Today was a rather busy day in Bruges. I started off with the usual European breakfast and then went out for a walk in the town. After a bit of walking around, I decided to visit the De Halve Mann Brouwerij, which is the only brewery in Bruges. The brewery is family owned and has been active brewing beer since 1856. It was a very informative and well narrated tour in English. Once the 45 minute tour was over we were given one “Brugse Zot” beer, which was quite refreshing. While drinking the beer in the outside tavern, I met and chatted with a very nice couple from Hawaii, who are also traveling around Europe for a lengthy period of time. Once I left the brewery, I was off for a visit to the Groeninge Museum, but stopped for some of the famous Belgian French Fries along the way. This is a rather small museum, but has an extensive collection of early Flemish art from the 15th and 16th centuries. Some of the masterpieces of Jan van Eyck, Gerard David, Roger van der Wyden among others are on display. What fascinated me the most were the meticulous, microscopic details in these paintings. The painters used extremely fine-pointed brushes to capture the incredible details of bearded men, wrinkled foreheads, bloodshot eyes, expressive facial emotions, intricately patterned clothes and much much more. I spent about two hours here before returning to my hotel for a bit of rest. Along the way I stopped at a waffle shop for a waffle with chocolate sauce.......excellent! By about 7:00 PM it was time for dinner and I went to a very nice restaurant that I read about in two travel books and online; Bistro den Amond. I had an excellent dish of shrimp in a mildly spicy tomato sauce with a variety of fresh vegetables over linguine……..a superb dinner! I washed it down with a special 9% alcohol Belgian bier….. Troubadour MAGMA. After this great dinner, I went back to the hotel for some well-needed sleep.
Incredibly delicious blog entry!!
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