brussels
Hoppy Loft or the Delirium Cafe
(DAY 7)
We were back in Brussels for our last night in Belgium by late afternoon. After a bit of wandering semi-lost in the matrix of streets around the Bourse, we found our (delightful) hotel: Hotel Cafe Pacific.
By the time we got to the hotel we had purchased lace, chocolate, and beer. We rested up for an evening of more wandering and some bar-hopping by sipping two abbey beers from the “250 beers” store: a Westvleteren 6 and a Westvleteren 8. (Smuggling an empty beer bottle back to Canada did cause some minor issues with the scanner people at the airport the next day, but I’m glad we kept the souvenir).
When we ventured back out into the city, we stopped at one cafe specifically to try Kwak, then we window-shopped our way over to another place for crepes. Finally, the last beer hunt was on for Delirium Tremens. We walked all over little cobblestoned streets and side-streets, past hundreds of miniature Manneken Pises until we found the unmissable pink elephant label.
Though the sign outside said “Delirium Cafe”, the beer menu said “Hoppy Loft”. It didn’t matter where we were, though, because the beer list was the longest we’d ever seen.
Side note: the actual meaning of “delirium tremens”, according to PubMed, quite aptly describes Eric’s feeling about leaving Belgium:
Delirium tremens is a severe form of alcohol withdrawal that involves sudden and severe mental or nervous system changes.
All these photos are from the Delirium Cafe:
Brussels
(DAY 1 and 7)
After our visit to North Carolina, Eric and I flew to Belgium. It was impossible for me to sleep during the 8-hour flight because I was far too excited for my first trip to Europe. Also, for some reason, Eric and I were seated across the aisle from each other on the plane and I had no one to lean on.
We went to Belgium with no other plan than this:
- be in Brussels on Tuesday morning
- go to Duesseldorf on Wednesday
- see Veurne, Ypres, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp
- drink beer and eat chocolate
We had 7 days.
On day one, Eric’s partner picked us up at the airport and drove us to a nice breakfast place in Brussels. While eating the most delicious almond croissant I’ve ever tasted, which I smothered with dark chocolate and also with white chocolate spread, I realized Belgium was heaven. One week was not going to be enough.
On day two we realized our one-city-per-day idea was ridiculous. Spending every single day on the train would mean we’d have only half a day in each city. In the end our itinerary turned out to be:
Day 1: Brussels
Day 2: day trip to Duesseldorf
Day 3: train to Ypres
Day 4: Ypres
Day 5: train to Ghent
Day 6: Ghent
Day 7: train back to Brussels
Day 8: fly sadly home
After the first morning croissant, Stefan helped us pick a hotel in the city centre, showed us around the Grand Place area, then drove us to visit Gaasbeek Castle (photos coming soon). The pics below are from wandering around Brussels (sometimes lost) on Day 1 and Day 7.
Next time we go to Brussels (because we will definitely be going back), I’d like to take the hop on / hop off bus to get a real city tour and see some of the things we missed: the EU parliament, the Atomium, the Horta Museum, the Belgian Comic Strip Centre, and so so so much more.