In Bruges

Kati an Me at the Snow & Ice Sculpture Festival

Yesterday was New Year's Eve and it was a busy day for us in Bruges.  The city was packed with tourists; something that I definitely didn't expect when we booked the trip.

The first stop on our tour of Bruges was the Disney Snow & Ice Sculpture Festival.  It sounds really cheesy and kid-oriented, but it was awesome.  Seriously, the things that they did with ice was amazing.  There were castles, pirate ships, bars, and dozens of storybook scenes.  There was even an ice slide that you could take down from the ice castle.

After we got our fill of the freezing cold, we hustled over to Heilig-Bloedbasiliek (the Basilica of the Holy Blood).  It's so named because it houses a vial of Christ's blood, brought to Bruges in the 12th century during the crusades.  The basilica was stunning.  The entire chapel was painted and adorned with golden designs.  It was very reminiscent of the painted churches in Eastern Europe.

By the time we finished up at the basilica, we were both ready to relax and get some beer, so we headed down to the Brouwerij De Halve Maan, the only operating brewery still in Bruges.  They make four different beers: Brugse Zot (their flagship), and three beers sold under the Straffe Hendrik label, a tripel, a quadrupel, and a quintessentially Brugian brew called "Heritage."  The Straffe Hendrik beers were particularly great.

We spent most of our afternoon exploring the streets of Bruges and stopping in different shops, grabbing a few beers along the way.  After being turned away from climbing the Belfry, we decided to stop in to the nearby Salvador Dali museum.  Dali is one of my favorite painters and his exhibition did not disappoint.  Even though there weren't any of his most famous paintings on display, we got to see tons of his rarer pieces and get a glimpse into some of his even more bizarre and surreal works that would likely be considered too strange or too perverse for the general public.

Enjoying our Westvletern Conquest

Our last stop in the afternoon was Cambrinus, a well-known beer bar in the city.  They closed at 4:00 and we squeaked in at 3:50, on a mission to complete the hardest leg of my beer tasting adventure in Belgium.  The Westvletern Abbey, located in rural Flanders, about an hour south of Bruges, produces some of the most sought after beers in the world.  The monks there still do all of the production themselves.  You can only get their beer AT the abbey and they limit how much you can buy.  To begin with, you have to call a single phone line and hope that you get through.  If you do, you can make a reservation to stop by on limited days and pick up the beer.  When you make a reservation, you have to give them a license plate and you can only get two wooden cases of beer once every 60 days.  The beers are not supposed to be sold on the commercial market but are regarded by many as the best beers in the world.  The beers are sold in nondescript bottles that can only be distinguished by the color of their cap: green for the blonde; blue for the 8, and yellow for the 12.  We had gotten word that Cambrinus served the Westvletern brews (for a price) and we had to check it out.  We were in luck!  They had all three.  We tried the blonde and the 8, both of which were truly incredible.  I don't know if I would go so far as to say that they are undeniably the best beers in the world, but they were very enjoyable.  My only regret is that we decided against trying the 12 as well.

After a tiring few days, we decided to take a quick nap to rejuvenate ourselves for the New Year's Eve festivities.  Thank God that we did, because it was another long night.  After an enjoyable dinner, we wandered around the city, grabbed a few more chocolates, and enjoyed a couple of beers to kill time before midnight.

Around 11:30, we walked down to t' Zand.  The whole square was a giant party.  They were playing the top songs from 2013.  It was hilarious to see the Belgians lose their minds when "Wrecking Ball" came on.  At midnight they set off a very impressive fireworks display set to Abba's "Happy New Year."  It was a truly incredible ending to the perfect week in Europe.  We capped it off by enjoying a bottle of St. Martin's Rose Brut and turning in so that we could still manage to wake up early to begin our final journey home.