Vin Chaud & Hanging with the Multitudes

Christmas is obviously a big deal in Belgium. Most companies, mine included, shut down completely between Christmas and New Years and throughout December there are festivals, Christmas Markets and a variety of other things to offset the intense Seasonal Affective Disorder that you would likely incur from the generally gray and damp weather. This is not the gray and intense cold of my childhood in New Hampshire. That sort of soul crushing weather is peculiar to the Granite State. But it is still cold, gray and wet.

Last evening we went into Brussels center for a little holiday cheer. Brussels has the largest Christmas market in the area that they bill as Winter Wonderland. There is a large Christmas tree in the Grand Place and they do a light show projected onto the City Hall. Througout the evening they also have different types of performances like opera singers and other festive activities. One of the things that strikes me as an American is the lack of product placement. The whole thing is sponsored by Electrabel and yet the only sign of them was a small scroll at the end of the light show that lasted for all of 4 seconds. In the US they would have had the Electrabel singers along with every manner of promotional gimic known to man. Obviously they are missing a commercial opportunity.

The Christmas market itself was covered in an earlier post, so I don't need to cover old ground but it takes on a different sort of charachter with the wall to wall crowds that converge there on a Saturday night. Moving in and around the area was periodically challenging. I am not a big fan of close crowd situations but sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and bear it. That being said, in an environment like that, I cannot understand why people with small children would try to push strollers through the masses of people. Pushing your beloved child through a sea of hostile legs seems a recipe for disaster and clearly from the looks on some of the kids faces, I am not wrong.

The plan yesterday was to arrive in the late afternoon and sample a few of the delicacies at the Christmas market, then find a warm place for happy hour and then a late leisurely dinner. After wandering for an hour or so we stopped at the Tartiflette stand (potato, ham, gooey cheese) along with deux Vin Chaud. I have to say, there is something quite festive about drinking mulled wine while knoshing on a cardiologist's nightmare using a barrel as your diner table. As the evening went on, we made the usual trek over to see if Mannekin Pis was wearing one of his outfits. Turned out to be a wasted trip because he was completely unrobed. We found a nice little Bistro to get out of the cold and enjoyed a couple of other seasonal treats. Following our appetizers we ventured back out into the snow and cold to meander some more and look for a nice place for dinner. We found it in the fish market. She who must be obeyed had probably the best steak we have seen since being in Belgium and I got the moules. Stuffed to the gills we trammed it back home feeling remarkably festive. Cant wait until our Sun Devil joins us for the holiday so we can share all of this with her.