We got up early for the Hampton breakfast, which was better
than the standard US version more by variety than quality.
Whatever; it did the job. Notably good things included a
custard puff pastry tart and (this will tell you what good
means in context) Heinz baked beans in tomato sauce; notably
not good things were the hot chocolate from a mix and orange
juice that also tasted as if it had come from a mix.

I told Bonnie we had to check out the train station, and she
said, weren't we there yesterday, and I said, just you wait, so
we went from the part of the station near the hotel through a
corridor to what was once referred to as the Cathedral of the
Railroads. Prepared not to be impressed, she didn't take her
phone with her; she repented and over the next couple days we
returned twice so she could take pictures.

Our main excursion was to the Rubenshuis, which turns out to have
been quite a palace - he must have been brought up very wealthy;
he bought this house as his career was just kicking in, and how he
could have afforded this mansion and its selection of Tintorettos,
Van Dycks, Breughels, and others, well, think starving artist no
more. It took us an hour and half to get through (with a one-way
no backtracking no lingering policy); afterward we chilled our jets
in the somewhat opulent gardens until it was time for our meal at
Graanmarkt 13, a pretty famous farm-to-table restaurant.

We got there pretty early so got our first choice of tables:
a deuce right by the building wall, somewhat shaded but breezy.

The help were friendly if not the most informed in the world.

The appetizer is listed as Zucchini / beans / barley taboule /
herbs from our rooftop garden / artisian cheese; you can
imagine how that thrills me. Luckily there was an alternative,
at a steep E14 supplement, of "open lasagna with lobster," so
I chose that.

Reports are that the regular starter was good, but I ignored
the reports and concentrated on my dish, which was a sheet of
very thin and supple pasta (I suspect part rice flour) in a
lobster bisquelike sauce and with the meat of half a small
medium-rare lobster. Flavorings included basil and vanilla.
This was even better than it sounds.

There are two main dishes available, one fish, one pork, but
you can get (for two) a two-pound sea bass for a supplement of
E30 or a ribeye for a supplement of E40, considering that the
regular menu is E35, quite a big amount.

So we got one of each of the regular offerings.

The pork cheek in brown sauce was excellent, tender and gooey,
in a rich demiglace-based sauce with wine. Classier than your
standard Flemish beef stew by a wide margin. The daily catch was
John Dory (St. Peter) filleted, sauteed skin down and basted in
butter. It was excellent. On the side, very nice mashed potatoes
and three vegetable dishes - seaweed-cucumber salad with soy,
sesame oil, homemade mayonnaise, and black sesame seeds; kale
cole slaw with that same mayo; and tomatoes in red wine vinegar.
All were excellent, though all something you could make yourself
with the proper ingredients (much of the produce is grown on the
roof of the restaurant and thus presumably quite fresh). Oh, and
a salad of butter lettuce, cucumber, and tomato in ranch dressing,
all of whose ingredients about as good as could be hoped for.

Wines were a very pale Provencal rose that might as well have been
white, a Vire-Clesse from the Macon that was a typical Chardonnay,
and a standard Cotes du Rhone.

For dessert I got a creme brulee with blueberries and strawberries,
basil, and buttermilk ice cream so-called that was really a bunch
of blueberries (native, good) and strawberries (native, excellent)
topped with a sort of floating island and then torched, a few bits
of basil grown on the rooftop strewn over. A glass of Schloss
L...something Riesling Kabinett went well.

The fine arts museum is closed for renovations. Not, I hope, so
extensive as those at Lille I think it was where water leaks
heavily damaged the museum's entire Odilon Redon collection, which
is now off the walls for conservation or salvage.

Oh, well, there other things to see. We went down into the old
town, where lie the great market, the cathedral, and the church of
St. Carlo Borromeo stand, this last the site of a lightning strike
that incinerated 39 Rubens and Van Dyck paintings in 1718.

Then to the St. Anna tunnel, which connects the old city with the
less interesting left bank. It was built under the Scheldt because
at the time of its design it was deemed that a bridge would disrupt
river traffic too much. So they built a 2000-ft pedestrian and
bicycle tunnel under the river, a sort of marvel I guess. On the
other side, there are views of old town, though these are largely
blocked by out-of-control vegetation.

It was another hot day, and we retreated to a retro bar called
Retro, where Bonnie had a Kir and I a chocolate milk washing down
a glass of Remy. Chocolate milk is better in Belgium.

Instead of dinner, we economized by getting a glass of Merlot
at the Hampton bar (so-called); it's the breakfast room with the
front desk staff tending bar when there aren't any guests to
check in or out. Chocolate from our Bruges adventure accompanied.
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