The Rice Bowl Blog Day 5

19/11/14 - Day out in Bruges!

Lunch at La' Dentellière : 1340-1500hrs

Mussels in white wine

Mussels in beer and cream

Fries with mayonnaise

Scampi with garlic herbs

Cheese croquette

Angela: The resort seaport:

It was the perfect lunch: mussels cooked in two different wine and beer sauces, French fries w mayonnaise, appetizer of garlic prawns n cheese croquets. And of course draft local Brugges beers. After lunch we strolled over to a serene hermitic compound set up long ago by widows and spinsters which now turned into UNESCO heritage site. The organ music in the quiet compound led me into a grand but extremely dim chapel. The red candle flames beckoned me to do my offer. I put a $2 euro coin into the donation box and proceeded to light my candle. The peaceful silence was so overwhelming that tears just welled up in my eyes. I came out from the dark chapel and cut through the bare trees in the centre of the compound. After browsing through couple souvenir shops we stopped for Belgium waffles and coffee. That was when I realized my pouch with cash and credit card inside my back pack was gone. A quick back track with help from the dancers came to no avail. A silent shock slowly welled up after mentally retracing my path. The only time I was totally off guard was that overwhelming silent moment that I experienced in the church. I vaguely recalled seeing two young boys with their father coming inside the narrow candle area while I was placing my candle on the rack. The only time I was close to anyone. As Mimie says afterwards perhaps it's some sort of karma payback that this whole incident happened. A most Buddhist viewpoint to sum up this incident that purportedly may have happened inside an ancient place of worship. Together with the loss of my money pouch and also my appetite for dinner tonight - innocence has just taken a hard punch in the stomach.

Edwin: Walking into a city looking for the best place to have mussels, with no prior research, we all have to depend on pure luck and faith. In a very historic venue, we took all kinds of daring turns into little alleys with no reason or sign. Just intuition. And voila! We found a cozy place for supremely delicious mussels and shrimps, next to a horse carriage depot and a serene swan lake by a stream.

Tomomi: 馬車が街中を通る、馬に繋がりが深い街のようで、親近感が湧く。三時間かけて食べに行ったムール貝。最高！地ビールも然り。今日の一言"Save water ,Drink Belgium Beer".

Carriage town, many horses.. feeling like my hometown.

We took 3 hours to get good mussels and local beer, they were awesome!!

Today's word.." Save water, Drink Belgium beer" from 500 types of beer shop.

Mimie: Mussels and Waffles. We have reached Belgium.

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