beer | Traveling Times

After our typical slow start we went in search of breakfast. We found a table for four at the Verdi Restaurant … or maybe we were in the Tea Room. Who knows? I had a simple breakfast of two rather sad slices of toast (I thought they would be a bit nicer than they were, but whatever) and a cappuccino. While we ate we heard (no surprise) snippets from Verdi operas. Outside were what appeared to be very musical frogs.

From there we opted to go in search of the loading spot for a boat tour on the canal.

We bought our 15€ each boat tickets and waited for our “ship” to come in. The tour guide spoke several languages, but I must confess I could barely understand him even when he spoke in English between my bad ear, the mic, and the general noises nearby. So it goes. It was a pretty ride, and we saw a few things we wanted to later check out.

After the ride we were planning on finding a place to sit and enjoy a beer (it’s’ Belgium, after all), but first we saw a church so we opted to go in. We soon found out it was a church-turned-museum. We looked around a small amount, but then opted not to pay the fee to see more and went back outside.

Walking more, we ended up at a place we had seen from the boat tour. Beers and Padron peppers were ordered and enjoyed. We had hoped for fries, but it didn’t appear that they had them. This meant we would “have” to take another stop somewhere later to get those. As we sat there the sun would come and go, but no rain! The people sitting in the next table over offered to take photos for us (on Greg’s camera: mine are from Dan and his nice long arm that can manage to get us all into the frame). Then “we” (primarily Greg and Dan) chatted with them for a while. My bad ear was aimed toward them, so I missed some things, but I believe the woman was from the Netherlands and the man from Germany. I could very well have gotten that wrong, though.

More walking transpired, and of course more photos were taken.

We entered one area where we were instructed to be quiet. It was a place where, in the 13th century, emancipated women who dedicated themselves to God resided. It is still a place for nuns and single women. It was so very quiet there, and quite peaceful.

Now, keeping in mind that we had not gotten our much deserved fries, we found a place that would serve them. You’d think it would be easy, but some places didn’t have them, so we walked until we found a place. It was … um … interesting: bras were hanging from the ceiling and many coasters were signed and on the walls. I suspect some women offer up their bras and maybe it’s for a free beer or something. Who knows? No beer for Jan and me this time: the one from earlier seemed stronger than we expected, so sparkling water was our drink of choice! I should have taken a photo of the bathroom area out back but neglected to do so. (I wasn’t interested in the ceiling with bras, nor was I willing to sacrifice mine. Breathe a sigh of relief if you’d like!) But back to the bathrooms — one sign pointed to the right and read, “Women are always right,” while the other pointed left and read, “Men to the left.” Yep! Truth.

More walking, and then we entered the Sint-Salvatorskathedraal. I had seen it on the map and it showed a few photos that made it seem rather interesting. And it was. We saw a few things there that were in yesterday’s parade, a few organs, and of course lots of stained glass.

By that time it was nearing 16:00, so we decided it was back to our hotel for a bit of rest. I even managed to sleep a bit. And suddenly it was time to leave for our dinner at Curiosa. I had booked dinners for both nights here because of the festivities yesterday and the warning from our hotel that restaurants fill quickly on weekends. Sure enough, we we got to the restaurant it said it had no openings, so I’m really glad I had made reservations. The place was, as far as I’m concerned, quite special. It was down some steep stairs, very quiet, and not all that many tables were there (and some never did fill up). As far as we could tell the server was the only person working. Was he also the cook? We wondered! The food was delicious and the ambience lovely. And the huge thing? I didn’t have to struggle to hear conversation! I’m just sorry I didn’t take a photo of the place itself, as it was really fun.

Before going back to the hotel we picked up a few pieces of chocolate. I decided to hang on to mine — I’m too stuffed to eat another bite! We also took some final photos.