3/27/05 Brussels

"Got back from the wedding at 3am last night and, as it turns out, for some reason, Europe does daylight savings a week earlier than the U.S. - so we really got back at 4am. Then we had to check out of the hotel by 11, so we only got about 5 hours of sleep - minus, of course, the half hour i layed awake listening to the guy in the next room snoring. I mean, these walls were really very thin in this hotel, but it sounded like this guy was in the same room. Megan said if I ever snored like that she'd dump me. I don't blame her.

So we got up and checked out and stopped at a laundrymat down the street to wash some clothes. I went and tried to find us coffee, but its Easter Sunday - just another reason for everything to shut down. Antwerp was a ghost town.

After the laundry was done we hopped on a train to Brussels. The ride was only about an hour, and thanks to Megan's navigation skills, we found the hotel in about 20 minutes. This hotel is a bit of a treat for us. I found a deal on-line for $80/night, and its a 4-star hotel. It's really very nice. Somehow, though, I wasn't surprised when they had no record of my reservation. Luckily I had written down all the web-sites I used to book hotels along with confirmation numbers and phone numbers. After a phone call, it was all fixed. The room is huge, with a king-size bed and a vestibule. The bed is so big that you can lay width-wise and not hang over the sides.

Megan took a shower while I began calling around for dinner reservations. Most places are closed on sundays, which would never fly in the states, but whatever. As it turns out, people here not only take sundays off, and not only Easter off, but a full Easter 'holiday'. A fucking week off for Easter!! And we're not talking about banks here, we're talking about restaurants - several of them - like, every one I called.

So I finally found a place that's open tomorrow and booked a table there. The only place that sounded good that was open tonight didn't take reservations, so we decided to just walk down there. We were walking down a small alley-sized street, when at the end it opened up into this huge plaza surrounded by severel-hundred-year-old buildings. It seriously didn't look like anything had changed here in 600 years. It was gorgeous, complete with a cathedral. You could totally picture the executions going on here centuries earlier.

After some more winding through back streets, we came to realize that the restaurant we were looking for was back in the plaza. It turned out that it was a tourist place...and with a wait no less. So we opted to wing it in the back streets of Brussels.

We settled on a Swiss place with wall-to-wall wood paneling. It was cozy and had a lodgey feel to it. After ordering up a couple of Hoegardens, I opted for the gruyere quiche. Megan, feeling the effects of all the frites and chocolate over the past three days, got a salad. Before the first course even showed up, we were brought bread and cornichons. I could have eaten just the bread with French butter and cornichons for dinner.

My quiche showed up and was delicous. With the bare minimum of egg to officially call it a quiche, it was cheesy - and the tart-like dough was crispy and crumbly. The whole thing was on a bed of iceberg lettuce dressed in lemon vinaigrette. It was a nice, refreshing contrast.

By the time I had finished that off, along with the half of a baquette and dozen or so cornichons, I was full. But I had to forge on. Next was fondue. Yes...more cheese. Megan was in heaven. Hers had tomatoes and mine had morels. All of the cheese, though, drowned out all the flavorings, so, being full anyway, I basically just pulled out all the morels and ate those. The fondue came with a big pot of boiled new potatoes. They weren't even cooked in salted water. I used the bread instead, reverting back to my old friends the cornichons in between bites to cut the richness. I wish the fondue had come with someting else like the quiche did to contrast it.

Overall, the food was very good, but the menu didn't seem very well planned or thought out. I guess they figured that if they stuff you with enough cheese, that you'll leave happy. Then again, what the hell do I know? Megan was a pig in shit the entire time."