German Christmas Tour: Day 28 - Ghent

We gave ourselves a later rise today - just enought time to get some breakfast in before our 10:30am booking at Sait Bavo's Cathedral. We found a cafe halfway between us and the cathedral - Cafe Rosario, and set about brussels waffles, coffee and croissants. We ordered the 'leige' waffles - the same type we'd had in the house of waffles in Brugge, but these ones were a little thick and gluggy rather than light and crisp. Definitely not what we'd been expecting. Still, it's a warm fucking waffle! and with cream and chocolate sauce, that means delicious - especially first thing in the morning. On the plus side, these guys knew their way around an espresso machine! The coffees were great.

Leige waffles at Cafe Rosario.

Repleat for now, we wandered down to the cathedral in time for our booking. The cathedral itself wasn't as impressive as it could have been after being in the Cologne Dom, but it was nonetheless a magnificent building. What we had come for though - the Ghent Alterpiece the "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" was something else entirely. It was an amazing work of art - reportedly the first true major work using perfected oil painting techniques - and we admired it for a good long while. The way the cathedral had provided protected accessibility to the work was impressive, and we really got to see it up close and personal. Particularly impressive was the way the colours jumped out of the various sections.

Belfry in front, the Bavo's Cathedral in behind.

Inside the cathedral. 

The Ghent Altarpiece - the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb

Our artistic souls filled, we then jumped on a boat cruise of the Ghent city canals. Although much less stunning than the Brugges canal trip, the driver had some very entertaining banter, and it was a cool way to see old town. We learned a lot about the buildings we'd been seeing for the last 2 days.

Canal boat tour of Ye Olde Ghent

Our tourist thirsts quenched, it was time to head to Ghent's main item on our beer-touring  bucket list - pub De Dulle Greit, and the quenching of our other thirsts. We found the pub, arriving just after midday, and plonked ourselves down at a table. 

De Dulle Griet

In no time we'd ordered up a round of their signature 'Max' beers - Clau and I choosing the dark variety, that's bier #45 of the trip - De Dulle Griet Max Dark, and Eb the Blond; bier #46 - Dr Dulle Griet Max Blond. These represented just over a litre of beer in a signature 'Max' glass - a glass that you must supply 1 shoe as pfand (deposit) to receive. The shoes are hoisted in a basket up to the ceiling (or taken away on a tray when the basket is full!) and only returned when an empty glass is presented. 

Drinking biers #45 & #46 - 'Max' beers at De Dulle Griet.

Katrina ordered a smaller bier - a Tempelier Blond, which quickly became bier #47 of the trip.  We were getting hungry again by this stage, so to go with our beer we ordered salami and cheese. The huge chunks of same arrived on plates with toothpicks in, and we greedily set upon them. The salami in particular was really nice, and complimented the beer extremely well.

Chunks of peperoni and some nameless cheese!

 

Bier #47 - Tempelier Blond.

As our Max glasses were drained of the last of their drags (so damn good!) we noticed some students across from us drinking something red and frothy. It looked like cherry beer to me - and it was quickly identified as the cherry flavoured Lindemans Kriek. Being over a litre-in at this stage, we quickly concurred that we should give it a try, and so Lindemans Kriek became bier #48 of the trip. We all agreed that it was very nice, and so damn easy to drink - sweet, frothy and delicious.

Bier #48 - Lindemans Kriek

With the Kriek dispatched, it was time to settle the bill, collect our shoes, and find some more food. We still hadn't had a perfect belgian fritte, so we decided to head to the much lauded 'Frites Atelier' to try their offering. This we did in short order! grabbing ketchup as the only accompanyment (unbelievably they were out of mayo!). Damn those frittes were good though - crisp as heell and so fluffy on the inside. A great choice! 

Amazing frittes from Frites Atelier.

After our frittes experience, those of us that went hard at at Dulle Griet retired to the hotel for a rest before dinner. Katrina (who hadn't drunk quite so much) went out for a sightseeing stroll.

When dinner rolled around, it was at a highly recommended Belgian restaurant - Mémé Gusta. To be honest, there isn't much to relate. I didnt enjoy the food, which was quite rich in the french style (and all I had was a steak! how do you fuck up steak?). Eb had mussels again, which he always enjoys, while Katrina and Clau had hanger steak which they didn't enjoy. Not a successful meal all told.

German Christmas Tour: Day 27 - Ghent

It was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to Brugge today and our beloved Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce Hotel. It's been such an amazing visit! We got up for our usual 8:45am hotel breakfast, said a loving goodbye to the coffee pots, and commenced the luggage drag back to the train station. Clau has increased her load by 3x 1 litre Mass, so her drag was particularly onerous.

After much huffing and puffing we finally made it to the station, and jumped on the 25 minute train to Ghent Sint Pieters. We ended up just standing with our bags - no point even trying to find a seat. Once we'd arrived, getting into the centre of town proved much more difficult. Our first attempt - Uber - failed us miserably. No driver would touch us. Our second option - a tram - worked remarkably easily, despite us not knowing how to pay (we didn't).

Finallu off the tram, we had a quick 10 minute walk to our domicile for the next 2 nights - Hotel Harmony right on the canal in old town. We left our luggage and headed out to look for something to eat.

Hotel Harmony right on (one of) the canals in old town.

This also proves harder than we first thought. We really just wanted some frittes, but the first place we tried seemed to be in a building that looked closed for renovation. Our next choice -  Frittes Atelier - had a line so long I couldn't bring myself to join it. In the end we decided on a burger place "Manhatan Burger" in the old grain store building on the canel (which itself looked like it would fall down at any moment).

Bier #42: Steenbrugge Blond

Burgers at Manhatan Burger, This place sucks.

Long story short, Manhattan burger sucked the big one. My burger was ok, but the frittes were cold and the whole experience in the store was bad. I kicked myself for not joining the line for Atelier. Oh well. The one high point was bier #42 of the trip - Steenbrugge Blond, a beer that was almost as good as Lefe Blond. Almost.

Our afternoon destination was Gravasteen Castle - built in the 11th century, and sitting smack dab in the centre of old town. So wierd seeing it pop into view as you round a corner not 2 blocks from the hotel. We grabbed the english audio tour and followed it around for the hour and a half duration. Very entertaining, and very funny. It really made the visit memorable - and we even learned a thing or two. The medieval arnour and weaponry on display inside was damn impressive!    

Gravasteen Castle - the audio guide is fantastic!

After the castle, we retired to the hotel to checkin and see what our rooms looked like. Not bad, but a little noisy from the bars across the canal from us. We had a bit of a rest, made ourselves a hotel-room coffee (passable) and then went out to find somewhere for dinner.  We just strolled along Korenmarkt until we saw somewhere that looked open and had empty tables. Cafe Borluut seemed to fit the bill and they even let us sit withut a reservation.

Cafe Borluut

Bier #43: Keizer Karel Blond

Dinner at Cafe Borluut

Bier #44: Karmelier Tripel

The food at Borluut wasn't bad, but wasn't remarkanle. I decided to challenge myself with the Flemish Beef Stew whch was passable. The best part of the night was getting to try bier #43 - Keizer Karel Blond, and bier #44 - Karmelier Tripel. Both very acceptable entries into the list. We're definitely getting better at choosing nice abbey style beers rather than sucky XPA style lagers. 

German Christmas Tour: Day 26 - Brugge

After a rainy night, we woke to a glorious morning of sunshine! We sat down to another amazing breakfast in the Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce (scrambled eggs AND waffles this moning 😀) and then dashed out to take the obligatory 100th photo of Rosary Quay in the sunshine. It was fortuitous that the sun chose today of all days to shine, as this was the day we had two of our major sightseeing activities booked/planned!

Rosary Quay in the sunshine

With the photos taken, we lined up at the Quay, directly across from the hotel, to take a boat ride on the canals. Despite running over ground we'd seen before, it was a fantastic way to see the town! We got to see things from a new perspective as well as picking up some extra knowkedge abut what we were actually seeing. You know - all those all buldings an that. And anyway, the guys in "In Brugge" took a boat ride, so we had to as well.

Obligatory boat ride on the canals, in the sunshine!

With our little cruise concluded, we headed towards the next spot on the sightseeing agenda - the museum of the holy blood. Again, straight out of the movie. We found the location and went inside, but unfortunately we were too early to see the holy relic 🤷. Oh well. I mean we saw some Jeebus shit inside - I didnt really need to pay to see a fake relic if I'm being honest.

The museum of the holy blood.

With a whole lot of time wasted not seeing the fake jeebus relic, we decided hot chocolate was in order. To procure same, we headed across town to the most recommended hot chocolate purveyors in town - The Old Chocolate House. We grabbed a table and ordered a round - some milk, some dark. It was sweet as hell, but pretty damn good. Not to mention it warmed us up a treat.

Hot chocolate at The Old CHocolate House

Straight from hot chocolate to lunch! Admittedly we'd filled up a little on hot milk and melted chocolate, but we'd been planning to go to Poules Moules for lunch and it was only a few doors down the road. Since we didn't have a reservation, and it was just after 12, we thought it prudent to try our luck while it was early and while we were in the area.

Lunch at Poules Moules

They had Leffe Blond on the menu, so the drinks portion of the ordering was easily taken care of. Katrina and Eb had the mussels (the reason we had come). Without much appetite, I opted for the chicken salad and Claudia the grilled salmon. The food was excellent as expected and we rolled out of there feeling very full indeed. 

We had 3pm tickets for the Brugge Belfry, so we hustled back towards the marktplatz. In no time we were ascending the steps. I was worried that my vertigo was going to be a problem (yet again), and at intervals on the way up the view from the windows seemed to support this. It was a long climb, with the stairs getting progressively narrower and steeper as we went up. Just below the belfry level we could see the workings of the carillion and the huge iron cylinders used to program it. Amazing.

We made it!

Soon enough, we were there in the belfry itself. The walls are really quite thick, and they exist from the ground up to your waist, so basically you can't really look straight down. As a result, my vertigo wasn't a problem in the slightest, and I was able to enjoy the views of Brugge in relative calm. "The guidebook says it's a must see!"

An amazing view from the Brugge Belfry

We spent a good deal of time up there enjoying the view and the sunshine. Once we were down, we retired to our rooms for a complimntary coffee and a short rest before our dinner reservation at Bij Koen & Marijke. All we knew about the place was that it was a grill restaurant, and that we'd paid a 100 euro deposit!

A shrine to beer

As soon as I saw the quirky, easy going interior, heard the cool playlist, and was greeted by our smiling host Marijke, I knew it was going to be a great night. The menu was not extensive, but for each dish that Bij cooked on the open grill right there in the restaurant, Marijke had paired it with a special beer selection. We all chose the filet pur to eat, and paired with it was an amazing coffe-chocolate stout: bier #39 of the trip - De Ranke Noir De Dottignies.  

bier #39 - De Ranke Noir De Dottignies

Oh my god what an amazing beer that was! We couldnt stop smiling and shaking our heads in disbelief - much to the delight of our host. While we waited for our steak, and sipped our amazing beers, Marijke brought us out some cured porks that Bij had cured himself. Heaven!

Bij's cured pork - amazing!

Bij working the grill, right out in the restaurant. 

Our steak came out accompanied with a bowl of fried potatoes that had the smokey taste of the grill enfused with them. Paired with the steak, which was cooked to absolute perfection, they were divine. Eb and I finished our stout in short order and asked our host for another recommendation to go with the meat. She suggested a trippel from the very small local brewery Nova. And so Nova Blonde Trippel became bier #40 of the trip. And here again was another amazing beer! Just a hint of bitterness, disolving into a toffee sweet aftertaste. Yummo!

Bier #40 - Nova Blonde Trippel

As desert came around, we ordered an amazing tiramasu. Paired with it was another amazing beer, and we couldn't help but order it as well - bier #41 for the trip - Viven Milk Chocolate Stout. Yet again, this beer was absolutely amazing, and our head-shaking disbelief returned. It was a toss up between the De Ranke Nior and this Viven Stout for best Belgian beer of the trip.

Bier #41: Viven Milk Chocolate Stout

Suffice to say we were very sad to leave. Despite this we were very jolly as we made our way home, reminiscing about the evening. I would easily say this was the best restaurant experience of my entire life, and it was a unimaginably superb way to finish our lst day in Brugge - a visit that has turned out to be absolutely amazing in every way.