Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium: (Pronounced Brooj)... or if you prefer, Brugges (pronouced Broo-jez) and let's not forget Brugge (pronounced Broo-ga). Whatever. We (are in Zeebrugge anyway) took a tour bus into Bruges this morning. The Regatta docked around 7:30a in Zeebrugge. We enjoyed coffee in our cabin before joining our 8:30 tour. Adjacent to the dock is a huge field with hundreds of nesting, noisy, sea gulls with ugly little fledglings squawking.

Brugge is a medieval city with interesting history, most of it about the town being over-taken by the Germans again and again. The architecture is gorgeous, and we really enjoyed our walking tour and then a boat ride through the canals of the story-book town. Below the Belfry Tower is the Rodin Gallery where the display is titled Between Skin & Orgasm. Bruges is obviously a hip town - we saw several men walking around in capri pants. (NOTE TO READERS: Lisa has informed me these pants are manpris. Now you know.)

Belfry Tower on the town square


Government Building


Beautiful canals in Bruges


Beautiful canals in Bruges


And even more photos of beautiful Bruges

This statue of the Madonna and Child was carved by Michelangelo in Italy. It sits behind glass in a Roman Catholic church in Brugge. The statue was commissioned by a family, who then refused it because the baby was naked! A Brugge business man was in Italy and bought the statue and brought it home. The Germans took it during the war and American GI's found it in salt mine, ready to be destroyed.

Unfortunately, most everything I know about Belgium relates to food. This is obviously due to my obsession with cooking and the study of food... and, oh, the eating of food. Belgium is famous for beer, chocolates, waffles, pomme frites (they invented French fries!) waterzooi and, especially in Brugge, mussels. Since I still have half the box of Moonstruck DT gave me for our anniversary, we did not sample chocolates, but everything else was ticked off our list of must-do's. Oops, I almost forgot Belgian lace!

Pretty marzipan candies


Chocolate shop window

There is a chocolate shop on every corner and often they are across the street from one another. They were all very busy today as this is a national holiday and many families were out shopping and eating in the street-side cafes. After our city tour, DT and I did not take the bus back to the ship, but instead went into a small coffee house and had a Belgian Waffle. The restaurant also sold delicious-looking baguette sandwiches, but we deferred. The waffle was crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. It was served warm with just a dusting of powdered sugar and was about $2.

Yummy Baguettes

Our next culinary adventure took us to the Half Moon Brewery, where we each (yes, everyone, I drank nearly an entire beer that was not a BudLight!) sampled the Brugges Zot (Zot means fool... as in court jester.)

My favorite Zot


Park in Bruges

We bought a few small gifts in a lace shop and then after another hour or so of window shopping, chose a nice cafe, La Civiere d'Or, along Market Square to sample the rest of the items on our list. DT had the lunch special. This is the same lunch special that was on every menu of every cafe we passed all day: Mussels. Mussels steamed in white wine. Mussels steamed with garlic. Mussels steamed with tomatoes. Mussels. Mussels. Mussels. Okay, did you understand that DT had mussels? Of course, he had them steamed with garlic and will be sleeping on the balcony tonight. Look at the size of that serving! It seemed nearly every person at every restaurant had ordered a gigantic, steaming mound of mussels. They were gorgeous. DT found the mussels to be very fresh-tasting, especially as they were not dripping in butter. In fact, no butter was even served with the mussels. The lunch special also comes with a plate of famous Belgian fries. The technique is to first soak the cut potatoes in water, then dry the fries before frying them in beef fat. Next, let them drain and then fry them again in some sort of vegetable oil before serving the hot potatoes with mayonnaise as the dipping sauce. There are also many french-fry stalls around town. We were also served, for some reason, a teeny bowl of peanuts with our drinks and a small bowl of cubed cheese and cubed ham/spam-like meat product. (This item was not taste-tasted by your panel.)

Mussels


Waterzooi

Waterzooi, or wasserzooi, translates to water soup and is one of the national dishes of Belgium. It is made by boiling either chicken bones (or fish bones in the seafood version) in water with vegetables, straining the broth and adding cream to make a thick soup. Then vegetables and fish/chicken are placed in the serving dish and the soup is ladled over. I ordered chicken waterzooi, and it was served with three boiled potatoes and about four thick slices of chicken breast. The soup was flavored with a slight hint of dill and garnished with chopped parsley. I guess one could officially call it "Cream of Chicken Soup" - but I have never had soup quite like this and will be anxious to try this happy adventure in my own kitchen.

Our waiter was quite fun. He started speaking French with us, then tried out his German before settling in on a language we all could understand - English. DT thought he looked exactly like Martin Short... if Martin was an extremely swishy Belgian waiter. After lunch, while we were finishing our drinks, I started writing a few postcards to drop at the post office just across the street from the restaurant. Our waiter saw me writing and said, "Be sure to say hello from Martin Short." We laughed and he told us all his American customers tell him he looks like Martin Short. So there.

Brasserie Restaurant La Civiere d'Or, opened in 1947

We didn't catch a taxi back to the ship until nearly 4 pm. We heard that there had been another bombing in London, so we are now watching the news and resting up for our next meal.

Burp.