The Swede Life: "BRUGES, the most striking city I have ever seen, an old city in PERFECT preservation. It seems as if not a house had been built during the last two centuries..." -Robert Southey, 1816

A few weeks ago we took a brief trip to Belgium. We split our time between Brussels, well known for being the locale of one of two of the Parliaments of the European Union and Bruges, well known for the Colin Farrell movie In Bruges that came out in 2009.

I was fully expecting Bruges to be the star of the trip and was semi-dreading being dragged around the modern, 80's style (ugly) streets of Brussels. Having said that, I will admit that Brussels surprised me. The city completely exceeded my expectations. It was beautiful and bustling. Yes, there were the modern and ugly buildings, but there were also many highly ornate and ancient looking buildings that compensated for the modern.

Unfortunately, we did not have very much sunshine in Brussels so the photos do not do the city justice. We did have better weather in Bruges (as you’ll notice).

Bruges was historically the bigger and more well known city than Brussels due to its position on the North Sea. This geographic advantage allowed Bruges to act as the middle man in trade between Central/ Southern Europe and Northern Europe, especially for the textile and cloth trades.

Brussels, on the other hand, was viewed as a nice place to stop to have a waffle on your way to Bruges. Today, however, the city has grown up and is more economically active and, I would say, almost as beautiful as Bruges.

Grand Marche (Grand Market Square)

More shots from around Brussels-

St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral

The ornate decorations are representative of the guilds that used to have offices in these buildings.

View outside the Palais des Congres with the Grand Place in the background.

Quaint little backstreets

Gloomy day in Brussels

King Leopold II's Palace

I really like the shadows in this picture.

Inside the Palais de Justice.

The Palais de Justice was HUGE. The architect that designed it suffered from undiagnosed and untreated neuro-syphilis that caused him to continuously revise the building plans to make the building larger and more grand. It feels massively over-sized, a mix between the reverence and silence of a church and the comfort of a library. It is also a good place for a brief snooze during a break in our walking tour.

3 hour walking tours are exhausting!

Manneken Pis

EU Flags

Unfortunately, we were not able to actually enter The European Parliament but we did visit the European Parliament Museum which opened in October 2011 and is one of the better museums I have ever been to.

Inside the museum. Distances to all the EU Member Countries Capitals

Another view inside the museum. The computer screens had info on EU citizens.

Being inspired by the beautiful and fantastical buildings, we decided to play pretty princess...

Well, at least I did. =)


Awesome ride in a Brussel's mall.

We also had a chance to visit the Atominum, the icon of the world fair held in Brussels in 1958. It illustrates the structure of an elemental iron crystal- a very cool concept.

Atominium

Since we were both science majors at Vassar, I decide we needed a photo in front of it (even if it turned out rather badly).

Yay, Science!

We also witnessed the beginning of Spring in Belgium.

Next, we headed to Bruges for a few days for what we thought would be peace and quiet. Little did we know that gazillions of tourists were way ahead of us and already enjoying the beautiful backstreets.

As mentioned before, Bruges became prosperous in the 14th century as a middle ground of sea trade between Southern and Northern Europe. It was also famous for its cloth market. Unfortunately, in the 16th century, the harbor silted up and that was the end of its golden age. Now it is tourism that maintains the local economy. Luckily or unluckily for us.

The city is much smaller than Brussels with endless romantic, cobble-stoned back streets, all, of course, bursting with tourists.

The Bell Tower of Belfort.

Built in the 1300s, it is 366 steps to the top. Okay, that doesn't seem like too many, until you realize half-way up that it's actually 732 steps in total. Now, that sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Let me tell you-- it IS.

The Market Square shining in the sun.

A view of the Market Square and the Bell Tower at night.

Us with the Bell Tower in the background.

Almshouses

The rich used to pay the rent for these houses in exchange for the inhabitants' prayers.

The fingers on the left hand are positioned in an "M"

Madonna & Child Sculpture by Michelangelo

This is the only Michelangelo statue that left Italy during his lifetime. If you look closely, you can see the "M" in left hand of the child.

Despite the small size of Bruges, there are plenty of churches, museums, and important civil buildings to see. But our preferred way of getting to know the city was by walking around the back and side streets taking in the picture perfect houses and parks.

Some beauty shots from around Bruges.

Picturesque Canals.

The Belfry from a different angle.

I just can't get enough of red roofs.

Spooky bridge!

I think this is the quintessential Bruges tourist photo.

The finale. Beautiful!

We took a tour of the De Galve Maan Brewery in Bruges. After our tour we had a chance to try a few of the beers.

Phil enjoying the beer and the fire.

I loved the beer glasses

Apparently you can tell where a beer was made by the shape of the glass. If it is served in a chalice (as pictured above) it most likely was brewed in an abbey, at least according to our tour guide.

Per usual, we enjoyed the local specialties. In the case of Belgium, those included fries, mussels, chocolate, waffles and BEER!

Mussels!

Frites! Friteur stands are all over Brussels and Bruges.

Hoegaarden is a well-known Belgium beer.
Kriek beer (sour cherry beer) is also a regional specialty.

Belgian Chocolates are well known world wide. And don't worry, we made sure to taste and critique several different types.

One of the oldest chocolate shops in Brussels.

And of course, we had to have waffles. There are two different types of Belgian waffles. They are not usually eaten for breakfast but as an afternoon snack or as dessert. We, of course, tried both kinds.

Heaven!

The above waffle is fluffier with very fine sugar inside the waffle batter. The below waffle is crunchier and sticker. It is coated with a honey/syrup-like liquid and then chocolate. I can't decide which kind was my favorite-- both were delicious. The main difference between Belgium-Belgian waffles and American Belgian waffles, at least that I noticed, was the level of sweetness. Belgium-Belgian are much sweeter.

Mmmm!

We also had the dish below as a happy hour snack. It is "soft cheese" or a mix between sour cream and cream cheese. This bread was somewhat chewy which went really well with the crisp radishes and crunchy green onions. Note: you will have the taste of green onions in your mouth for at least 24 hours after eating this... be careful!