On our second day in Brussels we spent the entire morning exploring the Magritte Museum, followed by an exhibition of Stanley Kubrick photography at the Musée de Beaux Artes.

In the early part of the afternoon we explored the rest of the Musée de Beaux Artes, examining the Boschs plus the Rubens plus the Rembrants plus, plus…

By 2:30 we all had sore feet and were getting both peckish and thirsty. Our friends took off for a reception that promised both food and drink, leaving Al and I to discover that hardly anyone served lunch at 2:30 in the afternoon. However we did manage to locate ‘A la Mort Subite‘*. This historic brasserie had tons of atmosphere, tons of beer and even served food!

our beers along with Al’s traditional slab o’ bread with ham. The food looks like something out of the 16th century paintings that had us drooling in the art museums.

Al had a Afflingem beer and I had a Grimbergen. With the choice of beer in Belgium being so overwhelming, I decided to make tasting notes. Checking back I see that although I wrote nothing about Al’s Afflingem, I described my Grimbergen as a ‘brun’, ‘smooth’ and ‘I like a lot’, noting that Al found it ‘ordinary’.

The food choices weren’t nearly as exciting as the beer choices. Al had a slab o’ bread with Ardennes ham, and I had something like a half a pound of cubed cheese, oops, fromage.

Later, when we reconnected with our friends, they said they had been to the Mort Subite as well and had their waffles which had been described by the waitress as ‘industriel’. In other words, the waffles came in plastic wrap like something out of a gas station take-away. This is a great atmospheric pub but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for its food.

*the name translates as ‘Sudden Death’, a type of dice game played by the locals during their lunch breaks.

TRADITIONAL PUBS WE VISITED WHILE IN BRUSSELS (BRUXELLES)

• Au Bon Vieux Temps: a 300 year-old bar in Brussels, where we had an interesting beer tasting experience
• ‘A la Becasse‘, where Al had a slab o’ bread with Ardennes ham, and of course we both tasted more Belgian beer
• Toone, with a great selection of beer and a bar cat!

The post that led us astray; even though it is from 2008, the ‘Top 10 Traditional Bars in Brussels’ being ‘traditional’, are still there, and haven’t changed much:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/feb/19/brussels.bars

On Fairytale Bruges (Brugge):

• lunch at the Cambrinus
• tour of the Brewery in Bruges
• t’ Brugs Beertje in Bruges
• dinner at the Cambrinus
• shopping for a picnic in Bruges, Belgium
• warming up a chilly day in Bruges
• the Verdi B&B

On Ghent (Gent):

• beer and museums on our first day in Ghent
• beer, food and museums on our second day in Ghent – Part 1
• Ghent SMAK exhibit, the conceptual Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov
• beer, food and museums on our second day in Ghent – Part 2