Day 5: Curried ketchup (a local favorite)
Had set my alarm for 7:30 and rolled out of bed just before 8. After a failed attempt to book a hostel in Brussels due to my computer locking up, I determined that I could not wait any longer, and went down to the ground floor for breakfast. Jean-Pierre, the proprietor of Het Wit Beertje B&B, is a kindly old man and soft spoken. The bottom floor of his B&B is a gift shop of sorts, selling all manner of trinkets and housewares.
I had a fantastic breakfast of nutty whole grain bread, butter from an abbey, some sort of speckled deli meat, fruit gel, stewed plums, orange juice, tea, and two cheeses. There was also a large roll, a pastry, and cereal and yogurt either laid out in front of me or available from a separate table. I bought a hand-made greeting card for Christian & Renita's wedding (€2.50), and Jean-Pierre informed me that the DeCrop, where I will be staying tonight, is a good place. We said our goodbyes and I walked some 2km to check in at DeCrop B&B on Colletijnhof.
Jaak DeCrop, proprietor of DeCrop, showed me all the highlights to see today by penning them on a map, and lent me a book of Bruges walking tours. Colletijnhof is one of the entrances to Minnewaterpark which, as explained by Jaak, is known as Bruges' lovers' park. Both Colletijnhof and Minnewater are serene places, off the beaten path except for being near one of the southern gates of the city.
I walked the inner and outer Eastern perimeter of Bruges and snapped some pictures of the old windmills. Sadly, the blades of the windmills are tethered so as to not turn. I walked back through town from a northerly gate, and found myself at Jan Van Eyckplein, with the famous statue of the famous painter. Then I traipsed around town looking for cold beverages and Marlene's chocolate shop. Along the way met Keith from Melbourne after he greeted me in English on a side street. Keith was in Boston for six weeks this year and said positive things about it.
A little covered alleyway/hallway that extends off one corner of Burg turned out to be the location of the chocolatier Marlene, or Emenem as she calls herself. I listened to her tell her story of creating her chocolates and describe her collection and the passion she puts in to it. She is fiercely passionate about her work and her voice resonates with it. I bought a 500g assortment of her finest artisinal chocolates (€21.25) to ship back home. The orange/fleur-de-sel and the 78% dark truffle are worth noting here.
Now I'm in Mamma & Co., a modern cafe with cheap lunch (€3 pizza), and I'm thinking ahead to finding a WiFi hotspot, maybe buying some Belgian lace, finding the post office, and getting frites.
[Late]
Checked outsome of the lace shops near Begijnhof as well as the interior of Begijnhof itself No pictures there, as they have signs everywhere which symbolically say "no cameras" though the captions below them state that taking professional pictures requires aprior meeting with the head of the Order. My quest to get a good deal on lace came to an end a little later when I found a place in a narrow side street with a €5 clearance basket outside. These were nontrivial discounts, too. The original street values were up to €19.
With lace and chocolate in tow I found the Bruges post office with some effort, because Erik from Lokkedize had marked the wrong location on my map, and I was wandering sidestreets around a cathedral when I really just needed to go to Markt. I was able to find this out before closing, and got to the post office with time to spare. The post office on Markt smartly has a packing supply store right inside, so I bought a medium shipping box and some bubble wrap and addressed the box to dontcallmemolly. Then I wasn't sure if I had to fill out another form; the US post office has little forms for just about every type of mail service they perform, and they're often required. But when my numberwas called, I found out that nonesuch was necessary, and airmail would only cost me about €12. Good deal, though I had to pay in casgh because the Belgian postal service only accepts Belgian Maestro cards. After leaving the post office I sat down on Markt and found an open AP, so I was able to lookm up whether Bruges had any internet cafes.
After stopping for a small frites with curried ketchup, described as a local favorite on the map I had gotten the first day, I found probably the world's only Internet cafe in a 14th century hospital. Rented a computer capable of running Webex so I could get in on my company conference call. I could not get the sound to work, though, until 20 minutes in when I discovered that the Thinkpads at the cafe had volume buttons just above the keyboard that directly manipulated the sound output irrespective of the volume settings in Windows. Everyone got a good laugh when I asked John to sum up the first 15 minutes becaused I missed it. John will hopefully be sending a status update email, since I had to deny Oanh's requests to call my phone (not reading SIMs) or Skype me later (computer not powerful enough).
Earlier this morning, Jaak had recommendeddinner at Salade Folle, so I thought I'd try it. As the name implies, the menu is mainly made up of salads. I ordered a serrano ham salad, but the size of it, coupled with the bloatedness I was feeling, meant that I had to call it quits after eating only half. Struck up conversation with two couples from North England at the table next to mine after I overheard one of the women mention her vegetarianism. At first they thought I was Canadian; I took that as a compliment.
I walked back to 't Zand for a bit more free Internet, but unlike last night, the lights and the fountain were off. It was getting chilly so I headed back to DeCrop. On the way, though, a van pulled up next to me and asked wheretheycould find parking. They didn't understand English but it turned out that Spanish was one of their native languages, so I was able to give them directions since I still remembered that part of my Spanish education (izquierda/derecho/derecha). That was the end of the fun for the day, though Minnewater Park and Colletijnhof feel equally placid at night as they do in the day.
I had a fantastic breakfast of nutty whole grain bread, butter from an abbey, some sort of speckled deli meat, fruit gel, stewed plums, orange juice, tea, and two cheeses. There was also a large roll, a pastry, and cereal and yogurt either laid out in front of me or available from a separate table. I bought a hand-made greeting card for Christian & Renita's wedding (€2.50), and Jean-Pierre informed me that the DeCrop, where I will be staying tonight, is a good place. We said our goodbyes and I walked some 2km to check in at DeCrop B&B on Colletijnhof.
Jaak DeCrop, proprietor of DeCrop, showed me all the highlights to see today by penning them on a map, and lent me a book of Bruges walking tours. Colletijnhof is one of the entrances to Minnewaterpark which, as explained by Jaak, is known as Bruges' lovers' park. Both Colletijnhof and Minnewater are serene places, off the beaten path except for being near one of the southern gates of the city.
I walked the inner and outer Eastern perimeter of Bruges and snapped some pictures of the old windmills. Sadly, the blades of the windmills are tethered so as to not turn. I walked back through town from a northerly gate, and found myself at Jan Van Eyckplein, with the famous statue of the famous painter. Then I traipsed around town looking for cold beverages and Marlene's chocolate shop. Along the way met Keith from Melbourne after he greeted me in English on a side street. Keith was in Boston for six weeks this year and said positive things about it.
A little covered alleyway/hallway that extends off one corner of Burg turned out to be the location of the chocolatier Marlene, or Emenem as she calls herself. I listened to her tell her story of creating her chocolates and describe her collection and the passion she puts in to it. She is fiercely passionate about her work and her voice resonates with it. I bought a 500g assortment of her finest artisinal chocolates (€21.25) to ship back home. The orange/fleur-de-sel and the 78% dark truffle are worth noting here.
Now I'm in Mamma & Co., a modern cafe with cheap lunch (€3 pizza), and I'm thinking ahead to finding a WiFi hotspot, maybe buying some Belgian lace, finding the post office, and getting frites.
[Late]
Checked outsome of the lace shops near Begijnhof as well as the interior of Begijnhof itself No pictures there, as they have signs everywhere which symbolically say "no cameras" though the captions below them state that taking professional pictures requires aprior meeting with the head of the Order. My quest to get a good deal on lace came to an end a little later when I found a place in a narrow side street with a €5 clearance basket outside. These were nontrivial discounts, too. The original street values were up to €19.
With lace and chocolate in tow I found the Bruges post office with some effort, because Erik from Lokkedize had marked the wrong location on my map, and I was wandering sidestreets around a cathedral when I really just needed to go to Markt. I was able to find this out before closing, and got to the post office with time to spare. The post office on Markt smartly has a packing supply store right inside, so I bought a medium shipping box and some bubble wrap and addressed the box to dontcallmemolly. Then I wasn't sure if I had to fill out another form; the US post office has little forms for just about every type of mail service they perform, and they're often required. But when my numberwas called, I found out that nonesuch was necessary, and airmail would only cost me about €12. Good deal, though I had to pay in casgh because the Belgian postal service only accepts Belgian Maestro cards. After leaving the post office I sat down on Markt and found an open AP, so I was able to lookm up whether Bruges had any internet cafes.
After stopping for a small frites with curried ketchup, described as a local favorite on the map I had gotten the first day, I found probably the world's only Internet cafe in a 14th century hospital. Rented a computer capable of running Webex so I could get in on my company conference call. I could not get the sound to work, though, until 20 minutes in when I discovered that the Thinkpads at the cafe had volume buttons just above the keyboard that directly manipulated the sound output irrespective of the volume settings in Windows. Everyone got a good laugh when I asked John to sum up the first 15 minutes becaused I missed it. John will hopefully be sending a status update email, since I had to deny Oanh's requests to call my phone (not reading SIMs) or Skype me later (computer not powerful enough).
Earlier this morning, Jaak had recommendeddinner at Salade Folle, so I thought I'd try it. As the name implies, the menu is mainly made up of salads. I ordered a serrano ham salad, but the size of it, coupled with the bloatedness I was feeling, meant that I had to call it quits after eating only half. Struck up conversation with two couples from North England at the table next to mine after I overheard one of the women mention her vegetarianism. At first they thought I was Canadian; I took that as a compliment.
I walked back to 't Zand for a bit more free Internet, but unlike last night, the lights and the fountain were off. It was getting chilly so I headed back to DeCrop. On the way, though, a van pulled up next to me and asked wheretheycould find parking. They didn't understand English but it turned out that Spanish was one of their native languages, so I was able to give them directions since I still remembered that part of my Spanish education (izquierda/derecho/derecha). That was the end of the fun for the day, though Minnewater Park and Colletijnhof feel equally placid at night as they do in the day.