Glenn's Birthday Cakes

Glenn's mini-birthday cakes. I thought this deserved a blog of its own.

One is a strawberry tart, one a chocolate mousse with a think chocolate cake on the bottom, wrapped in this dark chocolate "tent" that reminds me of fondit on fancy wedding cakes. And that red delight with the white chocolate curl and gold flakes on it had several layers of different kinds of cake and chocolate in it--wow! You should have seen the colors around Amelia's mouth when we finished with these! Ducobu is a dangerous place!

Biking Brugges

Madonna and Child,
one of only a handful
of Michaelangelo's
sculptures outside of
Italy.

Street musician playing a kind of steel drum I'd never seen before. It could do harmonics too that sounded like "playing" chrystal stemware--an amazing sound.

Sorry for my blogging absence the last two weeks; I had midterm exams and such to do. Time to catch up on blogs now. Two weekends ago, we spent two days and a night in Brugges. I had heard so much about Brugges before going there . . . had even been told by some that “If you haven’t been to Brugges, you haven’t been to Belgium.” We went along on a trip with the Clemson students that included an extensive walking tour of the city, after which they breezed through a few museums (including the Frites museum—yes, as in French Fries—and a museum of Lamps. Glenn, Amelia and I opted to check into our hotel instead. It was a rather run-down hotel, but it was as close as you could get to the square without being perched on the square, and the Saturday morning breakfast buffet somewhat made up for the hotel’s other weaknesses. Our hotel had a bike rental service as well, so we got 24- hour rentals of 2 bikes: a regular one for me and a “tagalong” to go on Glenn’s bike for Amelia (who hasn’t learned to ride a two-wheeler yet). They let us ride Friday, we put them back up Friday night and

Bikes outside the railway station.

check them back out again on Saturday. That was outstanding. On Saturday, we rode the bikes to the market, where I bought the cheapest Belgian chocolates I’ve found in Belgium so far, and we gawked at everything. This was a fantastic market. Brugges is a bit odd because the tourists flood the city (including those from the big cruise ships that dock in Oostende only 15 minutes away by train) during the day, but at about 6 p.m. they roll up the sidewalks in Brugges, and it’s even hard to find anything to eat unless you pay the big bucks at the touristy places on the square. We found a tucked away Italian place that had great food and loud Italian owners. During our overnighter in Brugges, we also took a boat ride around the canal—which used to be one of two motes around the city (there was an inner and an outer mote).

Once I learned that we were only a 15 minute train ride from the North Sea Coast, I had to go there. So we took the train to Oostende and spent a few hours at the beach. Amelia promised me (why she did this, I don’t know since she ought to know herself better than this) that she’d stay dry and wouldn’t even get her feet in the ocean. You will see the evolution of what went into the ocean from the pictures. We stationed ourselves on the sand and then a huge group of Scouts (both genders here) ranging from ages 6 or 7 up to high school or maybe college came bundling and, and to our amazement, they swam. The water was so cold that they all came out bright pink, but it looked like they had a great time.

Speaking of Scouts, Glenn’s birthday was October 3, and I bought him a neckerchief and leather monkey’s fist tie holder to wear with his Girl Scout Daisy uniform that Belgian Pioneer Scouts wear here. And back up from your computer before you see the photo of the mini birthday cakes I bought him for his birthday—the drool might ruin your keyboard. J I’ve been stalking this chocolate shop for weeks and just got the nerve to go in. OH MY GOODNESS. They are designer chocolates. Some even have gold shavings on them. Glenn has promised to get pictures of that chocolaterie/boulangerie (they have bread too!) place soon.

Brugges Market

Amelia at the Beach, Oostende

Chocolate Buzz & Children's Museum

Wednesday afternoon (23 September), all 10 of us (the 6 students, Julie--the other faculty member—Glenn, Amelia and I) went to Planete Chocolat, one of the four chocolate makers in Brussels. We had to pass Mannequin Pis (the pee-pee boy) on the way, one of the most popular (but overrated) sites in the city, so I'm including pictures of him too. He is dressed in the garb of a different country or culture every day. What a wardrobe! Since this isn't really research, see the Wikipedia entry for the skinny on the pee pee boy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis#History_and_legends.

Mannequin Pis has so many admirers daily, it's hard to get a good look at him some days. And despite what most visitors expect, he is a very little boy.

At Planete Chocolat, we learned about the ingredients for their chocolate (and there are very few), the process by which they get cocoa to Belgium, we got to mix the chocolate, learned what temperatures chocolate needs for melting, cooling, and hardening to a shiny finish. We also got to make several batches in molds and learn about the different flavors they use. We should all keep our day jobs; I’m sure they threw our pitiful efforts back into the vats when we left.

Many times we heard the refrain that if a certain imperfection happens to the chocolate, “it would be fine to eat, but this we would not sell.” Planete Chocolat is very generous with samples during the lesson, so by the end, we were all buzzing from chocolate.

We watched a film about where the cocoa beans come from and how they get processed into cocoa oil, powder and other products . . . and they gave us hot chocolate to drink while we watched, as if we hadn’t already had more than Americans, who rarely get REAL chocolate, can handle! We sloshed out of there and on to the Brussels Children’s Museum.

Planete Chocolat made an impression on us, but the Tigers have left their impression on Planete Chocolate as well. This is a tiger paw chocolate they make in honor of all of the students who study at Clemson University Brussels Center and visit the shop.

After you’ve been Charlotte’s Discovery Place Museum, Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium and road tested children’s museums all over the U.S., the Musee des Enfants was quite disappointing. It’s in a rambling old house, has many exhibits that aren’t really interactive, and although the website makes it sound like a trilingual museum, it isn’t really. The focal exhibit was “Rouge”—many aspects of the color red. Speakers of French and Dutch or Flemish have plenty to see and do, but speakers of English have a harder time. And Amelia, who isn’t reading English well yet, was underwhelmed. But since I took the students there to evaluate this museum as an examination of what this museum say about what Belgians think their children will enjoy vs. what American children’s museums say about what Americans think their children will enjoy, they found plenty to write about.

At the end of our time there, Amelia went to a “cookery class,” and although the teacher spoke no English, she was very animated and made herself understood. Since I’m studying French, it was excellent for me; as the teacher spoke to the children, she spoke slowly enough that I could follow. Amelia enjoyed the peach crumble she made and bowed out with an earnest “merci beaucoup.”

Learning the Art of Belgian Beer--from Glenn

Last week, I took a tour with the Clemson students of Brewery Cantillon (founded in 1900), Brussels’ only remaining beer maker producing beer by traditional methods. Located in the south end of the city, Cantillon is housed in a crowded warehouse and hand crafts a small variety of artisan beers. I saw the huge mixing tanks, the air fermentation pit located on the top floor of the warehouse used for the primary fermentation, and hundreds of wooden barrels used for the second fermentation. Because of temperature requirements, the guide said, the Cantillon only makes brews between October and March and buys all natural ingredients. The brewery does not add sweeteners or coloring to its beers. As a result, it takes 2 to 3 years to produce a bottle of Cantillon beer.

Of course, at the end of the tour, there was a tasting. I sampled the Gueuze, a golden colored beer that taste nothing like Miller Light. It was full of flavor and smooth. I then sampled their Kriek, a beer flavored with cherries. Again, the taste was nothing like most mass-produced beers at home. The Kriek tastes of sour cherry punch. It was a fantastic tour, and I learn a lot about Belgium’s beer-making tradition. If you’re interested in beer, check out their website at www.cantillon .be

The beer ferments on the rooftop where nature's yeast can get to it.

Horses & Mystic Lambs: Off to Gent

Julie McGaha (Education Professor) and I took a day trip to Gent on Friday, September 18th. I picked Julie up from the train station in the car in Waterloo, and amazingly, we got on the Ring Road around Waterloo going the right direction and arrived in Gent in about an hour and a half with no drama.

We first visited St. Bevo’s Cathedral and saw the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, a huge polyptych by Jan Van Eyck (completed in 1432). The admission into the room with the painting came with one of those audio sticks that tells all about the history of the painting, etc. Well worth the visit. I was most fascinated by the arguments historians have had about the main figure in the painting who seems to be a conglomerate of Jesus and God. Read all about this painting at: http://www.trabel.com/gent/gent-misticlambintroduction.htm.

We then took a half-hour horse-drawn buggy tour of the city, and had our guide been a better English speaker or had we been Flemish speakers, it would have been more useful. At any rate, we got the lay of the land and saw the main historical sites as well as a market that I would have loved to spend time in.

We then took a boat tour on the main canal to get the aquatic view of the city, and that was better than the horse tour, especially since at one time all of Gent’s commerce was transported by boats, so lots of important and beautiful buildings were along the waterfront. Along the way, we passed a swing bridge that is apparently still “swung” out of the way of tall boats by hand. We also saw the 3 towers all in a line for which Gent is famous: St. Nicholas Church, St. Bavo’s Cathedral and the Belfort/Belfry (which we walked up into a little later). The Count’s castle looked imposing and impressive, but we ran out of time to see it. Something to look forward to on my next visit.

Photos below: 3 spires of Gent; the Count's castle; the stairs up into the Belfry and 2 views from the top (including an ancient archeological excavation site that they will plunk a shopping mall on top of once it's done, much to Julie's horror); Julie at the top of the Belfry; and a view from the boat tour of the canal.

Our exit from Gent was an adventure. It took us almost an hour to figure out which parking garage we’d parked the car in, and by that time, everybody and their dog was heading out of Gent. Once we got underway and got near Brussels, I decided to try to drop Julie off on the outskirts of the city, from where she could take the Metro home. I blinked and found myself in the thick of downtown Friday traffic in Brussels. We did get Julie to a Metro stop, but getting myself out of Brussels and back to Waterloo was . . . well, let’s just say I don’t want to do that again anytime soon. On a good day, driving in Belgium is a defensive process, and Friday rush hour downtown Brussels traffic is a “whole ‘nother thang.”

Market Day!

Every Sunday in Waterloo (and many other towns in Belgium), a market happens near the train station. Amelia and I went last week and had a blast, and we took Glenn and the camera along this week. The pictures will tell most of the story, but it's marketing like I've never experienced before. Among this week's pickings were Italian leather shoes, flowers, flowers, flowers, herbs, vegetables (including brocoflower and heirloom tomatoes), fruits (including fresh dates and pomegranates), a chicken and ribs booth (several, in fact) with all the fixins you can imagine for Sunday dinner, a stall with nothing but fresh-picked mushrooms, several with nothing but cheese, another for shrimp scampi, a guy selling Greek olives in a plethora of sizes, shapes, colors and flavors (who is entertainment himself) along with sun-dried tomatoes, spankopeta, feta cheese, etc., books, clothes, boiled wool jackets, dried fruits and nuts, a booth with every kind of freshly-made pasta you can imagine, Thai food, sausages, sausages, sausages, plants for the garden . . . ok, I could go on. But you get the picture. Now, to REALLY get the picture, see the photo gallery below.

A few notes: the boy in the 3rd picture helps his dad sell produce, and his dad had stepped away for a moment, and he got what we needed and started crunching the numbers when his dad showed up (much to his relief). And dogs go EVERYWHERE in Belgium--into stores, into the subway, on the trains, etc. Amelia was missing hers, so she took lots of dog pictures at the market. The guy under the umbrella is my favorite olive-seller; he's got the gift of gab . . . and his food is great too.