But, what to do. Here is VFH in Bruges, Belgium, one of the top tourist destinations in Europe with it's medieval buildings and enchanting canals. Known as the Venice of the North, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This lovely place, where everyone speaks English along with their native Flemish, and where there is a chocolate shop on every corner, is in a country that is considered by many as the best beer producing country in the world, and we're limiting ourselves. We've already spent a substantial amount of money, by VFH standards, to get here. Also, typical of team VFH, we have done our research. We have read guide books and websites, sampled many Belgian beers at home and even made maps of Bruges (and Brussels) with the bars we HAD to visit marked with color coded dots. We were ready to drink our way along the cobblestoned streets of Bruges, but here is the dilemma, this would require us to drink many of the strong beers! And, there could be no sharing a beer. We each had to get our own. Pacing wasn't an option, it was the only way to survive the night!
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Beetlejuice!
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Well, followers of this blog will remember that the first half of our first day in Bruges ended with a monk-inspired drowsy nap for the latter part of the afternoon after just two beers each. Later that evening we hit our favorite place in Bruges, Cafe ‘t Brugs Beertje, where we had two more along with a great cheese plate. My second beer was a Westmalle Tripel from the tap! When we first had a Westmalle Tripel at the Eulogy Tavern in Philadelphia, it was a solemn event. It was the first time we had experienced the whole proper presentation and pouring of Belgian beer from a bottle and we had smiled at our luck. Westmalle is a Trappist monastery brew, but over here in Bruges, it was not rare at all and to find it on tap was common. In fact, beers that we had held with such high regard back home like Westmalle and Leffe were as common as PBR....okay that's a stretch in the metaphor. Still, these beers were shockingly available everywhere.
It was very new. We walked by it earlier this morning while we were trying to find a place for breakfast and to get our bearings after our train ride from Brussels and later, Bier Tempel guy told us it was very good, specializing in Trappist beers, so it was a natural stop for us as we walked back to our hotel that first night. The Rose Red Cafe is avidly seeking the beer lover in it's approach as their menu asks that if you're satisfied with your visit to tell others in Trip Advisor, Ale Street News and Beer Advocate. But, Chuck Cook, the beer writer who has visited Bruges several times to drink beers at 't Brugs Beertje had not heard of the place until I wrote to him about VFH's fine experience there. For, though Rose Red was actively pursuing the powerful tourist dollars, there was a quiet serene quality to the place. It was really just around the corner from the Markt and all the touristed areas, but it was another world.
Although part of the Hotel Cordoeanier, it was not strictly a hotel bar. Still, our barmaid was doing double duty at the front desk. I asked for a Westy 12, but sadly they had were not out, so I settled for an Augustijn Grand Cru and Janet a La Trappe Quadruppel. We chatted with the bartender about life and the difficulty with finding parking spots in Bruges. Life is the same everywhere, it's just that the beers are so much better. We weaved our way back to the Hotel Asirus along the empty streets, happy with our pub crawl. It was a successful first day. We were tipsy and had drunk five beers total this day.
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Ambrosia.... |
The next morning I arose early to get in a run. In my travels through work and play I've prided myself on my runs in far flung locales. I've seen a lot of cities around this world through my running. It is a great way to see a place and sometimes when I've only been in a city for a day my finest recollection is of my loping along the streets. This particular run though was more than keeping in shape. It had two purposes. I have never run in Belgium and I was compelled to add this country to my ledger. The other one was the beer. You can drink more if you sweat out your alcohol....
I left Janet sleeping in the bedroom of the Asiris Hotel with the windows open wide to the street below. It was cool and the breeze blowing in made getting out of bed a diffcult decision, but the pursuit of a memory out weighed comfort. I ran along the canal passing bicyclists and a few other people making their way for their morning destinations. The canal empties into the River Dijver and the old part of Bruges ends here. I followed a multi-use path that skirted the river. Across the Dijver was the R30, bristling with morning traffic; another world. The river is narrow, not like the Mississippi, but barges slowly plied the water. One barge was moored by the side, a bike was chained to the gangplank. As I ran I passed four windmills, two of them were erected in the 1700's. You're able to tour one if you are brave enough to climb the very steep stairs and pay the 2 Euro fee.
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| Two of the four windmills of Bruges |
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| Kruispoort |
As I followed the path I passed Kruispoort one of the four remaining city gates that once comprised the walled defenses of the old medieval city of Bruges. This was a part of the city that fewer tourists venture into and at this early hour of my run I was alone with other runners and people walking their dogs and bicyclists. It was a great run. Later Janet and I walked along the path, hiked up one of the windmills and visited Kruispoort and then meandered through this very quiet area of the city and we shopped for chocolate, lace, Flemish language children's books and other trinkets. We took a tourist break at one of the many cafes lining the Makrt and we lingered awhile marveling our luck to sit in the shadow of the Belfort.
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| Cafes along Markt in Bruges |
The first stop on our Kroengentocht was the Café Vlissinghe. It has been operating continuously since 1515! The beer list is relatively weak, compared to the other places we've visited in Bruges. The "Bieren van 't vat", on tap, offers just three, Jupiler, the Brugge Zot Blond, from the Halve Maan Brewery and Leffe Bruin. The bottled beer contain the usual suspects including the Westmalles, but what the place lacks in adventurous beers it more than makes up with its charm. Wood paneled, with the walls covered in art and plenty of chachkas, the place is lighted by sunlight spilling in through several floor to ceiling windows. There are several long wooden tables and a long flued wood stove at one end of the room providing heat in the winter. Locals and tourists mixed in the place and there was a convivial feel to the place. Bathrooms were outside stalls on one end of the garden sitting area that was serene and bedecked with flowers. Janet and I had a few beers and played backgammon at one of the tables before moving on to the next place.
Serendipity is a byword for your VFH crew. When Bier Tempel guy recommended a couple of other places when we produced our beer map of Bruges; he even drew on the map and wrote the names down; we knew we had to make them a part of our pub crawl. Besides they were on the way from here to there and so a perfect excuse to drop in while crawling.
Comptoir des Arts and Poatersgat were directly across Vlamingstraat (Vegitmite Street for us) from each other. The latter opened later in the evening and so we settled in at the bar at Comptoir des Arts for a quick one. It was more of a blues club in a cellar that offered a lot of beers and a good selection of liquor. The place was just opening for the evening, so it was quiet. The owners, a husband and wife, were friendly, spoke excellent English and told us about their recent trip to Las Vegas. We chatted with them for awhile. Janet drank a Val Dieu Triple at 9% and I had a Belgian Ale Urthel Saisonnière at 6, both recommended by the barmaid. We then we said our good-byes and already weaving a bit headed back to 't Brugs Beertjes and Daisy. You may remember from an earlier entry of this blog that Daisy was very helpful and she too recommended a couple of beers for us.
It was then back to Bierbrasserie Cambrinus to give it another shot. We thought perhaps with a more vibrant night time crowd it may be better. We were mistaken. We still found it lacking in the charm of so many other places. Our favorite place was definitely Daisy's joint...Beetlejuice. Cambrinus still did not win out, although I did finally get to drink a Westvletern 8 there. Brewed by Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus, the 8 and 12 are considered to be some of the best beers in the world. The website Rate Beer gives it a score of 100.
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A boy and his beer... a Westy 8 |
After getting into some hijinks with a Tibetan monk in the middle of the Markt... he didn't take kindly to my demanding more monk beer from him... We tottered to our last stop for the night...Poatersgat. It was a cellar bar and to enter I had to duck my head in the low doorway. The place was hopping, but when we took our place at the bar, the bartender told us much of his business was at an outdoor festival concert on the far end of town. It was plenty busy for us. Many of the tables in the dark place were brimming with kids. The ceiling was low and pillars created alcoves. Music competed with conversations. It was nice, but we felt already it was too quick a pace for us... we are old folk afterall. Still the beer list was impressive and Janet went with a Gulden Draak, a dark brown triple ale at 10.5%! She balked a bit at my choice, a St. Bernardus Abt 12 because that's readily available back home. I read somewhere though this was as close to a Westvletern 12 as you can get. From 1946 until 1992, the Westvletern line was actually brewed by St. Bernardus under contract from the monks of Saint Sixtus and though that connection ended and the yeasts come from Westmalle, the beer was very, very good. It doesn't carry an "Authentic Trappist Product" sticker, but it was pretty close.
It was an act of self preservation that we left Poatersgat on Vegitmite street. We had drunk our fill of the Belgian beers, totaling 6 in all for the evening and as we walked along the canals and dark streets of Bruges back to our hotel we canoodled and giggled.
