Manneken Pis

This is an ongoing dilemma for your absolute favorite mooch crew. There are not enough hours in the day and not enough downtime to document our endeavors. It has been a whirlwind of activity for the VFH team and I am the first to admit that I have been lax in being a journalist. So, with an enfeebled attempt to catch up with our antics in Europe, today is our new entry.

You may recall the drunken soiree that was our travels last month in England, Scotland and Belgium. It started with Janet’s daughter getting married in Nantwich, England. Following this we took a train up to Edinburgh, Scotland for a two day visit. There we visited the Glenkinchie distillery and drank several whiskies at a proper whisky bar, The Bow Bar, just off the Royal Mile.

Afterwards we visited Brugge, Belgium. This medieval city was the site of several of our lengthy pub crawls. Some of the taverns were in buildings that were centuries old; one dated from 1515. All of them featured extensive beer menus offering upwards to 400 different beers! For beer lovers it was quite the place to visit. Looking back it’s hard to remember why we left that lovely city with its canals and windmills and cobblestoned streets, its bustling Markt with the cafes and the ominous bell tower. Oh… now I remember… it did not have a statue of a pissing boy.

Yes, throw away all the enchanting vistas, the cozy pubs with their pleasant chatty owners, the quiet lanes where the only sounds came from our clattering heels, we were off next to see the Manneken Pis…The Little Man Who Pisses…. In Brussels.

Janet said she had wanted to view this statue that perfectly represents the frivolity of this capital city for the past 25 years. When planning this leg of the trip we went back and forth about where to go. We thought of Gent and Antwerp. We considered renting a car to tour the countryside and to visit a monastery or two. But Janet pressed her wish to see this pissing boy statue.

She said she had to, ahem, go….

So, we went.

It is about an hour by train between the two cities and the station was just two blocks from our hotel. Brussels is a city, where Brugge was a small village in comparison. The hotel was a fancy one, especially by VFH standards, but Janet with her phenomenal researching got us a room at the Royal Windsor Grand Place Hotel for a fraction of the 350+ Euros price. After we freshened up, we grabbed our beer map of Brussels and set off in search of the Manneken Pis.

Brussels is a bi-lingual city by decree. The country of Belgium is split between Flemish and Walloonian cultures. Though Brussels, the capital, lies in the French influenced south, everything, state correspondence, menus and street signs are listed in both Flemish and French. We eventually found the little street urchin at the corner of Stoofstraat / Rue de L'Etuve and the Eikstraat / Rue du Chêne. Janet had waited 25 years to see him, and when we finally found the little square it seemed like all of God’s creation also wanted to gaze upon this little pissing boy. Hordes of tourists crowded the corner vying for positions to photograph the little scamp, mimicking his hand to his crotch gesture.. Signs warned of pickpockets. A tavern we thought to visit was directly across the narrow street. The outdoor seating was filled to capacity. We never caught the eye of a server and never got a beer there even when we went inside and after enduring the drunken revelry of a table of French speaking men nearby. Outside on the corner, a pushcart sells escargot. The roiling crowds were the complete opposite of our experiences in Brugge, but here was the iconic statue that embodies the frivolity and whimsy that is Brussels. To me it just seemed like chaos. This statue is Brussels’ Effiel Tower, he is their Empire State Building. So, important, and yet, he’s just a meter tall. Standing higher than the gathered throng, his flow splashes playfully at eye level. Thankfully he is ensconced behind a gate, lest some zealot decides to shake it for him. This has happened before. The first Manneken Pis was erected…no pun… in the early 1600’s, but vandals destroyed him a few years later. Another was put up in his place.

here's looking at you

Not only was the intersection choked with tourists, but the shops surrounding it sold likenesses of the little fellow in every conceivable form: key chains, bottle openers, miniature statues on Brussels pedestals to garden statuary. A waffle / ice cream shop had huge plastic versions of the little guy in front, one hand on his accouterment and the other holding a plastic waffle. Even the city of Brussels officially gets into the playful nature of the statue by allowing him to be clothed in little costumes made especially for him. It is a tradition that started years and years ago. When heads of state visit Brussels, they often bring an outfit for him to wear and the Manneken Pis is dressed up in clothing that is representative of that country. I wonder if they make him wear a diaper…. One of the 800+ outfits makes this wicked pisser little fellow look like Elvis Presley. One can marvel at the entire wardrobe at the Museum of the City of Brussels - Maison du Roi, Grand-Place. 

don't stand too close

http://www.bruxelles.be/artdet.cfm/4202

After basking in this glorious, delirious vision we moved on. Personally I was pleased to have seen the Manneken Pis. I had not heard of the statue before Janet told me about the little squirt and it was good to visit this busy little intersection. This frivolity whetted our appetite and it was time to start our Brussels pub crawl. Janet too was done after awhile. In our heads danced visions of Lambic and Gueze, Trappist Ales and a compadre of Manneken, the Jeanneke Pis.

Serendipity in Bruges

Life is good at Hotel Asiris

After another expansive breakfast at the Hotel Asiris in Bruges, it was time to get on with our travels. Next stop was Brussels. But first about those breakfasts... the portly proprietors put out a spread of hard boiled eggs, cold cuts and cheeses, homemade pies, milk, chocolate milk, breads, pastries, containers of chocolate spread, cereals, orange juice and most importantly coffee! I'm sure I've missed an item or two, but the food was good and a lot of it. With the breakfast included in the price of the room, this was quite the hotel, and your VFH team recommends staying there.

A big window at one end of the overly decorated, somewhat tacky, breakfast room allowed views of the street. Breakfast debris was placed in a plastic hard boiled egg that sat on each of the tables. A husband and wife couple ran the hotel and she periodically lumbered in to replace items, but largely the breakfast room was quiet with voices of the guests muted. We ate our fill, and then some, and then checked out of the hotel. The tall, burly, gruff looking husband with a wire brush of a moustache said northing to us as we paid our tab, but then again, he hardly said anything to us throughout our stay. The decor and the rooms of the Asiris Hotel were the complete opposite of the owner. Asiris offers clean rooms and a cheery, playful decorative touch in the lobby with Teddy Bears sitting astride pumpkins, etc., it was obvioiusly his wife's influence. But, he was helpful with maps and information so his abruptness was a part of the charm. We were happy to have stayed here and sad to leave this beautiful city. With the wheels of our luggage clattering down the cobblestoned streets, echoing off the canals, we made our way to the train station to get our asses to Brussels.

http://www.hotelasiris.be/

Detail from Bruges

On the way we tried to avoid the crowds of the Markt; it was a Saturday morning and figured the crowds would make walking through it a difficult task. We consulted the map to take a somewhat circuitous route to the train station. Winding streets followed the canal. It was quiet and pleasant and we had none of the commotion had we tried to cross through the Markt. But, once we stopped at an intersectionto get our bearings a bicycler stopped and offfered us directions and told us we had to go through the Markt to the get to the station. We thanked him and continued on our own way. Serendipty eventually led us to 't Zand square where the Saturday morning farmer's market was in full swing. Families, couples, elderly and young locals, and tourists like us milled about the rows and rows of food and non food stands. We bought coffee and stood like all the rest at little tables and pondered a double plus sized pooch waiting patiently for food to drop. We bought some bread and a half kilo of St. Bernardus Trappist cheese for our train ride to Brussels. We oohed over a stand of olives and smiled warmly at children playing in the sunshine, their parents nodding approvingly. It was a lovely end to our visit to this beautiful town.

We caught the next train to Brussels and were there in just over an hour. The trains were cheap, about 13 Euros, cheaper during the week. Once in Brussels we walked two blocks to our hotel. Janet had found a good price for an expensive hotel just around the block from the main tourist attractions like the Grand Place or Grote Markt in the Old Town. After freshining up we headed out into Brussels and discovered how it was completely different place than Bruges... but that's another blog entry...

Stay tuned... I'll get to them.. Sorry that we're a bit behind in our recollections.... Thanks for reading.

greg

Happy Birthday to me....

Don't worry... I still have several entries for VFH's trip to England, Scotland and Belgium. I have fallen behind, but will catch up soon. I have a good reason though. Today, August 1, was my birthday and the more intelligent half of the VFH team, Janet, made sure it was a good one.

We had breakfast at Sneddon's in Lambertville.... good food... bad coffee... but I have been going there for a long time now. One of the waitresses shares the birth date and so I have to go in there and wish her well.

Then, we went to Gunnison Beach at Sandy Hook. Readers of this blog will remember our escapades at this popular clothing optional beach that is part of the United States Park system. I went for a run while there...

Then it was a Mexican meal at a place in Highlands, NJ... just across the bay from Sandy Hook and then a couple of drinks at the beach bar at Donovan's Reef, in Sea Bright, NJ...

It was a good day....but don't worry... I'll be writing soon about our trip....

Thanks for reading!

love

greg

spending money?!

When we saw the 2008 black comedy film IN BRUGES, that starred Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, we thought we would never ever go to the Belfort. I don't want to ruin the movie for you, but the climax of the movie, which was nominated for an Academy Award, involves a flying midget and the medieval era tower. It was ominous and scary, but the film put Bruges on the map for us and as VFH planned its trip to Belgium, Bruges made the cut over Antwerp.

The Belfort, Bruges



Presiding over the Markt square in Bruges, the Belfort was first erected in 1240, but over the years endured fires and lightning strikes and was partially rebuilt and added to over the years. Despite its checkered past it is quite a tourist draw and when we sat at one of the cafes on the far side of the Markt we watched people parading in and out of the place. People snapped pictures of the tower and we could see far above us people peering out onto this beautiful city.

We took a deep breath and steeled ourselves against leaping midgets and decided to visit the bell tower ourselves. After all, here we are in this beautiful city, already having paid so much to get here, that sometimes you have to knuckle down and be brave. Do as the Romans do, or the Americans, or the Japanese do in Bruges... go to the top of the Belfort and snap pictures of everything! So, we finished our coffee and walked over...

Now, as readers of this blog will know, VFH is a cheap lot. We walked through the arch that led to the courtyard of the cloth hall and admired the views from within...that was free. It was in this courtyard of the cloth hall, that Flemish cloth, manufactured in different cities, was sold to the rest of the world. Records from 1399, say there were nearly 400 cloth sales stands within the hall. Great history, but we were nervous. We scanned the crowd for ominous midgets, but everyone was of average height, so we were safe, that is until we saw the price to hike up the actual Belfort. It was 8 Euros...roughly $13 each. Janet, usually the more practical member of the VFH squad, immediately balked at the price. She recounted several places that charged outrageous admission prices, like the Leaning Tower in Pisa, etc., but she said this wasn't worth it, especially since there was a wait to get inside. I agreed, for the admission price was more than the cost of two beers! So, we left, but did not linger near the tower to photograph it, for fear a wee folk would land on us.

Kroegentocht

I am not proud of this, but I'm a cheap date. I can't drink a lot. My limit for martinis is one and it might as well be that same number for strong Belgian beers. With alcohol content in some of the beers hovering around 10% pub crawls are difficult. The limit for this sorry-ass beer lover in Bruges is short, and only if we scatter the stops over the course of an entire day and night.

Perhaps though, having this weak constitution for alcohol should be a requirement for membership in the rarified company of Vacations From Home. At least we don't spend a lot of money on alcohol.

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!

Beetlejuice!



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.

We ended our first night in this lovely wonderful city at a place we stumbled upon, the Rose Red Cafe. http://www.cordoeanier.be/en/rosered.php

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.



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.

Two of the four windmills of Bruges



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.

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.

http://www.cafevlissinghe.be/welcome.html

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.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/westvleteren-extra-8/4935/

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.

http://www.poatersgat.com/

The Markt in Bruges

, 

Beetlejuice

We are an irreverent crew here at Vacations From Home. We find humor in many things and we joke about absurdities. We don’t even attempt to pronounce the Flemish names of places and streets. For instance, Vlamingstraat quickly became Vegitmite Street and our favorite place in Bruges, Café ‘t Brugs Beertje, will forever be known to us as Beetlejuice.


Cafe 't Brugs Beertje logo

‘t Brugs Beertje somehow translates to Little Bear. The bear is the mascot of Bruges. This wonderful tavern, in operation since 1983, is found on a little side street in the shopping area of this tourist town of medieval buildings and canals.  They offer over 250 Belgian beers as well as several on tap. The building itself dates back to 1632! Of all the pubs we visited in Bruges, this was our favorite. Our experience at Beetlejuice was so different than Cambrinus. Here at the Little Bear, amid many “American” accents, we were treated as patrons and not tourists. The apple-cheeked owner of ‘t Brugs Beertje, Daisy, takes great pride in her knowledge of beer. Ask her a question or for a suggestion and you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the result! Her staff is knowledgeable as well and the entire experience, from the pouring to the presentation; with the labels of both the bottle and glass turned so you can read them; is wonderful. There are still a lot of beers available, but the intimidation was short lived and they came to our rescue. The décor is older. Beer advertisements cover the walls and the entire place has a warm, easy feel to it. Your VFH crew are bar sitters. We would rather be at the bar than at a table. We meet more people that way, and we chatted with several other patrons, who not surprisingly, were mainly American. Bruges is a major destination and with craft brewing taking off in the United States and interest in Belgian beers growing, it’s not surprising that we were not alone in this find.



interior view of 't Bruge Beertje

We went twice to the Little Bear. That first night after our lengthy beer induced nap in the afternoon Janet drank an Achel Trappist and I had a Gueze Giradin, The Achel was an obvious choice, but the Gueze Giradin was different. It was recommended to me by the Bier Tempel owner. A type of lambic beer, gueze is a blend of several lambics and then a second fermentation is allowed, producing a sour but refreshing beer. Bier Tempel man said Gueze Giradin was the best, though he cautioned it is an acquired taste; slightly tart but refreshing. Gueze is called the “Belgian Champagne” and indeed my Giradin was served in a champagne bottle, complete with cork. I enjoyed it and looked forward to drinking more Gueze when we hit places in Brussels that are renowned for these lambics, like Moeder Lambic and A La Mort Subite… but those places are for another VFH entry.

The first round at The Little Bear



Hof ten Dormaal Wit Goud

The second night on our Bruges Pub crawl had us swing by Daisy’s place again. We asked her to recommend a couple of beers to us. Janet got a St. Feuillien and Daisy was impressed with my accent as I pronounced it. I did take French for two years in High School I’ll have you know, but I think my accent was influenced by my drinking. I asked her to recommend a Farmhouse Ale and she was aglow about this selection. Evidently it’s a new brew and ‘t Brugs Beertje offers a lot of Flemish beers. Daisy was emphatic about her selection for me. Hof ten Dormaal Wit Goud Witloofbier is brewed in Tildonk-Haaght, and she waved her hands and said several times that this was new and very good. Wit Goud is the name for the beer that is made with home-grown chicory (or witloof in Dutch) at André Janssens farm-brewery. It’s arrival on the market has been highly anticipated, and ‘t Brugs Beertje was proud to serve it. I have to admit chicory is not the first ingredient I’d put in a beer, but I enjoyed it, if only for the attention we received from Daisy and her brew crew. Book your tickets to Bruges, now!, and give Daisy a hug for us.

http://www.brugsbeertje.be/



Bierbrasserie Cambrinus

We had our heart set on Bierbrasserie Cambrinus. It was the first place we picked out in researching Bruges. Cambrinus looked and sounded absolutely incredibly delightful. The website features day and night pictures of the beautiful building that was built in 1699. It was enchanting….and then there were the beers. Cambrinus offers 400 different beers, some on tap, but mostly in bottles. The website lists them in alphabetical order. http://www.cambrinus.eu/ This incredible array of beers was quite overwhelming. We figured we could spend our entire Bruges stay in the hallowed Bierbrasserie Cambrinus.

The place is named after some mythical king of beer. No, his knick name is not “Bud”. One inside wall features a huge mural of a beer sodden king, his crown askew, sleeping on a barrel. Outside there’s a statue on the corner of the building of the good king Cambrinus holding aloft a stein. We were ready and thirsty and hungry to visit this wondrous place, but we were somewhat disappointed. Now, this is not meant to dissuade you from visiting this place. You should. There are lots and lots of favorable reviews. People like it. For us though, the place has a too slick feeling to it. A touristy feel to it. Perhaps it is the acme of beer drinking, but the experience was off for us.



Bierkaart at Cambrinus

 Cambrinus is just off the Grote Markt on Philipstockstraat, which means it is right in the middle of the tourist area of town, although in hindsight all of Bruges is a tourist area. Still, catering to beer enthusiasts who’ve traveled here in droves, can be, despite their enthusiasm, can be exhausting after awhile. Consequently the wait staff seemed annoyed when we hemmed and hawed over our order. It wasn’t a language barrier; everything was in English, Flemish and French and mid-afternoon the place was not crowded. But, there were 400 beers to choose from after all. Questions about beers were met with shrugs. I guess to be a beer enthusiast you have to know what you want to drink. The “Beerkaart” was unwieldy to us. The proprietor of Bier Tempel had said he helped put the book together. At that time we wished he was with us to aid in the selection. We took a table near the window, away from the frowning burly barmaid and finally settled on two “safe” beers. I had a Rochefort 10 and Janet had la Trappe Dubbel; both Trappist brews. We didn’t really remember this fact, but each beer is printed out on a little receipt with different prices. The Rochefort 10 cost 5.50 Euros (it’s around $13 back home), and the Trappe Dubbel was 3.50 Euros. That and the appropriate glass served with the beer and you are sure to engage some memory cells. We also went to Cambrinus to eat. Mussels were not in season, yet that’s what we wanted to eat. It cost 21.95 Euros for mussels in white wine, which we thought was a lot of money. This high price was pretty consistent around town.


Again, there are lots of favorable reviews about Cambrinus. Do your research so you know what you want and the 400 beer selection won’t be so intimidating. Tell us about your experiences at VFH... globe_gnome2000@yahoo.com We're always interested in hearing what our readers have to say.


Anyway, despite the "flat" karma at Cambrinus we were already weaving from just two beers; the first two at the Halve Maan. We retrieved the two Westvletern 12’s we had stowed at the Bier Tempel and somehow found our way to the hotel where we fell asleep for a number of hours, the windows wide open and the Bells of St. Gilles not stirring us until the early evening.

Not to give Cambrinus short shrift we decided to return the next day as part of our extended Bruges Pub Crawl. We were left with the same impression as before, that the overall experience at Cambrinus felt rushed, this despite our drinking a Gentse Tripel and a Westvletern 8, which cost 3.25 E and 9.95 E each. To say drinking the Westy was some sort of reverent experience would be a bit too much. I had been looking forward to tasting this quixotic and rare brew. It was very good, but of course all the beers are good. Beer Advocate http://beeradvocate.com/ gives it an A.