosaur bones have to do with affordable timepieces.

Arfeo and Katherine would appreciate that I sat down to enjoy a massive Leffe beer in the Grand Place square, overlooking ornate gilded buildings, throngs of tourists, and the towering City Hall while listening to the Bowling for Soup song 'Belgium.' Life is good, friends.

The next day I checked out the Cotillon brewery where I got to see everything about how Lambic beer is brewed. I tried out some Gueze and some Cherry Kriek beers, which are almost like champagne, and decided that yes, Belgium is the place to be for fine beers!

---

Photos

Brussels Grand Place
Nothing like a Belgian waffle and some beautiful architecture. Hey wait, I guess here it's just called a waffle!

Mannekken Pis
Yup, that little guy in the background is what all the fuss in Brussels is all about. At one point, the output of his little stone weewee was really the source of water for the town. Again, I say to you, "Silly Europeans."

Leffe in the Grand Place
Nothing like an 8% beer in a glss the size of your head. God Bless Belgium.

'Heaven'
I'm standing in the middle of a sea of delicious lambic beer at the Cantillon brewery. This stuff is made in a process called 'spontaneous fermentation' which relies on yeasts in the Brussels air to start fermentation instead of a specific strain that's artificially added to the brewing process, such as Heineken's 'A' yeast..cool.