Jennings in Belgium: Waffling in Brussels, Bruges, and Antwerp

This is part 5 of a multi-part post about Craig’s parents’ visit to Europe.

Part 1: Netherlands: An Introduction to Amsterdam

Part 2: Netherlands: Seeing the Best Art in the Western Canon

Part 3: Netherlands: History Lessons

Part 4: Cologne: Big Cathedral and Tiny Beer

As I write this in Lille, France, a small city on the Belgian border, the waffles and beer here make it easy to reminisce about our time with Mom and Dad in Belgium. After a hot minute in Cologne, we arrived in Brussels on Sep. 5 for five days in Belgium.

Brussels is a big city – it’s the capital of Europe – but is often tagged as a boring city with not much to see or do. False! We managed to do a lot in the few days that we were there. Our first day started with a waffle and coffee from an Australian-themed waffle stand. (As far as waffle quality goes, it was surprisingly high given the plethora of kangaroos in the decor.) Fueled with carbs and coffee, we set off on a five-mile orientation walk around town to see the architecture, visit the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, eat lunch in Brussels Park, drink beer at the off-beat Poechenellekelder bar, and take pictures of Manneken Pis, the boy-peeing-into-a-basin fountain. I’m not really sure why, but a boy peeing into a fountain has become the symbol of Brussels, and everyone has to take a picture. We certainly did!

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Seeing all of Brussels might be more than enough for five days, but the temptation of Old World charm lured us away for day trip to Bruges (“Brugge” in Dutch). Burges received its charter in 1128, but its origins go back to the Bronze Age, with its fortifications established in the first century BC. It’s an ancient city, and it’s famous for its well-preserved buildings dating from the Medieval and early Renaissance, which escaped destruction in both world wars.  We spent the day walking around taking in all the architecture and visiting the cathedral where Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold’s tomb is, yet where his mortal remains are not. Bruges does indeed live up to its reputation for being an Old World wonderland of beautiful, time-worn buildings, but after a certain point, you realize a few hours in Bruges is plenty. (I’m omitting mention of the trainwreck of a waffle to not totally put you off of Bruges.)

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Determined to have a light schedule after the outing to Bruges, we stayed in Brussels the following day not planning anything specific. We ended up at the Brussels history museum (Musée de la ville de Bruxelles) where we studied maps of days past and saw the original Manneken Pis statue. That’s right – the boy-peeing fountain is old enough and revered enough that it’s ensconced in a museum.  We learned that “The figure of the Putto (‘little child’) shown urinating, was a fashionable artistic element often used as a decorative feature of private and public fountains in Europe from the 15th to the 18th centuries.” The figure in the museum was made in the early 17th century, and the statue that’s outside and doing the hard work of peeing into a fountain all day is from 1965.

Dad initially wanted to go to the Belgian beer festival happening right there in the Grote Markt, but the crowds and the wait to purchase beer tokens made him think that a better idea would be to sit in a bar to drink Belgian beer where people bring the beer to you. We did, however, pop into the 12th century Church of Saint Nicolas along the way to a bar to re-establish our tourist cred. After beers and before dinner, we took a waffle break at top-tier waffle establishment, Vitalgaufre. Meghan had been harboring memories of chocolate-filled Vitalgaufre waffles since our previous trip to the Low Countries. Thankfully, the waffles did live up to her recollection.

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Diving back into the art history theme of our time in the Low Countries, we spent the next day in Antwerp, home to Rubens and a cathedral that showcases a few of his pieces in situ. Antwerp has its own charms, not the least of which is its monumental train station, and is well worth a visit if you’re in the area. After touring Rubenshuis (former residence and studio of Rubens) and the Cathedral of Our Lady, we had beer and coffee on the edge of Antwerp’s Grote Markt (“Grand Place” or town square) soaking in more of Belgium’s Old World charms. Before we could leave, though, Meghan had to sample Antwerp’s chocolate-filled waffle wares. I’ll let the picture illustrate her opinion, but since the waffle stand was a chain, I hesitate to affirm that Meghan’s was an Antwerp-based waffle experience.

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Our last day in Belgium was spent in a brewery and in a church.  In the morning, we stopped by the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. Constructed from 1226 to 1519, the church is in the interesting position of being co-cathedral of the of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. Walking around yet another centuries-old, soaring, beautiful temple, one can easily be jaded – especially after seeing the Antwerp Cathedral. But seeing the remains of the earlier building on which it was built, your sense of wonder is easily restored.

In the afternoon I was awed by another feat of human achievement – the lambic beers brewed by Cantillon Brewery in Brussels. Sadly, the world’s best gueuze (a style of beer made from lambic beer) couldn’t convert everyone to be sour beer lovers.  Lambics are sour beers spontaneously fermented with wild yeast (I’ve met some of those yeasts, and boy do they know how to party!), and Cantillon has been brewing these beers since 1900 with traditional methods, still using 19th century equipment. Visitors to Cantillon get to walk around the brewery see the rustic equipment and storage areas up close. It’s pretty different than your standard brewery tour.

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And with that, we said goodbye to the land of beer and waffles and hello to the land of wine and pastries – Paris!  

Brussels

Bruges

Antwerp