Friday, October 11, 2013

And ... Roll Credits

This is the very last part of the Brussels post. Morgan and I dropped Emily off at the airport, and returned to spend the rest of the day in the city. Don't expect much from this post because it really consists of two things (spoiler!): wandering around, and spending the afternoon in a bar (but not just any bar!).

We got back into the city from the airport around lunchtime, which meant finding a place to eat was our first task. Morgan had read about a place that was supposed to serve real American-style hamburgers, so we made that our destination. It was kind of a gloomy day, which seemed appropriate in a way. We walked around a bit, just looking at the different types of architecture.


Brussels is certainly a lot more of a big city and a lot more modern than Gent is, with just over three times the population and the influence of being the seat of the EU and NATO. But there's a good amount of the old world on display, too.

One kid gets a lion, and then every kid has to have a lion.
Oh, and Tintin. There's also plenty of
Tintin on display.

The restaurant where we had lunch (Ellis Gourmet Burgers) did in fact have burgers mostly like home, if a bit on the fancy side. It's also the only place in this country I've ever been served ketchup with my fries. It's funny, because I have never considered myself really "into" burgers, but it was certainly a nice taste of home. I guess it was something I'd missed without even realizing it.
With lunch over, we made our way to the Delirium Tremens bar. As I mentioned in the last post, Delirium Tremens has been voted the best beer in the world. The bar has a different claim to fame, though. They got into the Guinness book of World Records for having the biggest beer selection. They have an absolutely gigantic menu of all their offerings, complete with pictures and descriptions. Even so, you might as well just open randomly to a page and point, really.




This is the Delirium Tremens Nocturnum, along with the standard
Delirium beer, which he poured for me by mistake.
I was absolutely in love with the Delirium Tremens Nocturnum, the dark beer in the photo above. If you're interested in what it tastes like, check out the comments on Beer Snob Central - I mean, Beer Advocate. I kid; I would like to learn to recognize more tastes in beers, but I'm not very good at it just yet. Anyhow, you can get this one bottled in the rest of the world, so you should go and do that.

Don't let the light color fool you; darker doesn't necessarily mean stronger.
Although the Waterloo is a mere 7.5% abv, the Urthel Hop-It is 9.5%
You may notice that we had different types of glasses for each beer (the two from Delirium used the same glass). Belgians are very serious about their glassware. Often, bars will have branded glasses that are used for each beer. In a pinch, there are some broader types that will suffice.

Like I said, they are serious about glassware.
It would have been easy to kill hours (or days) in the Delirium Cafe, and even if you should happen to get bored there, they have other options for you. On their tiny little street are also a Delirium Pub and Hop Loft (special assortment of hoppy beers), a rum bar, and an absinthe bar. We really wanted to check out the absinthe bar, but it didn't open till later in the evening and it was getting to be time to head back home to Gent. So, onto the "to do" list that went, for the next time we're in Brussels.

The next post here will be all about balloons! Prepare for tons of photos.


3 comments:

  1. Great, re: "tons of photos." Your blog's worth visiting for those alone. My dad, an avid photographer, would be jealous. But don't tell him I said so. ;-)
    Ursula, are you aware of what all's going on here with the government shutdown, debt ceiling, etc.? Are Europeans talking about it?

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  2. Thanks! I have some film photos too that I need to get uploaded. I'm excited about them!

    I am about as aware of it here as I would be there, which is to say: I know it's happening but I'm not following the story. There was some talk about it with people we were having drinks with last night. Belgians are generally just amused by it because they didn't have a government for 500 days a couple of years ago and they got along fine.

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    1. Our shutdown won't last that long - Americans will have replaced the entire House by then. :-)

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