In Bruges

A few years ago we watched a movie that had been getting good word of mouth.  It's called In Bruges and stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.  They play hit men who are told by their boss (played by Ralph Fiennes) to hide out in Bruges and wait for his instructions. 

Brendan Gleeson's character, Ken, is enchanted by Bruges and it's storybook setting, old buildings, canals and swans.  Ray (Colin Farrell) is bored and not interested in soaking up the local scenery but Ken insists that he go with him.  Of course there is more to the story but I don't want to give anything away. 

I mentioned it because the movie was filmed on location in Bruges and is somewhat of a travelogue.  When we were planning our trip to Europe, one of the reasons I wanted to go to Bruges was because of this movie.  However, this is a violent crime drama so it's not for everyone.  I do recommend it though. 

Belgian chocolate

Bruges is known for its chocolates and we went to a few stores to sample some.  The first shop we went to offered hot chocolate served in a unique way.  They brought us a cup of warm milk with the chocolate of our choice on a spoon.  We swirled the spoons into the milk until the chocolate melted - yummy!

We also went to the Chocolate Line since our hotel owner said it was the best in town.  The owner, Dominique Persoone, is well known and has a book called Cacao, the Chocolate Route.  You can see the chocolates being made in the store and the delicious scents are intoxicating!

Here I am outside the store  -

The Chocolate Line in Bruges

They have some very unique flavors of chocolate there such as black olive and no, we didn't try that one! I love the lavender chocolates.  They even have chocolate lipstick.  Check out their website -

http://www.thechocolateline.be/

I heard that Dominique worked on the movie Alice in Wonderland and they had some related chocolate items on display in the window.  The store was crowded with tourists  and I'm sure it's listed in many guidebooks as a must-see.

Dinner in Bruges

I was going to blog about our trip to Europe from start to finish, but I decided to write about memories as they occur to me instead.  Here are two photos of the meals Jackson and I had at a seafood place called Den Golden Karpe in Bruges.

Jackson had this dish above -

And this is what I had.  Both meals tasted as good as they looked!  We shared some Armagnac (brandy) after dinner.  There was an episode of The Sopranos were one of the characters invested in Armagnac (I reminded Jackson of that story before I ordered it) and I was curious if I would like it.  It's very strong and I sipped it slowly but I did enjoy it!

Before we had dinner we stopped to look at paintings by a local Persian artist named Socotti whose paintings of Bruges scenery look almost like photographs.  We talked to him for awhile and chose two of his paintings.  I spent a lot of time deciding which ones to buy and Socotti told me I had the soul of an artist even though I have no artistic talent.  What a nice thing for him to say!