Day 4: "Why would anybody have to go to Belgium??"

—one of the few family-friendly quotes from the awesome movie "In Bruges"

Day 4 commenced with a drive out to Louvain-la-Neuve to visit the Hergé Museum. Hergé was a Brussels-born cartoonist best known for his series The Adventures of Tintin. He made up his pen name by switching his actual initials (GR) around; the French pronunciation of "RG" sounds just like Hergé ("air-zhay"). Tintin is huge in France and Belgium and (apparently) Cliff's family.

Hergé musuem, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium

After our prior train fiasco, it was nice to have access to a car (which we borrowed from Stelios) and gps that would take us straight to the museum without any mishaps.

We didn't know this at the time, but the cities of Louvain (Leuven) and Louvain-la-Neuve have more in common than serving only to confuse a pair of unlucky tourists and their ticketing agent.

[Louvain-la-Neuve] was built to house the Université Catholique de Louvain; following the linguistic quarrels that took place in Belgium during the 1960s, and Flemish claims of discrimination at the Catholic University of Leuven, the institution was split into the Dutch language Katholieke Universiteit Leuven which remained in Leuven, and the Université Catholique de Louvain.

Not to make light of the controversy, but are you picturing the "linguistic quarrels" in your head?? I can see dictionaries being thrown and/or burned, I can see intense arguments over pints of gueuze, the Dutch speakers shouting GUR-zuh!! and the French-speakers retorting GEUHZZZ. Fun stuff.

I was starving when we got to the museum, and it was almost lunchtime, so we sat down to an over-priced but decent meal at the museum cafe.

The museum is only a couple years old and really well done. I'm not necessarily a Tintin fan, but I enjoyed the displays, and the audioguide was informative and enjoyable. And the museum was handing out super nice Tintin books for all visitors that day—score!

Another one for the collection

We didn't really have a plan for the rest of the day; we'd seen everything we needed to see in Brussels, so going back there didn't sound very exciting. We ended up driving out to Bruges (about an hour and a half away). Now I wish we'd saved a whole day for this, but alas...maybe I'll have to return someday.

I don't care what Colin Farrell says about Bruges in the movie "In Bruges" (GREAT movie, by the way). It's a wonderful place to while away a few hours or days. It's charming and magical with its cobblestone streets and canals—a veritable Venice of Belgium (I've never been to Venice, so I really can't back this up).

We got there pretty late on a Sunday, so lots of things were closing up. My first order of business upon arrival was chocolate, of course. I stopped into Dumon chocolatier, which is a tiny family-owned shop near the main square.

There was hardly room to move in there, but the chocolates were SO worth it, and the old Belgian shop owner lady was very kind and patient in explaining what everything was. She took great care wrapping up and boxing all the chocolates. I sort of wanted to grab them out of her hands and eat them right there...but I didn't. I waited until we got to the Markt (the main square) to sample some of them.

Eating chocolate and trying not to get run over by horse-drawn carriages in the Markt (Market Square)

This chocolate served to coat our stomachs in preparation for the beer that was about to be poured in. For our next order of business was, of course, beer. Cliff found a great spot in his beer book: 't Brugs Beertje, located off the main drag. This place had a huge book of beer, and we both sampled some nice Belgian brews as the tiny place quickly filled up with locals and tourists alike.

't Brugs Beertje

Then we wandered around town, where I stumbled upon "The World's Best Hot Chocolate." I was very skeptical of this claim, as I consider myself pretty well-versed in hot chocolate, and, frankly, a hot chocolate snob. So I set out to verify it. I went inside and paid for a tiny cup of what ended up being, surprisingly, one of the best hot chocolates I've ever had. I don't know about "world's best," but it was pretty darn close. It was rich, creamy, and tasted like...chocolate! Imagine that!

I don't look that excited, but believe me, I'm focused on the hot chocolate

We then strolled along the canal, gazing at the beautiful churches and buildings. We even came across a statue of the seemingly random and un-Belgian-sounding guy "Guido", whom we first saw on the label of the beer I had just consumed. (For the record, Guido Gezelle was a Flemish-language writer, priest, and poet.)

Finally, we started to seek out a good dinner place. We ended up at a Greek restaurant just off the main square, The Olive Tree. It ended up being one of the best (if not THE best) meals we had in Belgium. Stelios would be proud. The owner really was Greek (Cliff checked). Calamari...moussaka...yummy bread...olives, of course...and some sort of bready clove-y walnuty dessert. Pretty sure that's the official Greek name.

Mmmmmmoussaka!

Coffee-in' up for the drive back to Brussels

We rolled ourselves on out of there and back to the car, where we waved goodbye to Bruges and its beautiful windmills.

Au revoir, Bruges!