Parthemores in Poland

We stayed two nights in Brugge, Belgium, which is a beautiful little city filled with quaint old buildings, idyllic canals and a bunch of tourists.  The whole town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We thought that two nights would be enough to explore the city, since it isn’t especially big.  But we didn’t count on it being the world’s most delicious rat maze.

I’m getting hungry just writing about this….  Every kind of chocolate imaginable, waffles with whipped cream and your choice of other delicious toppings, fresh mussels, french fries (we skipped the mayo) and numerous pubs and restaurants featuring extensive beer selections. 

Belgian beer is supposed to be the best in the world.  And we found out why – because there are so many choices!  One place we went to had a selection of 400 beers and they are all listed with a brief description in a “menu” larger than some of my college textbooks.  This is even more impressive when you consider that the beer is served in a glass with the brand name on it.  I think this might be a law in Europe…even in Poland, you can tell instantly what people are drinking throughout the restaurant.  I imagine that this place probably has a warehouse out back to store all the beer glasses it would need. 

We also toured the last remaining brewery in Brugge, De Halve Maan.  The tour was more “how it used to be” vs. “how we do it now” and featured some very steep staircases.  But we went to the roof for a neat panorama of the city:

To give you a respite from all the food, Brugge also has a high concentration of neat old buildings.  You can see two of the churches in the photo behind us, but many of the hotels, houses, and stores are also from the 1600s.  And throughout the city is a network of canals, teeming with swans and tour boats.

  The Market Square

Brugge seemed to be a popular tourist stop for the Brits as well as the French.  You can take a carriage tour or simply rent bikes to get lost faster than walking.  What do you get when you combine horse-drawn carriages, confused bikers, one way streets and lots of pedestrians?  A terrible place to drive.  Luckily, our hotel was near the edge of town, so we didn’t have to do too much of that. 

There is also a Collin Farrell movie, “In Bruges” about the city.  We haven’t seen it yet, though.  “Bruges” is the English/French name for the city and “Brugge” is the Dutch name.  Just so you know.

We also brought Daisy with us on this trip.  We had no problem finding hotels and even restaurants that would allow her. 

Two ladies who were taking photos of the swans stopped what they were doing and started taking pictures of her.  After she returned to sitting normally, one asked in an accent I couldn’t identify:  “Kahn he doo itz again?”  Priceless.

Since I’m still hungry, it’s time to indulge in a delicious Polish pre-Lenten tradition: pączki!  These are like cream or jelly-filled donuts in the US.  Oddly, they don’t observe the “Fat” on Tuesday, but instead on the preceding Thursday.  I don’t really know why that is, but I’m taking the opportunity to eat pączki on both days. 

I remember when I was growing up, hearing the DJs on the radio talk about getting pączki for Fat Tuesday.  But since Detroiters must mispronounce all foreign words, I still think of them as “poonch-keys.”  Now that I’m studying Polish, I know that isn’t the right way and that the singular form is actually pączek, pronounced “pon-check.”  Maybe I should go to the bakery and order more so I can practice….

We’ll put more pictures in the photo section too.  Enjoy!