Crafty

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Geo: 50.8371, 4.36761

No traffic noise last night but at 2:45 some people were shouting and singing and then, of course, I had a hard time falling asleep again. I did sleep eventually, but then the garbage men came. I'll give you three guesses as to where the Dumpsters are situated. I'm hoping that one of these nights I'll sleep all the way through just out of sheer exhaustion!

We met our local guide Christian this morning for a walking tour. He took us up the hill to the new town to see the St. Michel cathedral, a pretty park with espaliered linden trees, the Belgian Parliament, and the Palais Royale (where the king has his offices). The Belgian flag was flying, so that means the king is somewhere in the country. The current king, Albert II, is 70, and his eldest son, Philippe, is waiting in the wings. Not many Belgians are crazy about Philippe because apparently he has no sense of humor and comes across as a bit of a dud. The second son is something of a black sheep because he married a (shock! horror!) commoner. People are fine with Albert, but they all seem to love his late father, King Baudoin.

Belgium is primarily a Roman Catholic country, and the royal family is also Catholic. Sometime in the 70s or 80s, Parliament presented a bill that had taken 20 years to formulate, which said very simply, "In case of danger to the mother or to the baby, abortion will be tolerated." King Baudoin was shocked and refused to sign off. Lawyers - as lawyers are apt to do - found a loophole in the Constitution which said that if the monarch was incapable, the Senate alone could pass laws. So they declared Baudoin unfit for 36 hours, during which time the bill was signed into law. Those crafty Belgians!

We also walked by the Mannekin Pis, which is a lot smaller than you would expect. It really is the size of something you'd have in your garden (if having a statue of a little boy peeing in your garden is your thing), and it was mobbed by Japanese. I felt a little silly taking a picture of it but you know that old saying, "When in Brussels …." The walking tour ended in the Grand Place, where Christian pointed out all the lovely buildings, many from the 17th century. Victor Hugo lived in one, and Karl Marx got kicked out of another (that guy really got around). A building with a large swan over the doorway once belonged to the butchers' guild and another one with a gable that looked like the back end of a sailing ship belonged to the shipowners' guild. Even though the Grand Place is a large open space, it feels closed in and a bit claustrophobic (though that could be because of all the people milling around).

I ate lunch at Exki with Christian, Rolinka, Heidi and four or five others. I had a nice pasta salad and lemon water, but I was eyeing Heidi's yummy-looking quiche. Ventured out after that to find the HEMA department store, but I twisted the bejeezus out of my left ankle on a cobblestone that was sticking up too far, so I went back to the hotel to rest for a bit.

The group met again at 12:30 to walk up to the Museum of Fine Art. Our guide Chantal showed us paintings from the Flemish primitives, as well as Brueghel, Bosch, Rubens, and David's "The Death of Marat." Turns out the original isn't in the Louvre but, of course, none of our Parisian tour guides ever mentioned that theirs is a copy.

I walked back down to the old town afterward with Barbara Brosh, who turns out to be Allie Brosh's aunt. Allie Brosh writes a hilarious website called Hyperbole and a Half, but she's been suffering from depression for well over a year so hasn't been keeping up the website. According to Barbara, she's doing well and is working on her book. She said she'll tell Allie she met a fan. 😊

Barbara stopped at the hotel, and I went off and eventually did find HEMA. On the way back, I stopped and got a cone of good Belgian frites with just salt on them and ate them with a teeny fork. So good! And I went into a chocolate shop (La Maison du Chocolat) and bought two pieces: a chocolate cup holding a chocolate ganache topped with crushed hazelnuts. That's some serious yum right there!

Most of us went to a beer tasting later on at Moeder Lambic. It's half-owned by a French guy (Jacques, I think) who liked Belgian beer so much that he moved away from France. He travels regularly to other parts of Europe and to the United States to find craft breweries, sample the beer, and then have quantities sent to his bar. He named a dozen or more independent breweries on the West Coast and even more on the East Coast, and we were all nodding along. We were given two beers, a blonde and a slightly darker one. There was a third one that I didn't try but it had a wonderful smokey aroma. Jacques told us that's because the "cereals" are dried over an oak fire instead of dried electrically. He then gave us an unflavored lambic, which was very sour. I kept trying to like it but didn't succeed very well. We also had crusty bread with a creamy cheese made with lambic.

I was able to FaceTime with John a little tonight, so that made me happy. He held Chloe up to the camera, but she looked really ticked off (not unusual).

Oh, and I found out at lunch that Rene will not be our driver (boo!). In fact, Rolinka (who used to be married to him) said that she kept hearing rumors that Rene had quit. So she emailed him and he responded that he had not quit, but he wasn't driving this year. He's apparently just really burned out and wanted to spend some time with his family. So I don't know who exactly the driver will be, but he's got big shoes to fill as far as I'm concerned.

Now I must pack up for tomorrow and the drive to Bruges.

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Photos

Mannekin Pis
I suppose you've got to like a city whose symbol is a naked toddler peeing.

Comments

[Mom]

We also saw the little peeing boy at that spot......and in plenty of places, including in chocolate! I loved Grand Place. We had lunch at some little spot where we went down a few stairs. Take care of that ankle!