Original subtitles

Hi I'm Rick Steves, back with more of the best of Europe.

This time we've got buckets of mussels� the best fries in Europe, with mayonnaise�

monk-made beer� crunchy waffles� and dreamy chocolate�

Yep, we must be in Belgium!

Belgium is one of Europe's great secrets.

500 years ago a trade boom left it with dazzling art and architecture.

And today it's re-emerging as a trade capital of Europe.

For travellers it's a breeze, everything is close togheter

well organized, there's almost no language barrier and the people, they're wonderful.

Enjoying the highlights of Belgium, we start in Bruges, with Renoir canals,

fanciful gilded architecture, serene flemish masterpieces,

and according to locals, the best beer in the world.

Where else can you bike along a canal, savor heavenly chocolate

and see a Michelangelo, all within earshot of a bell tower with a hyper-active carillon?

Then, we head for Brussels, home of Europe's most magnificent medieval square

and capital of the European Union.

Almost lost between Germany and France in the middle of Europe,

tiny Belgium is easy to overlook.

But we'll see why it's worth discovering.

After exploring Bruges, we'll ride the train to the capital, Brussels.

We're starting in Brugge [BROO-ghah], as the Flemish who live in this part of Belgium call their town.

The French-speaking half of the country, and English speakers call it Bruges [broozh].

However you choose to pronounce it, the name comes from the Viking word for "wharf."

In other words�it's been a trading center for a long time.

About a thousand years ago, the city grew wealth as the most important textile market in northern Europe.

Back then, the city's canals provided merchants smooth transportation.

Today, they provide visitors smooth photo-ops.

A short cruise shows off the town's old wealth.

By the 14th century, Bruges' population was 40.000, as large as London's.

As the middleman in sea trade between northern and southern Europe, it was an economic powerhouse.

In the 15th century, while England and France were slogging it out in a 100 years-long war,

Bruges was the favored residence of the powerful and sophisticated Dukes of Burgundy

and at peace.

Commerce and the arts flourished.

But by the 16th century, its harbor silted up, trade moved to the port of Antwerp

and the economy collapsed ending Bruges' Golden Age.

The town slumbered for generations.

Then, in the 20th century, the tourists discovered the charms of Bruges.

Today this uniquely well-preserved Gothic city prospers because of tourism.

Even with its crowds, it's the kind of city where you don't mind being a tourist.

And, it hides some sweet surprises�

The people of Brugges are connoisseurs of fine chocolate.

You'll be tempted by chocolate-filled display windows all over town.

Locals buy their chocolates fresh daily, like other people buy pastries.

They love the family-run places

like Dumon, where Madam Dumon and her children are hard at work.

Their ganache, a dark creamy combo, wows chocoholics.

Bruges seems to have a chocolate shop on every corner, and some are more adventurous than others.

The Chocolate Line, famous for its many gastronomique varieties, proudly shows off its kitchen.

Everything is lovingly made by hand.

Some specials come with an extra dose of creativity.

So how many different flavours do you have ? About 60 different kinds we have.

You must have some special flavours.

We have special ones, like cuban tobacco, or saffron curry, or ginger.

Cuban tobacco ? Yes.

Is that legal for americans ? Yeah.

Can I try one ? Yes, sure.

So, how is this made? It's a layer of marzipan

flavoured by tobacco of Cuba. Cuba tobacco leaves ?

Wow !

Probably not as good as a cuban cigar, but it's very good as a chocolate.

The Market Square, ringed by restaurant terraces, great old gabled buildings and the bell tower,

marks the city center today as it did in its medieval heyday.

Back then, a canal came right up to this square.

Farmers in the countryside shipped their wool and flax to Bruges.

Before loading it onto outgoing boats, the industrious locals would maximize their profit by dying,

spinning and weaving into finished textiles.

The bell tower has stood over Market Square since 1300.

Climb the 366 steps for a commanding view.

The tower houses a grand carillon.

Rather than fingers the carillon player uses his fists and feet.

Aime Lombaert, who's rung these bells since 1984, arranges his own music and enjoys sharing his art.

Grab a bench in the courtyard to enjoy one of the regular and free carillon concerts.

The opulent square called Burg, Bruges' historical birthplace, political center and religious heart

is decorated with six centuries of fine architecture.

The square's historic highlight is the Basilica of the Holy Blood.

The gleaming gold knights and ladies on the church's gray facade

remind us that this church was built by a Crusader in the 12th century

to house the drops of Christ's blood which he brought back from Jerusalem.

Inside the Basilica, the stark decor reeks of the medieval piety

that drove those crusading Europeans christians on their holy war against the Muslims.

With heavy columns and round arches, the style is pure Romanesque.

Stairs lead to the brighter Gothic style upper chapel.

The painting at the altar tells how the holy blood got here.

Derrick of Alsace, having helped conquer Muslim-held Jerusalem in the Second Crusade,

Here, he kneels before the grateful Christian patriarch of Jerusalem, who rewards him with the relic.

Derrick returns home and kneels before Bruges' bishop to give him the vial of blood.

Next door is the town hall.

Fifteenth-century Bruges was a thriving bastion of capitalism

and this building served as a model for town halls elsewhere, including Brussels.

One of Europe's first representative governments convened right here.

In the adjoining room, old paintings and maps show how little the city has changed over the centuries.

This map shows in exquisite detail the city as it looked in 1562,

when a canal connected the North Sea to Market Square.

A fortified moat circled the city.

Of the town's 28 windmills�

� four survive today.

The mills made paper, ground grain and functioned as the motor of the Middle Ages.

My favorite way to explore Bruges is on two wheels.

Just about anywhere in Europe where the biking's good, you'll find handy and inexpensive bike rentals.

Get lost on the back streets, away from the shopping and tour groups.

Working up an appetite, you'll be tempted by the smell of French fries,

called Flemish fries here, they are a local specialty.

And, in Belgium, fries are an art form, taken very seriously.

Who made the first fry ? Belgium.

This potato was peeled this morning, cut in pieces and put in that fat.

You actually cook it in grease two times.

Two times. Once in that, then it rests here, afterwards, second time, high temperature.

Low temperature, resting, high temperature.

These are forming a skin right now.

Yes, you see, these fries are swimming like fishes in the fat.

They are talking.

I hear them, yes. What are they saying ?

That they are ready to be eaten.

In the 1500s, rich men and women decided that lace collars, sleeves and veils were fashionable.

For the next two hundred years, lace was the rage.

It all had to be made by hand and countless women earned extra income meeting the demand.

This school makes sure that traditional lacemaking survives in Bruges.

People come from around the world to study these 400-year-old techniques.

To make bobbin lace (which originated here in Bruges),

women juggle different strands tied to bobbins, weaving a design with the many threads.

Unlike knitting, lacemaking requires total concentration as you follow intricate patterns.

Nearby, The Gruuthuse Museum, a 15th-century mansion of a wealthy Bruges merchant,

displays period furniture, tapestries and much more.

This region was renown for fine tapestries. They were popular with the wealthy

colorful, great for warming up big drafty interiors and a fun opportunity for a rich guy to tell a story.

This series tells of courtship and marriage in the early 1600s.

The scenes and their old French captions

subtly spin a story of youthful lustiness that upsets stereotypes about medieval piety.

Scene one, called Soup-Eating Lady, shows a shepherd girl with a bowl of soup in her lap.

The flirtatious shepherd lad cuts a slice of bread (that's foreplay in medieval symbolism)

and, according to the text saucily asks if he can "dip into the goodies in her lap"

Nearby, another woman brazenly strips off her socks to dangle her feet in water.

In scene 2, called The Dance,

couples freely dance together under the apple tree of temptation and around a bagpipe

symbolic back then of hedonism.

The Wedding Parade shows where all this wantonness leads: marriage.

Music plays, the table is set and the meat's on the BBQ, as the bride and groom enter� reluctantly.

The bride smiles, but she's closely escorted by two men, while the scared groom gulps nervously.

Finally, in the last scene called Old Age, the now elderly shepherd is tangled in a wolf trap.

The caption reads "Alas, he was once so lively, but marriage caught him

and now he's trapped in its net."

The merchant who lived here had it all.

In fact, his mansion even had a private chapel

with a box seat overlooking the cathedral altar.

This was the ultimate in church-going convenience

he could attend Mass and not even leave the house.

For 600 years the Church of Our Lady has stood

with its 400-foot tall tower of bricks

as a memorial to the power and wealth of Bruges at its height.

Inside, reclining statues mark the tombs of the last local rulers of Bruges,

Mary of Burgundy and her father, Charles the Bold.

This delicate Madonna and Child is said have been the only Michelangelo statue to leave Italy in his lifetime.

It marks the tomb of the wealthy Bruges businessman who bought the statue in Tuscany.

Mary, slightly smaller than life-size, sits while young Jesus stands in front of her.

Their expressions are mirror images of each other, serene, but a bit melancholy,

with downcast eyes, as though pondering what lies ahead for the young child.

Though they're lost in thought, their hands instinctively link, tenderly.

Just a cross the street, a monastery ran a hospital.

It's recalls how the sick were treated.

It also displays masterpieces by the great Flemish painter, hometown boy, Hans Memling.

Some 500 years ago, the nave of this former church was lined with the sick and dying.

Nuns served as nurses.

In many ways, this was less a hospital than a hospice.

It helped the down-and-out make the transition from this world to the next.

Rather than dying in the streets, they died here�with dignity.

Care was more for the soul than the body.

Religious art reminded the sufferers that Christ could feel their pain,

having lived it himself.

Today, rather than the sick and dying,

the wards now house a handful of exquisite paintings by Hans Memling

Memling was the master of "Flemish Primitives."

"Primitive" is not an insult.

It was a 19th-century term for nostalgic, pure and spiritual art

of these highly skilled 15th century oil painters.

Employed by and often portraying Belgium's wealthy,

they captured their world in astonishing detail.

Hans Memling's Saint John altarpiece

was designed to comfort patients in the hospital.

Gazing at this slice of heaven, they could imagine leaving this world of pain and illness

and joining Mary and Jesus in a serene setting,

listening to heavenly music and conversing with the saints.

Memling's heaven echoes wealthy Bruges in the 1400s, showing the city skyline,

Oriental carpets that passed through here,

fine furniture manufactured by the city

and the latest Italian fashions.

In the right panel, Memling then takes us on a journey to the end of the world.

John the Evangelist sits on the island of Patmos

transfixed as he envisions the Apocalypse now.

He writes down his vision, a revelation of the end of time

which eventually becomes the last book of the bible�Revelations.

Up in heaven, in a rainbow bubble, God opens the seals of a book,

unleashing awful events

fires, plagues and wars that stretch as far as the eye can see.

The dreaded Four Horsemen gallop across the dreamscape

chasing helpless mortals who scramble for cover.

In the St. John Altarpiece, Hans Memling shows us the full range of his palette,

from medieval grace to Renaissance realism,

to Avantgarde surrealism.

All in a luxurious setting somewhere between Bruges and heaven.

Belgium is right up there with Germany, England and the Czek Republic

as one of the world's great beer countries.

And, when it comes to variety, Belgium is number 1.

If you're not up to sampling all 120 local types,

go right for the local favorite, Straffe Hendrik, literally "strong Henry."

The happy gang at this working family brewery gives entertaining and informative tours.

Good morning ladies and gentelman, and welcome in the brewery "Straffe Hendrik".

This brewery started in 1856, but we know there was a brewery, here, on this premises, next to the canal, in 1564.

So, in Belgium we have 120 types of beer

and that's because we like using all different types of natural ingredients.

so, if you drink belgium beer, you might recognize sour cherry,

raspberries, liquerish, ginger,

juniper berries, honey, sea weed,

as long as it's natural, it's ok, we really have a beer culture.

And we don't drink to get drunk, we drink to enjoy different types of beer

and make quality time with friends.

So i thought, people all worry, if belgium beer is healthy, if it's nutritious

Well , I can have a good answer to that one because is says here

on this littel poster, that one liter of the belgium beer is exacly the same

as 200 grams of bread, 180 grams of meat, and 72 centiliters of milk.

What more do you want ? I mean, saves a lot of shopping, and it's a good excuse.

Who needs an excuse ?

When there is so many types to try, and an inviting tasting room, with friendly people

it's time to drink beer like a belgian.

We're catching one of the frequent trains that zip from Brugges to Brussels in about an hour.

Le Grand Place, Europe's grandest square, is just a short walk from the train station.

Brussels got a late start.

Six hundred years ago, it was just a handy place to buy a waffle on the way to Bruges.

Then it was given free trade status and its economy took off.

By 1830 it was the capital of an exuberant and newly independent country, Belgium

booming with the industrial age.

Today, with a million inhabitants, it's the headquarters of NATO and the capital of the European Union.

Brussels' Town Hall dominates the square.

The fancy smaller buildings giving the square its unique character

are former guild halls with ornate gabled roofs topped with statues.

Once the home offices for the town's different professional guilds

bakers, brewers, tanners and so on

they all date from shortly after 1695

the year Louis XIV's troops surrounded the city,

sighted their cannons on the Town Hall spire and bombarded Brussels.

The French destroyed several thousand wooden buildings, but managed to miss the spire.

As a matter of pride, these Brussels businessmen rebuilt their offices better than ever

all within about seven years.

Today, they look down over the square, tall, enstoned with richly ornamented gables.

The neighboring street, Rue des Bouchers, is Brussels' restaurant row.

Brussels is famous for good eating - serving many cuisines.

This city specializes in seafood, the most popular dish: Mussels in Brussels.

For some reason, every visitor has the Manneken-Pis on his list.

Even with low expectations, this bronze statue is smaller than you'd think.

Still, this little squirt is a fun, light-hearted symbol of Brussels.

Traditionally, visiting VIPs bring him a costume.

A nearby museum displays hundreds of his outfits.

Today he's an Venezualian cowboy or something.

For higher art, I like Brussels two greatest art galleries:

The side-by-side Ancient and Modern Art museums .

The Ancient Art museum, featuring Flemish and Belgian art of the 14th to 18th centuries,

is packed with a dazzling collection of masterpieces by Van der Weyden, Breughel, Bosch and Rubens.

Rubens huge canvases graced palaces and churches far and wide.

The Breughel room takes you back in time.

Flemish artists like Pieter Breughel the Elder were masters of everyday detail.

In his Census at Bethlehem,

Breughel gives us a bird's-eye view over a snow-covered village near Brussels.

It's full of life, kids throw snowballs and sled across the ice

and men lug bushels across a frozen lake.

while a crowd gathers at the inn, for the census.

Into the scene ride a man and woman

it's the carpenter, Joseph leading pregnant Mary, looking for a room.

Breughel deftly synthesizes religious scenes and slice-of-life detail

in a local landscape, far from the Holy Land.

Peter Breughel the Elder's son, Peter Breughel the Younger

was a fine artist in his own right.

In this painting, The Struggle between Carnival and Lent,

we see a classic battle between feasting and fasting.

The robust figure of Carnivale jousts with the haggard figure of Lent.

Overlooking the square, the tavern and the church compete as a refuge

for mortal souls.

The attached Museum of Modern Art gives an easy-to-enjoy ramble through the art of the 19th and 20th centuries:

from neoclassical to surrealism and beyond.

The Belgian surrealist Ren� Magritte used his training in advertising to push our buttons

with a collage of bizarre images.

He paints real objects with camera-eye clarity,

but jumbles them together in new and provocative ways.

People morph into animals�or chairs.

And stairs lead nowhere

The surrealistic juxtaposition only short-circuits your brain when you try to make sense of it.

And some of Brussels' top art is edible.

Many tourists consider the local waffles a cultural highlight worth travelling for.

While the people of Brussels love their fun taste treats, it's also a city of sophisticates.

As the unofficial capital of Europe, the place is cosmopolitan

and hosts businessmen from around the world.

Though Brussels (like Belgium) is officially bilingual, most of the people here speak French first.

Bone up on bonjour and s'il vous pla�t .

Brussels is the political nerve center of a united Europe

only Washington DC has more lobbyists.

When Europeans have a gripe� this is where they demonstrate.

And the most impressive part of the city skyline these days

is the glassy headquarters of the European Parliament.

Europe's governing body now welcomes visitors.

This busy symbol of unity is filled with a cacophony of politicians

speaking the full range of European languages.

Visitors listen to a political-science lesson while viewing the chambers

where the members of the Euro-parliament sit.

Today hundreds of parliament members representing an entire continent

are hard at work, shaping Europe's future.

For centuries, Europe's cultural and political differences have led to war

Today's daunting challenge:

to respect these differences while building a democratic, prosperous and peaceful Europe.

And the fun part travelled today: watching the story unfold.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Rick Steves.

Until next time, keep on travelin'.

Au revoir.