One year and 42 weeks - M's Thanksgiving in the US, K in Belgium, and Visiting French and German Christmas Markets

Notre Dame of Sablon

K had a business trip to Brussels the week of Thanksgiving.  He arrived in Brussels early Monday afternoon, dropped off his luggage at the hotel, and headed into town to see some sights.  The hotel was a 10minute walk outside the inner/downtown area, so, with a little guidance from the hotel staff, off he went.

The Palace of Justice was an impressive structure, with large arcades, grand stairways, and a huge inner atrium, topped off with a cupola 100m above street level.  Per the guidebook, it took 17years to build.

Next was Notre Dame of Sablon, a gothic church with amazing stained-glass windows.  It was a sunny day, so there were splashes of color throughout the building as the sun shone in through the windows.

City Hall

Brewer's House

After walking by the Royal Palace, the official home of the royal family (who knew Belgium was a kingdom?!), K headed to the Grand Place.  The square is faced with the 15^th-century, gothic City Hall and 17^th-century guild houses; an incredible architectural collection.  One of the fanciest guild houses was the Brewer’s House, which was open, so K headed in to tour the Beer Museum.

After the museum, K wandered some of the streets around the Grand Place, discovering several other gothic churches, including the Cathedral of Saints Michel and Gudule, a beer store called the Beer Temple, the neighborhoods of Saint Catherine and Saint Gery, and also a little statue, famous world-wide, of a little peeing boy: Manneken Pis.  But enough architecture and sights, K was really interested in the beer, so he headed back to the Beer Temple to check out the selection.

Manneken Pis

 As Abbey and Trappist ales rank high on K’s beer favorites list, this was his first focus.  There are 6 Trappist breweries in Belgium (Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, and Westvleteren), and five of them distribute their beers fairly broadly, so K had tasted (or at least seen) all of the beers except Westvleteren.

When K and M took beercation 2010 to Belgium, we did a little research.  According to the Westvleteren abbey website, their beers are sold exclusively at the abbey store, only after making a reservation by telephone.  They’ll only answer one call per month from your telephone.  When making the reservation, you register your car’s license plate number.  The same license plate cannot return for 60days after the reservation.  As this seemed very daunting, we didn’t bother trying for Westvleteren.

So, K was delightedly shocked to find beers from all six Belgian Trappist breweries on the shelf in the Beer Temple.  The Westvelteren bottles were noticeably more expensive than their brethren, but available; it seems some Belgian capitalists have recognized the opportunity provided by the Westvleteren abbey’s tight control of supply, and there is a limited resale market.  There were two brews for sale, the blonde and the 8, so he purchased one of each; there will be a tasting in the coming weeks/months.

Parc du Cinquantenaire

The next few days were training for work, so no sight-seeing, but Thursday evening, class ended, and K headed back out to see more of Brussels.  He headed Esat to visit the Parc du Cinquantenaire; begun in 1880 to celebrate Belgium’s 50^th anniversary of independence.  25years later, the park, museums, and triumphal arch were completed.

Heading West back into the old city, he passed through the European Commission area, the capital of the EU.  Big, recent office buildings in the heart of Brussels.  Apparently, this was a high-rent district prior to the EU, and the government bought-out all the land-owners, razed everything, and built the capital right in the middle of Brussels.

Some further wandering brought K to the Brussels Comic Book Museum, filled with Schtroumpfs/Smurfs, Tintin, and other popular characters.

Friday morning, K headed for a whirlwind trip to Brugges.  He bought his train ticket at 0759 for the 0800 train; fortunately, the previous train on the platform was 5minutes late, so the timing worked fine.  Arriving at Brugges’ train station a little after 0900, K grabbed his guidebook and started walking.  For the next 90 minutes, K saw churches filled with art, the city hall with its enormous Belfry, narrow and winding streets, canals, fish markets, almshouses, a convent, and grand squares.

Brugges' Belfry

Brugges City Hall

Little wonder that this “Venice of the North” is a UNESCO world heritage site; it’s very pretty and worth much more time, but there’s no more time on this trip!  The walk brought K back to the Brugges’ train station at 1034 to catch the 1035 train to Brussels; followed by a walk in the rain, K arrived back at the hotel at 1156, in plenty of time for the 1200 checkout.

After lunch and a taxi-ride to the airport, K had an uneventful flight and train ride home to Neuchatel, where Major and Minor were waiting for dinner.

Thanksgiving in U.S.

While K was in Belgium, M decided to go home to the US to celebrate Thanksgiving.  She arrived Sunday evening and had a great time going shopping, seeing a friend also in town for the holidays, and spending time with family.  Thanksgiving day was great and started with a few minutes of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade on television, driving up to her grandmothers for "The Meal", gorging herself on food (tried each of the 4 pies available), and watching a family slideshow.  One of her favorite parts of the trip was eating lots of Mexican/Mexicanish food.  

Last weekend, our friend Charlotte came to Neuchâtel on her way to Stuttgart for work.  She spent the night with us Friday, and then Saturday we all drove up to Strasbourg, France, the Capital of Christmas, to see their famous Christmas market (Marché de Noël) on our way to Stuttgart.

Vin cuit

Strasbourg Christmas Market Stop 1:
Wine tasting 

Even though Strasbourg is only 3 hours away from Neuchâtel, it took us a bit longer with all the pit stops for M.  We made it to Strasbourg just before lunch, and the first Christmas market village we encountered had a Wine and Baked goods theme.  (What a wonderful way to start a Christmas market stroll!) After Charlotte and Ken tried some local white wines and M drooled over baked goods, we moved along to the some of the other "villages."

We meandered past the stalls selling candles, ornaments, ceramic houses, and wooden decorations.   Most of the town was decorated, and the main streets within the Christmas market region all seemed to have a different decorating theme/style.  It was hard not to get into the holiday mood with all the decorations and people enjoying themselves.

Choucroute alsacienne

M and Charlotte with Neuchatel Santa

Every year, the market has a guest country of honor; this year's was Switzerland.  It was funny to see a bunch of stalls selling Swiss tchotchkes and selling raclette and fondue.  After winding around the stalls, we started to look for lunch.  By the time, we got to looking for food we were having trouble meeting the demands of having a vegetarian dish, having Alsatian sauerkraut for K, and the restaurant not being full.  Finally, we settled on a restaurant we had seen on our previous trip.  K and Charlotte split a double order of Alsatian sauerkraut (choucroute alsacienne) with 6 garnies.  Although this sounds like six garnishes, the giant plate of sauerkraut came with 6 different pork preparations (ranging from sausage to pork belly to pork knuckle) and some boiled potatoes.  

Strasbourg Christmas
light display chandelier

Strasbourg marché light display

After lunch, we meandered once again through the stalls, saw the outdoor ice rink, and went into the cathedral to hear the children's choir sing Christmas carols, primarily in English, and admire the stained glass windows.   After getting sort of lost, we found a stall that makes fresh belgian waffles on sticks and then coats them in chocolate.  (This was definitely one of M's favorite finds of the day.)   Shortly into our late afternoon meander, the daylight was already beginning to wane so the Christmas light displays were coming on.  (The street with the chandelier displays was one of the more breathtaking.)

After oohing and aahing at the pretty lights, we headed back to the car and started our drive to Stuttgart.  Our original intent was to spend a few hours in Heidelberg (a cute, old college town also known for its Christmas market), but we ran out of time and decided it would be better to save it for another day.  After about two hours, we got to Stuttgart, checked into the hotel, and went out to dinner with Charlotte and two guys that work for her.

Mercedes Benz Museum

Mercedes Benz Museum
Daimler's first motorcycle: 1885

The next day, we decided to use the morning to see the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart.  We went with Charlotte and one of the guys from dinner the previous night.  Drooling over cars is not really our schtick, but we actually quite enjoyed it.  The museum was five or six levels and went through the history of car design and the history of the Mercedes Benz company.  They had cars/vehicles from the 1880s to 2011.  

Stuttgart Weihnachtsmarkt

After the museum we headed back to the center of town to have lunch and to see what Stuttgart's Christmas market (Weihnachtsmarkt) had to offer.  It's claim to fame is being the largest Christmas market in Germany.  We didn't find it to be that much bigger than the Strasbourg market, but the drunken football fans waiting for the Stuttgart-Munich game that night did put a slight damper on the holiday atmosphere.  After the market we headed back to the hotel to get our car and begin our long drive back home to Neuchâtel.

Snow in Neuchâtel

M had a somewhat exciting week this week, with bowling with the Quality Engineering department on Monday night and a "Christmas" dinner with her project team on Friday night.  Saturday was spent grocery shopping.  There was also some excitement this weekend as Neuchâtel saw its first real snow of the 2011/2012 winter season.  

Lessons learned:

1. Brussels is cobbled.  This probably means the sidewalks will last forever and it’s quaint.  But after long walks, on constantly uneven surfaces, it gets tiring.

2. In the 14^th Century, Brussels was a walled city.  The one remaining gate, the Port de Hal, is a castle standing in a small park surrounded by the city.  As you walk along busy city streets, it’s a bit surprising to turn a corner and find a castle!

3. For all the fame, Manneken Pis is quite small.  If it wasn’t for the crowd around the little Pis boy, K would have walked right by.

4. Vin cuit can be red or white. The white stuff is a bit better than the red. 

5. English and American Christmas carols are not the same.  Many have the same words, but a different melody.  K found this out a few weeks ago when he went caroling in Neuchatel with a local English-speaking church.

6. Shortly after the first automobile, the Daimler folks put their engines into boats and aircraft.  The dirigible basket with a 2-way clutch (separate vertical propulsion and horizontal propulsion) from the 1880s was awesome!  Even today, that's a neat feat of engineering.

7. Many European McDonald's do not serve breakfast.  Important to know if you are looking for a place to make a pit-stop early in the morning.

8. The phrase "Montezuma's revenge" must not have the same cultural impact the world-over.  At dinner Saturday night in Stuttgart, the restaurant offered "Montezuma's ribs", ribs with Montezuma sauce.  Now, as a self-respecting, meat-eating 'mericun, K would rather have a side order of e-coli, than douse his plate in "Montezuma sauce".  The entire table, even the native Israeli, passed on this delectable delight.

9. A coworker gave M some coings, i.e. quinces.  After ignoring them for a week or two, a quince-paste-making-evening was held.  While peeling the quince seems to be the general rule (per the interwebs), M carefully saved some of the skins to get the extra pectin, but K quickly tossed those random skins with all the other "waste bits", so the quince paste isn't quite as thick as we'd expected.  But, it is interesting to learn that while quince paste is bright red, the flesh of the quince is white.  The cooking turns the flesh red.  So, the ultimate lesson learned for this blog: coing are related to homard, quince are related to lobsters.

Weeks 28, 29, and 30 - Cycling around Lake Biel/Bienne, Beer Tour through French Belgium (Wallonia), and the Fête des Vendages

The last few weekends were rather busy. The weekend before last was another cycling trip with the J&J Neuchatel Informal Cycling Group. We biked around the Lake Biel/Bienne (the same lake that has Ile St. Pierre in the middle). It was mostly flat, and had good views of the lake. Two-thirds of the way through, we had lunch at a Swiss German restaurant on the north shore of the lake; it was rather expensive, but we enjoyed our fish and rösti.

Last weekend, we took advantage of the Monday holiday by driving to Belgium. Friday night, we drove to Nancy in the Lorraine region of France, about 4 hours from Neuchâtel and spent the night in an inexpensive motel. We had a low-key dinner at Quick, a European fast-food burger chain originally based in Belgium; their decorative motif looks remarkably similar to another well-known fast-food burger chain - McDonald's.

Saturday morning, we visited a little bit of the town of Nancy, which is known as a major center of Art Nouveau. We still had quite of bit of driving to do before we got to Belgium, but we decided to see the Place Stanislas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, proclaimed to be the "most beautiful place" in the world. Alright, now, that's hyping it up a bit, but it was pretty spectacular. The place is framed by gilded wrought iron gates, and gilded street lanterns dot the square. It has beautiful buildings on all sides and a fountain in two of the corners. After walking around the square, we walked to the Basilica of St. Epvre and found a patisserie and a small grocery at which we could buy breakfast.

With our croissants, baguette, cheese, cured meat, and orange juice, we headed back to the car for our drive to Chimay, the first Belgian beer stop. Chimay is actually named after the Prince of Chimay who gave the land for the monastery to the monks; the monks live and work at the Abbey of Scourmont. The actual sales are at a hostel near the abbey. We tried the Triple (Chimay white), Grand reserve (Chimay Blue) and a beer only available at the hostel made with malt but without hops - very interesting flavor profile for a hopless beer, K has no idea how they do it.

We left Chimay and were driving to our next destination at Hoegarden when we saw signs for Des Fagnes. As this trip is all about Belgian beer, who were we to pass up a perfectly good Brasserie. We stopped in, looked at their brew house and brewing museum, and sampled their blonde and bruin. It was also an opportunity to sit outside and enjoy some Belgian sunshine. It was more of a brewpub than a commercial brewery. The beer was fine, but we had other places to visit.

By now, it was later in the day than we had planned, so we did not continue on to Hoegarden, instead, we stopped at our 3rd planned brewery,

Caracole. This place was really interesting. The front part of the building is old and run-down, but in the back one can see modern, stainless-steel fermentation tanks. They regularly make 4 beers: Troublette, a wheat/whit/blonde (because blondes are trouble) with a great lemon nose; Saxo (named after the inventor of the saxophone) brewed with cardamom, very nice; the namesake, Caracole, an amber beer with a strong orange nose; and their bruin, Nostradamus (with a tulip glass, the aroma can be quite strong. Nostradamus is like a raisin punching you in the nose), the flavor was great but the nose was too strong for the glass.

We then headed to the farm near Namur where we were staying. After checking-in, we headed into town to find dinner. However, we had miscounted the weekends, and this was the big fete in Namur, so the town was packed with people. After spending far too long in traffic, we finally managed to get out of town, and simply headed back to the farm to eat car food and to sleep.

Sunday morning, after being awoken by the farm roosters, we met some of the other guests, who informed us of some local happenings, including a beer/cheese/bread festival in Durbuy (the tagline was "the greatest beers in the world in the smallest village in the world"), and the traditional stilt fighting in Namur.

But we had an appointment to keep at La Chouffe. It turned out to be a fabulous visit. The guide confirmed we were Americans, which earned us a free entry to the tour. The tour was narrated in Dutch, but we were handed papers with the English version so we could follow along. It turns out that La Chouffe is brewed with Coriander, so K is considering expanding his brew-spices. After seeing the brew-house, we drove 4km to the bottling plant. At the bottling plant, we were given La Chouffe glasses to keep. After the bottling plant, we drove 1km to a local tavern to taste the beer. 4 beers later, we were ready to head-out. Our next planned stop was Orval, but we couldn't pass-up the Durbuy festival, plus we needed some food.

The GPS-guided trip from La Chouffe to Durbuy was quite an event in itself. We got to see an old Belgian quarry and meet some mountain bikers, because the "road" was more of a bike trail. M commented that she didn't know we had purchased a 4wheel-drive VW Golf. We didn't get stuck, and I'm sure that we probably saved 0.2 km of driving distance. This is the 2nd, or 3rd, time the GPS has taken us down a path that isn't a real road; eventually we'll discover how to filter its directions but until then, it makes things interesting.

The Durbuy festival was great. More than 20 stands, with about half serving beer. And there was a marching band playing mostly old American pop songs. Several good beers tasted. It was a bit of beer blur for Ken who had 7 strong beers to try with the taster tickets he'd bought. We walked around the town a bit which is quite cute, and when it's not having beer festivals, is known for its topiary gardens. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and concluded our meal with a real Belgian waffle.

Monday we got up, again aided by the farm roosters, and made our way to the abbey at Maredsous. As K felt that 10am was a little early to have the triple beer taster, we simply bought a mixed pack of beers and got on the road to home (Monday is our assigned laundry day in the apartment building). About 7 hours later, we were home. Great weekend of exploring Europe and drinking some fabulous beers.

This weekend, there was no rest because it was the famous Neuchâtel Fête des Vendages. During the 3 day festival, over 100,000 people pack into this town with population 30,000. Festivities are officially scheduled from the afternoon until 4 am Friday and Saturday night and a mild 12 am Sunday night. Despite the origins of the fête, which was started to celebrate bringing the wine grape harvest, most of the vendors sell beer, shots of liquor or mixed drinks; however, if you look hard enough you can still find wine.

Christina, with whom we went to Annecy, took the train down from Basel to participate in Saturday's festivities; unfortunately, her husband Mike was too sick to come down. We had a blast walking around town, sampling foods from all the different stalls, watching a parade, and listening to band music. One of the food highlights was the spiral cut potato on a stick. It's fried and then coated with salt and your choice of seasoning. We got Provencale and curry, both of which were good. This definitely is one of those ideas we should import to the US.

One of the defining features of the fête is the confetti. In our otherwise clean town, the streets were coated in confetti. And just about everyone walking around had confetti in their hair or on their clothes. Not only do people have bags of confetti that they throw on random passers-by, but also the parade floats have confetti canons which pelt the crowd with confetti. We have never seen so much confetti in our entire lives. And one of the amazing things about this fête and the confetti is that, by Monday afternoon, the streets will be spotless.

Lessons learned:

1. Stilt fighting is another of those awesome European traditions that we should have in the US cause they're so awesome. Essentially, boys/young men try to take each other out on stilts.

2. Frites are actually a Belgian creation. Rather than french or freedom fries, we should call them belgian fries.

3. Most Europeans will not dance to the YMCA.

4. Barbe à papa (Papa's beard) is the French name for cotton candy.