She who must be obeyed purchased tickets to the King Tut exhbit at the Brussels Expo Centre around the holidays. We were looking forward to a nice morning looking at some ancient treasures and learning why people would stand in line to see him. The drive to the expo center was predictably Belgian. As we left, She who must be obeyed commented how easy it would be to get there because it is so well marked. I replied, "it will be until we get to the last few turns and then the signs will either be hidden or dissappear". True to form, when we got within eyeshot of the Atomonium, the signage started to get a little sketchy and we almost missed the turn for parking. Fortunately, we caught it at the last second and found a convenient place to park.
We had tickets for the 11AM viewing and arrived about 10 minutes before. Smooth sailing into the exhibit, validated our parking, got the audioguide (in English!!) and entered the exhibit. The first audioguide entry stated that the entire exhibit was "replicas made in exactly the same way as the original artifacts". Huh?? Everything??? No Condo Made of Stone-a??
Nope, Condo made of architectural foam-a
I understand that the artifacts are fragile and that perhaps a full exhibit of them would not be practical or possible in our modern world, but I felt a little like I was bait and switched. Staring at artifacts that are younger than me sucked the enthusiasm that we had for the exhibit out of us. The cheesy videos didn't help either.
Fortunately it was a beautiful day today, so we collected ourselves for a nice outdoor lunch near the house. A little cheese croquette, some croque and frites and we were in a much better mood. To go with my croque, I tried a Tongerlo Prior. The first thing that made this beer a little different, it that it was served with a standard tulip glass AND a shotglass. Apparently the shotglass is for a yeast shot. You swirl that last few sips of the beer with the sedimented yeast and pour it into the shotglass. Unfortunately, I did not figure that out until I had already had the beer. Not sure I get the point, but it was kind of interesting. The Tongerlo is an interesting beer. The first sip is all sweetness and alcohol. There are hops and some fruit. After it has sit for a little bit, the sweetness starts to give way to more herbal notes. Overall a decent beer. Not a standout, but flavorful and interesting. Three and a Half Drunk Monks!!
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