June 24: Snails, Saxophones, & Mr. Wood

Welcome Mr. Cutter! And congratulations on your discovery of my BEER OF THE DAY: Mort Subite Faro.  A lil sour, a lil sweet, very delicious.

Belgium continues to surprise with its coolness. 1) Did anyone know Belgium could look like this?  2) Did you know this is the home of the saxophone?  Dinant. No kidding.

Adolphe Sax.  1814-1894.

In nearby Famignoul, the home of my new favorite brewery, Caracole. Bestest logo.  Brewery and pub an 18th Century hole in the wall. Lots of old Walloonian men with bad teeth and big smiles. The pinnacle of our Saturday tour through the beautiful Belgian Ardennes, which also included stops to the Abbaye de Floreffe, Abbaye de Maredsous, and Namur.

June 15 Belgium: Pili pili

It's been a week and many things have happened. To keep it brief...

Sgraffiti owl sighting somewhere between the tea shop Tea Me Eat Me
and wherever I got lost looking for the Metro...

Sampling beers at the home of Gouden Carolus!  Not pictured,
the Flemish stew I destroyed shortly thereafter.

Frites. There are so many sauces to choose from. This is  the spicy,
mayonnaisey pili pili sauce and my BFF Bri.

Saw my first hops farms today out about Westveleteren.

"The Explanation". René Magritte. ha.
What a great weirdo! (He's Belgian!)

Tomorrow, the Delirium bar, then GHENT!

June 4: Beaux Arts & The Sixtus of Westvleteren

It's amazing how stupid a foreign metro station can make you feel. Regardless I made it to the Parc du Cinqantenaire for a self-guided Art Nouveau walk, and headed to the Musée Royal des Beaux Arts, where I saw THIS!!!:

The Death of Marat, by Jaque-Louis David, 1793

In real life Charlotte Corday left her knife in his chest, not on the floor.

Also, I was excited to learn about two connections that are favs of mine:

Carravagio. This is "The Entombment of  Christ"

Pietá, Michaelangelo 

Next up I took my first ride on Bri's seafoam green VESPA to the Cauchie House!  Imagine this as your second floor porch.

Brussels calls itself "The Capitol of Art Nouveau".

I learned another iteration of what I only knew as Italian "sgraffito", which is Art Nouveau sgraffito/i.  

All the stuff on this building made by laying a layer of light mortar over a layer of dark mortar, and then scratching the design through the light mortar when it is a just the perfect wetness. Then you paint it.

Cauchi surrounded the living room with sgraffito, one panel for each of the five senses. I wish my living room was this sexy...

And finally, my favorite Beer of the Day:

Westvleteren Blonde!  From the trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren, Belgium, founded 1838. They only brew 60,000 cases total of their three beers a year, as they have since 1946. You have to call their "beerphone", which is endlessly busy, to reseve a case.  One of my jobs at Casa Warner is to try to make calls to the beerphone to secure a case of Westvleteren #12.  Today we took our two bottles with a picnic and a round of Yahtzee. Perfecto!

Day 2 Antwerp

Don't worry, I won't be posting every day for the next eight months. I have that early record-keeping ambition, so enjoy it while it lasts. Or sigh with relief.

Today's highlight was an afternoon excursion to Antwerp. Only 45 mins from Brussels in Bri & Matt's car. Everything's closed on Sundays in Belgium, except the antique stores in Antwerp. But this is cool stuff. A hip furniture-shopper's dream! Belgium apparently lacks quite a bit of style (which I noticed coming from Brooklyn to Brussels), but Antwerp is one of the fashion capitols of Europe. So next time I'll have to come on a weekday!

Favorite attractions:

1) The Brabo fountain, showing Brabo with the severed hand of the giant, Druon, who plauged the city by demanding payment for entry, or chopping off your right hand. Brabo saved the day and chopped off Druon's hand and threw it. The fountain has water squirting from the severed wrist (to my right), and hand (at the tippy top about to get chucked by Brabo.) Gross!  Antwerp means "throwing the hand."

2) Jenver tasting. Jenever is the spirit from whence gin was born. Oude Jenever is clear and tastes like a mild gin, and Jonge Jenever is golden and tastes like a mild whiskey. Invented in the 16th Century by a Dutch chemist and alchemist for medicinal purposes, and popularized in the 17th Century with the addition of juniper and improved distilling techniques. Have you tried this? It's great!

3) First glimpses of Rubens, who studied and worked in Antwerp. Affectionately called "P.P. Rubens" on a postcard I was tempted to buy. Here,"The Elevation of the Cross,"1610-1611, at The Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp.

First Post: Brussels

Hello friends and fam,
I'm not much of a picture-taker, Tweeter, or Facebook-poster, but I've had many requests to share photos and updates while we are abroad, so I thought I'd give a crack at a blog.

So here's how things started out...

I departed on Friday, June 1st and arrived bright and early Saturday in Brussels, greeted by Bri & Matt with Starbucks (coffee is not an area at which Belgium exceeds).  My first day in Belgium was everything I could hope for...

Stop 1 was Brussels famous brewery, Cantillion. For the beer-geeks,  they make sour Guezue Lambic with an open fermentation, or spontaneous fermentation, process (open vat for wild yeast and bacteria to get in the wort), and the beer is cooled in a shallow open vat over night rather than with cold coils.  They can only make their beer in the winter season because of this, and once a batch is gone, it's gone til next year! Yumm!

Next I got a walking tour of a chunk of the city, which included a street waffle, a visit to the infamous Manneken Pis fountain, a glimpse of the Grand-Place, some fabulous chocolates from Mary's, and a few more beers. An excellent beginning to my travels!