Belgian Holiday

After our first attempt to visit Belgium was nixed back in August, Misha and I regrouped for a second attempt during the Christmas season. I can’t believe I’m saying this after only two years away from Massachusetts, but the trip actually made me miss winter weather. Given, there were no blizzard conditions, biting winds, or freezing rain, but something about the smell of the air and the feel of the wind on my cheeks is utterly refreshing.

It wasn’t all a nostalgic return to holiday cheer, though. As a matter of fact, it started as poorly as an international trip can start. After 5 hours in the air, we were held up at border security and threatened with the likelihood that we were about to be sent back to Tel Aviv because Belgium changed their entry requirements days earlier to require a negative PCR test. That may sound reasonable, they never updated this information on any of their government websites (something we proved to border security by bringing up the site). For every other trip, we did a PCR test whether we needed it or not, but this time we decided to save time and money and trust the online policy was accurate.  We sat for over an hour watching police turn away one Israeli after another, as we were far from the only people to have missed the change in policy. Whether the miscommunication was the fault of El Al Airlines, the Belgian government, or their website host, it didn’t matter to the police. They took in passengers individually to break the bad news one at a time.

When our turn came, we had every argument we could think of lined up. We had our diplomatic passports, EU vaccine certificates showing booster shots, approved Passenger Locator Forms (PLFs), and the webpage telling us we were fine to enter so long as we were vaccinated. Everyone else in the room with us had read the same thing and used these arguments to no avail. The policemen were rude and dismissive to the Israelis who were called in before us. We expected this treatment as well. When asked why we reside in Israel, we explained that we were American diplomats stationed there, and had PCR tests booked upon arrival at the Brussels airport (if only they would let us through). Upon hearing this, their attitudes quickly changed. They were much nicer, said that was enough to let us through, and explained, “if you know anything about Belgium, you know that it is all politics. Everything is political here.” All three officers gave a sitcom-style head tilt when I responded by saying that it seemed everywhere was these days, which turned our heads in response. We couldn’t tell if this remark was simply a critique of Belgium’s ever-changing policies, or a veiled comment on antisemitism in the local political ranks. On our way out, we made sure to tell those who hadn’t succeeded to schedule a PCR test (later airport signage would declare this step unnecessary), but we never did see them again to see if they made it through.

Brussels

When I originally booked the PCR test, the Brussels airport page said results would come in 2-3 hours. At the time, I figured this meant we’d relax at the hotel for the night, then be ready to go out the next morning. After testing, it was revealed that 3 days was more likely. We weren’t about to spend 3 of our 5 days in Belgium in quarantine, so we did something we hadn’t done for the entirety of the pandemic: broke covid regulations. With three jabs, we hoped this would be enough, but we must admit it was a very selfish decision. We went about our business, enjoying Winter Wonders and the Christmas Market at the Grand Place, drinking exceptional beer at the Delirium Cafe (probably the best beer bar in the world), and wandered around the streets when it was raining. We got a late start each morning hoping our test results would come back, but they never did. In fact, we took a test on our third day to re-enter Israel, and those results came back first. We visited the Cantillon brewery and museum, heaven for the beer nerd in me. I treated Misha to a chocolate workshop and museum for her birthday, which proved that, unless we want to be the world’s least artistic chocolatiers, we don’t have much of a future in that industry. Lastly, we stuffed ourselves at a Michelin plate Thai buffet right across the street from the Palais de Justice, a monstrosity of a building that looks like the setting for a horror movie. Needless to say, Misha loved the look of that creepy building.

Bruges

We took a train to get from Brussels to Bruges. Unfortunately, this wasn’t anything like the magical snowy Swiss rides you may see on Instagram. The houses were mainly brick buildings that were shades of brown and grey, giving them a dreary appearance to match the cloudy sky. The properties were small, fenced lots with no room for privacy. The land was fairly green between towns but riddled with puddles, unsurprising for a country that sees 200 days of rainfall per year.

We found Bruges to be utterly charming and would actually recommend spending time here over Brussels. It’s a quintessential minor European city, with plenty of great restaurants, a beautiful main square, and it’s own unique atmosphere. The Christmas market was better than the one in Brussels, and it’s beer scene, though smaller, is also very impressive.

We were only able to spend a few hours in Bruges, but it was well worth the trip. Our short vacation ended in Charleroi, a sketchy little town home to the other main Belgian airport. The second we got off the bus, something felt off about the place. A friend had told us that Romanian mafiosi almost jumped him when he was in Brussels a few years back, so when a stranger on the street showed me a Google translation of “Are you staying nearby?” in Romanian, we knew it was time to leave. Of course, when we finally got a taxi after an hour of waiting, our taxi driver wouldn’t accept a credit card and the nearby ATMs wouldn’t take our debit cards.  Misha finally convinced the driver to accept shekels out of desperation on both ends. (The driver had already driven us to two ATMs and a gas station that didn’t accept visa?!) It was an interesting country if not our favorite destination of 2021, and will most likely be our last European trip for several years (okay fine, maybe we’ll squeeze in one more). We were able to make it to Jordan in January, and a post on that trip is forthcoming. Cheers to 2022!