Day 54: Keech, kriek and comics

August 14 –

Our first full day in Brussels started with the hotel breakfast; Duncan loved having raviolis for breakfast while the rest of us settled for typical breakfast fare before we headed out for a day of museums. The first one we wanted to visit – the archeology museum – is only open on Wednesdays (?!?) so we headed to stop two: the royal palace. We got there right as the doors opened and we filed inside with the rest of the crowd. This was the first time we had to wait in line for anything since we were in Paris. They didn’t allow any cameras inside so instead of trusting that the “no photographs” sign would dissuade you, they made everyone check their camera! Frank was not pleased to leave his behind but those were the rules.

So we wandered through looking at the rooms on public display, the several dozen portraits of various King Leopolds and the artwork on exhibit. It was mildly interesting until we got to the “Hall of Mirrors” which, unlike the amazing room at Versailles, was a small room for a palace but it was filled with a hands-on exhibit on optical illusions. It was really cool! There was a set of mirrors to put you in the middle of a kaleidescope, an apparent bottomless pit, several computer games and a pretend guillotine. The neatest thing of all though was the amazing luminescent green covering on the ceiling and chandeliers made from 1.4 million beetles wings! It was awesome! The best free tour of the day!

Our wanderings took us passed the cathedral so we stopped in again to see the treasury which was closed last night. This was the best €2 we’ve ever spent! We saw paintings and vestments and reliquaries from the 15th centuries on! The creepiest thing was the reliquary containing the hand of St. Sebastian – which was clearly visible through the glass. Ugh!

Next stop: the Comic Strip museum – our first disappointment of the day. We had read about this in a couple of places and the Frommer’s guide I bought talked about how it was great for kids and adults and mentioned lots of comic heroes that we know and love as well as many more from Belgium. It was pretty expensive as far as museums go and the first exhibit on how comic books are made and how many people are involved was pretty interesting. Then the rest of the museum seemed to be dedicated to the most famous Belgian creation: Tin Tin. Not one I grew up with! I suppose that if we actually spoke French, we would have gotten more out of it since we could then actually read the comics but the English language guide we got described the exhibits in English but that didn’t help since the comics themselves weren’t translated! There was one Beetle Bailey cartoon from 1994….

So we decided to console ourselves with a light lunch (sandwiches and salads) followed by some yummy pastries! Then we were off to the final museum stop of the day: the Beer museum! You would think that a country with 100 breweries creating more than 450 beers in a dozen different styles could do a better job putting together a museum. Alas, it was not to be. This was our second disappointment of the day – and another strike against our guidebook – as the entrance fee got you into a room with some sample brewing equipment and a seat for a 40+ minute movie on Belgian beers. Luckily we could choose to show it in English but that didn’t really matter since all they seemed to be interested in was showing the label of every beer produced in Belgium. We did get to sample a Belgian white beer and we did learn that Kriek is a cherry lambic, of which Frank has now become fond. Otherwise, not worth the price of admission.

As it was close to museum closing time, we didn’t try to squeeze in the chocolate museum but instead ventured out to see Brussels’ most famous resident: Manniken Pis. Yup, the statue of the little boy peeing on the street corner. We had to stop by and get a picture – one that makes it appear that he’s peeing on Gillian’s head of course! This isn’t the original statue – that one is in a safe place; apparently, he has a bad habit of being stolen or subject to “anatomical mistreatment”. Apparently, he does have more than 700 costumes and if we were still going to be here on Thursday, we’d get to see him dressed up as Elvis!  And the shops selling crap (or “keech” as they say in Scotland) is truly unbelievable!  You can get just about anything with the little pissing boy on it:  lace, playing cards, statues, towels, and even chocolate!

We did some shopping and bought some chocolate and lace and yet more earrings! Then some time in a café sampling the local brews (more kriek!) and listening to street performers – a string quintent! Then some quiet time planning our route to Brugge tomorrow before heading out for the evening meal. We decided to give the guide book one more try and check out a recommended restaurant. It was good but nothing great. It was hot inside but at least it as a non-smoking restaurant. Duncan and I tried the carbonnade of beef with stoemp, apparently potatoes mashed with spinach (?!) and Frank had muscles again. We were annoyed by a table of “fellow Americans” a few tables down who were everything that Europeans hate about us. I can tell you that they are from San Francisco; it took them 11.5 hours to fly to Amsterdam; he was in the military stationed in Japan (He loves Kyoto!) and it was their 19^th anniversary. How do I know all this? Dad decided to make small talk with the two Japanese women at the table between us and told them his life story! He waited until he was done smacking and yelling at his youngest son (who was obnoxious and whiney and deserved it!) We really wished we could speak Gaelic!

/san/

[Pedometer: 18,961 or about 9 miles, some of which was spent shuffling past exhibits.