On Saturday we left early in the morning to drive up to our boss's mother's house who lives on the far west side of Belgium in a town called Maasmechelen. We got there around dinner time, met our boss's mother, dropped off our belongings, and headed into town. We walked through a flea market and around the town a little bit and then had Leffe beer together in a cafe in the center of town. After that, we went back to our boss's mother's house and she served us dinner with different kinds of meats, cheeses, and breads. We stayed the night there and in the morning we had breakfast before catching a train to Brussels. By the way, our boss's mom was extremely nice and gave us delicious homemade waffles (best I've ever had) and Belgian chocolates before we left for Brussels.
There are 6 main things Belgium is famous for. They are waffles, chocolates, beer, french fries (they were invented in Belgium), comic books, and lace. What a combination. I knew even before going that I would love Belgium.
Our first stop on our tour of Belgium was Brussels. Brussels is one of the most important cities in Europe, being the capital of the European Union and containing the headquarters of NATO. We were told beforehand by a coworker that there's nothing to see in Brussels and that we should just skip it and go right to Bruges. He was completely wrong and we instantly fell in love with the city. Right out of the central train station, we spotted the beautiful St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, which looks uncanningly like Notre Dame in Paris. Not that I would know...i haven't actually been there...yet :)
After that we headed in the direction of the Grand Place in the center of the city, which is a Unesco World Heritage Sight because of it's old medieval architecture. Along the way we walked through tight cobbled streets filled with cafes and I was blown away by the oldness of the architecture and the streets. Then once we got to the Grand Place, our jaws dropped. The gothic architecture of the Town Hall and the old medieval guild halls and the breadhouse were stunning.
After that we moved on to the nearby Brussels Stock Exchange. We also stopped into a comic book shop and browsed through the enormous selection of Belgian comic books and others from all around the world. After that we moved on to find the Mannekin Pis, which is a famous landmark in Brussels depicting a naked boy peeing into a fountain. There are many legends about why the statue was made, but nobody knows for certain. Since the 17th century, it has been clothed in one of it's 650 costumes. Near the Mannekin Pis, we bought Belgian waffles and mine had strawberry, chocolate, and whipped cream on top. We were given little plastic forks to eat it with and mine broke, so I had to eat the rest with my hands. It was very messy and we all had a good laugh. It tasted so delicious.
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| Stock Exchange |
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| Chocolate Shop |
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| Lace Shop |
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| Comic Book Shop |
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| Our Belgian Waffles |
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| Mannekin Pis |
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| Escargots anyone? |
After that we walked around the old part of the city a little bit more and then headed toward the new part of the city for some other sites. We were on the move all afternoon because we only had the afternoon to see everything in Brussels because we had to catch a train that night to Bruges where we reserved our hostels. In the newer part of town, we saw the Belgium Royal Palace where the King of Belgium and his family live. We also saw the Cinquantenaire Triumphal Arch and the European Union Pariament Building. After that we went back toward the central station into the old historic part of town again and stopped at a cafe to try a Trappist beer before leaving. Trappist beers are considered some of the best beers in the world and are only made by Trappist monks in one of the 7 beer-brewing Trappist monasteries in the world. 6 of these monasteries are in Belgium and one is in Holland. We each chose a trappist beer, but I chose the rarest Trappist beer called Westvleteren. The bottle doesn’t even have a label. It is normally very hard to find, even in Belgium, but this particular cafe in Brussels carried it. It has been recognized by beer tasting experts as the best beer in the world, so I decided that I couldn't leave Belgium without trying it, especially since I may never get another chance. I must say it was very very good. The only bad thing is I found out after we got back that they don’t distribute it anywhere except the brewery and it’s black market if it’s found anywhere else. So the one I drank was actually illegal. After that, we headed for central station to catch our train to Bruges.
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| Belgian Royal Palace |
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| EU Parliament Building |
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| Cinquantenaire Triumphal Arch |
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| Corey ordered this beer that came in a crazy glass |
We arrived in Bruges just as the sun was beginning to set. Immediately I was amazed walking down the cobbled streets lined with old, small medieval houses and crossing bridges over the canals and passing horse drawn carriages. It felt like we were in another world. Once we checked in and dropped our stuff, we went out to the Markt in the center of town where the bell tower is. Here we decided to snack on some Belgian fries and watch the sun go down. At night the whole square lights up and looks really cool. When we had finished, we got a tip from a local on a good bar to visit, so we went to Pick and hung out there for a little bit before going to bed.
In the morning, we decided to walk around the town and see some of the old gates into the city. We walked by two of them and then found some windmills. We tried to go up in them, but they were locked. It was then that it started to rain. It wasn’t raining really hard, so we continued walking through the city. We walked past a couple of churches and stepped inside the Chocolate museum, but didn’t end up going through it. After that we walked to the town hall and then into the nearby Basilica of the Holy Blood. In there lies a relic brought from the 2nd Crusade that is a vial containing what is believed to be Christ’s blood. There was a long line of people in line to touch it or kiss it and say a prayer before it.
Then the rain started to go away and we walked past some canals and to the brewery De Halve Maan, which means Half Moon in Dutch. There we did a brewery tour where we got to walk through the brewery and see all the equipment and facilities and materials they use to brew their beer. During the tour we went up to the roof, where we had a great view of the city. At the end, they served us all a complimentary unfiltered blond beer called Brugse Zot.
After the brewery visit, we walked to the Begijnhof, which is a series of buildings used by Beguine nuns. It was a really pretty area. After that we headed to the train station to take our 3 hour train across the country back to our boss’s mom’s house. We got there and stayed the night again.
In the morning she served us breakfast again and then we were off on a 2 hour drive into the Netherlands to a university in Arnhem to have our workshop. When we got there, our boss did a presentation in Dutch to the students about BMW in general and what we do in the lab with vibration, noise, and harshness tests. After that Corey, Christian, and I helped set up a demonstration where we performed a modal analysis test on the rear hatch of the X5 we drove there. After the demonstration, we drove for about 8 hours all the way back to Munich and arrived around midnight.
