Portland Greenway boosters Greg Raisman and Mark Lear were in Seattle recently to introduce the curious to this less-contentious form of transportation infrastructure. Seattle City Council’s Sally Bagshaw told the 70 people packed into the event that the time for greenways is now:
What I want to do–and as a member of your city council, what I am pledging to do–is to make sure that these neighborhood greenways become as real as what Portland has done. It is really my goal for my next few years while I am on the council.
It’s a timely pledge. Seattle Bike Blog reports on the finding from the annual American Communities Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census, that Seattle is in second place among major U.S. cities when it comes to the percentage of population who bike to work.
“Between 2005 and 2010, the percentage of people commuting by bike in Seattle increased 57 percent,” writes Tom Fucoloro–in absolute numbers, some 22,000 people (out of Seattle’s 610,000) chose bikes as their primary mode of work commuting in 2010.
On the one hand, 3.6 percent is a small slice of the commuter pie, but already the need to provide safe, effective bike infrastructure has strained Seattle civility. The “war on cars” meme may be talk-radio fodder, but it also arises from the zero-sum game of asphalt footprints. When Eugene rolls out its roomy bike lanes, it’s pretty easy to see that the street is now a single lane, one-way, for cars.
Detail from Raisman & Lear's presentation
Greenways, by contrast, have an overall goal of increasing safety for everyone on neighborhood streets. No homeowner wants to see a harried commuter drag-racing down their street to save a few minutes of stop lights. The twin goals of calming traffic to 20 mph, and letting bikes and pedestrians circulate freely, tends to make everyone happy. As Bagshaw put it:
If we recognize that the system has to work for all of us…this isn’t about bicycles, this is about safety for all of us. And I knowThe Stranger last week had written something last week about declaring war on cars. And I think that’s just the wrong metaphor for us. The metaphor ought to be safety for all of us–whether we’re walking, whether we’re riding our bike, whether we’re driving our car or a truck or a scooter, that we all have a safe place to be.
As the recap of the presentation argues, “Traffic safety research in cities worldwide validates Portland’s experience: making streets safer for walking and bicycling ultimately makes them safer for driving. Through Portland’s safe streets policies for bicycles and pedestrians, their overall traffic fatality rate is falling 6 times faster than the rest of the United States.”
Last, but certainly not least, is the relative cost of greenways compared to more gold-plated bike infrastructure. Raisman and Lear quote a mile of greenway costing $250,000 while a mile of separated cycle track might climb toward $3 million. Given the fact that greenways are built from local streets, which make up about 70 percent of Portland’s road network, there just aren’t that many places they can’t take you.
It’s great to have the Council’s Bagshaw and O’Brien on board, but where is the rest of the Council? Where is Transportation Committee head Tom Rasmussen? Where is public safety advocate Tim Burgess? Where is Nick Licata, who made pedestrian safety a crusade following the death of Council aide Tatsuo Nakata, run down in the street? Seattle is known as a city of neighborhoods–sometimes to our chagrin–but increasing neighborhood safety with a low-cost, easy-to-implement network of greenways would seem to be an easy political win.
UPDATE: Sally Bagshaw wrote in via the comments section to emphasize that the Council is in support of greenways:
One important correction! Seattle Councilmembers ARE supportive of our Neighborhood Greenway concepts. You can make a difference by letting them know how important Greenways are to YOU and our growing transportation network for everyone including drivers pedestrians and bicyclists. Councilmembers — and the mayor — are our allies in this effort. The pressure should be on making Greenways a high priority. Please contact them as well as SDOT Director Peter Hahn and urge them to make Greenways part of our vision THIS YEAR for a safe and healthy city.
That said, the rest of the Council has been remarkably successful at keeping their support from showing up on Google searches. Here’s Sally Bagshaw + greenways. Now, here’s Tom Rasmussen + greenways. Not much visibility on the issue. Contact information for the City Council is here. SDOT contacts are here.
Say hello to my little friend! The Seattle Mini-Ferry docks near Agua Verde at the south end of Brooklyn St. in the University District. (Photo: Jonathan Dean)
Special to The SunBreak by Jonathan Dean
Serendipity happens. I spent last Saturday morning loading up my panniers at the Friends of the Seattle Public Library Book Sale at Magnuson Park, but picked up a flat riding back down the Burke-Gilman.
I ended up getting back to South Lake Union by boat—via the brilliant, audacious new Seattle Mini-Ferry, which started linking SLU with the University District three weeks ago.
Run by the same people who bring you the Sunday Ice Cream Cruise ($11 adults) out of Lake Union Park, the new ferry is a great addition to our city’s transit options.
Currently they run passengers back and forth from their UW dock at the foot of Brooklyn St. (near the Agua Verde kayak launch), on the hour, and the pier at South Lake Union Park, on the half hour.
UW departures on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday on the hour from the UW. 8am through 6pm. Friday & Saturday 8am through 9pm.
S. Lake Union Parkdepartures (foot of Terry Avenue N.) on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday on the half hour from the UW. 8:30am through 6:30pm. Friday & Saturday 8:30am through 9:30pm.
Cost is $5; assuming it isn’t raining, it’s a delightful boat ride, and faster than biking, walking, taking the #30, or taking a car through bad traffic. They can take up to 14 passengers (and two bikes). Plans are underway to open another route linking South Lake Union with the landing just west and north of the Fremont bridge.
Today the King County Council is voting on whether to allow digital billboards in unincorporated areas, which would represent a huge boon to outdoor advertising giant Clear Channel. The measure, which was supposed to be voted on back in June, had to be sent back to committee when it was discovered that sufficient public notice wasn’t given.
UPDATE: It turns out the Council took the measure off the Monday agenda very late on Friday, thanks to a groundswell of public feedback. Now they’re doing further “environmental review.”
Eric Scigliano, who has been following the digital billboard story closely, mentions in passing one reason for this private-spirited advocacy:
For the record, state public-disclosure filings show that Hague and Phillips have been the biggest recipients of Clear Channel campaign donations on the County Council. Since 2003 the company has given Phillips $3,000. Hague has received $3,850 from Clear Channel, its Seattle outdoor operations president, Olivia Lippens, and Lippens’ husband.
Scigliano writes that:
…the bill had moved with unusual dispatch and unusually little notice toward passage. Officials of three cities prospectively affected by the ordinance complained that they hadn’t learned of it until the last minute, and the leading local billboard critic didn’t find out until after the council took final public comment on June 6. No citizens showed up to speak except two Clear Channel executives.
The revenue increase for Clear Channel would seem an order of magnitude, at a guess. At the moment, the billboard colossus needs to price space to take into account the trouble of pasting up or painting new artwork, where it will stay, monopolizing the space until the end of the buy (unless it’s one of those rotating billboards, which allow three different views).
With a digital billboard, it’s a new ad-pricing frontier. You could sell placements during rush hour at a premium, off-hours for less. You could display ads in virtually unlimited rotation, at different frequencies. Customers could ship in new ad content, updated as needed.
At the moment, Clear Channel is after maximum throughput: a new “static” ad every eight seconds (animation and other driver-distracting elements are theoretically not allowed, though in practice they tend to sneak in). Here’s an example of a multi-ad buy:
Scigliano quotes Clear Channel’s promise that “your ad will be seen 4,810 times per day continually 19 hours per day. Generating 134,680 advertising spots over a 4-week period.”
This creates an entirely new class of billboard customer, as people learned when they assumed graffiti artist Skull Phone had hacked his way onto billboards. No, he paid for placement. (The operating cost of the billboards is dependent largely upon the cost of electricity to light them up; here in the Northwest our hydroelectric power is gratifyingly inexpensive in comparison to other regions.)
The County Council’s Hague and Phillips profess to be swayed by the ability of the billboards to display things like Amber Alerts and other public service messages. The FBI has used digital billboards as APBs.
Dominic Holden estimates the change to unincorporated King County would affect some 21 billboards currently. (Clear Channel has 520 billboards in Seattle. It’s “Seattle” digital locations are in Kent, though, as Seattle doesn’t allow them.) Holden provides a quote from the loyal opposition, Keep King County Beautiful volunteer Paula Rees: “You can see them six miles away and they’re the most predominant feature on the landscape.”
Perhaps surprisingly, as the Tacoma News Tribune reports, the Council’s legislation turns a blind eye to the potential for light pollution:
The new ordinance, while providing some parameters on digital billboard lighting, exempts digital billboards from existing rules that forbid illuminated signs from shining direct light into homes or onto public areas.
I’m told that Clear Channel plans to stringently self-regulate.
Special to The SunBreak by Jonathan Dean, who has been biking around Seattle for ten years now. Four years after getting rid of his car, he had saved up enough money to buy a house. With a view of the Mountain and the Sound, as he will be sure to tell you.
Following Saturday’s “Moving Planet Seattle” rally, a group of nearly a hundred cyclists rode through South Lake Union and up to the University District, past the memorials commemorating the recent deaths of three Seattle-area cyclists.
You were supposed to show up at the Moving Planet Seattle rally in some colorful form of non-automotive transportation. Bicycles were the most popular choice: Several hundred bikes were in Lake Union Park when I arrived.
Bicycle safety has become a matter of life and death in Seattle, something that concerns anyone who takes to the streets, on a bicycle or car. Kudos to Tom Fucoloro of Seattle Bike Blog, who organized this afternoon’s “Safe Streets Social” ride, honoring those who lost their lives in the three recent fatal Seattle bike accidents.
When we passed the corner of Dexter and Thomas, where Mike Wang was killed on July 29 by a hit-and-run driver of an SUV, our long line of cyclists—80 to 100 of us, I’d estimate—cried out “Wang! Wang! Wang!” to a group of well-dressed people who, it seemed, were his widow, children, and elderly father.
The sight of the father’s prolonged, deeply respectful bow was one of the saddest and most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. [Tweet from @VeloBusDriver: “Haunting image of the day: Mike Wang’s widow crying by his ghost bike as we rode by. Can’t get her face out of my head.”]
Next, we biked to the memorial for Brian Fairbrother, who crashed on August 30 and passed away nine days later. All three of these memorials have ghost bikes now, non-functioning bicycles at the site of the accidents, painted white, where people can leave flowers and memories. At Brian’s, I heard the following conversation on the bike-with-child’s-tandem-trailer next to me:
Father: This memorial marks the spot where a cyclist died not long ago.
4-or 5-year old daughter: Why did he die?
Father: He didn’t see that the sidewalk suddenly went down a staircase. He had an accident.
Daughter: Is that his bike, up in that tree? How did the bike get in the tree?
Father: No, that isn’t the real bike…that’s a memorial, a statue of a bike, so we can remember this man.
Daughter: (pauses, thinks) What was his name?
Father: Brian.
A #70 bus wants to pass our long line of bikes heading north on Eastlake. You drivers—before getting impatient with us because we’re getting in your way, try to understand this situation from a cyclist’s point of view: a) there’s no bike lane on this street, b) there’s a really steep hill, and c) there’s no other road through this neighborhood. (Photo: Jonathan Dean)
All of us slowly biked up Eastlake and across the University Bridge to the intersection of the Ave with Campus Parkway, where Robert Townsend was killed on September 10 by a car turning left. A truck with a Jimmy John’s logo passed by as we gathered near Robert’s ghost bike, a fitting memento for Robert—known as the fastest sandwich delivery cyclist at Jimmy John’s on the Ave.
Although it may sound like a grim afternoon, it was in fact a pleasant, social ride on a nice—maybe a wee bit muggy—day. The participants were a diverse group: Some were white-collar bike commuters; others work closer to the gears and grease. Almost everyone had a story of the bike accident that nearly killed them. Everyone was deeply moved by the three ghost-bikes.
Tom Fucoloro of Seattle Bike Blog closed the event on a positive note, pointing out that according to the most recent census, the growth of Seattle’s bike community has been astronomical. We’re now second only to Portland when it comes to great cities for cycling. This is wonderful. But no one needs to die for people to get where they’re going.
I’d like to offer two bits of unsolicited advice. CYCLISTS: Always imagine you’re invisible—they can’t see you. Never assume they know you’re there. If you get in their way, you’re the one who’s going to be hurt. DRIVERS: Be careful when you’re turning left—that’s how these two guys got killed. And please lock your emotions in the trunk when you’re driving a car. Your impatience, road rage, and sense of outrage and violation—“What are these bikers doing in my lane?”—are no more necessary to functional transportation than anyone’s death.
The word on the (dance) street is right. The young British choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is the closest to an heir to Balanchine who has come down the pike in the past fifty years. Not that his work is any clone of the great 20th century choreographer. It is all his own, but there is the same feel of both inspiration and inevitability to his creations, as though there was no other way for the dancers to move and yet no one else thought that way.
The four works Pacific Northwest Ballet is presenting as its first production of the season–All Wheeldon (through October 2; tickets here) are very different from each other, but through them all runs a sense of humanity.
Friday night’s opening showed the company in fine form. The choreography is challenging, but it suits the dancers and they have risen to the occasion, some of them achieving growth this summer that has led them to new heights.
Carousel (A Dance) uses Richard Rodgers’ familiar music but in arrangement by William David Brohn. Wheeldon takes just a vignette from the show, the wooing of the girl at a fair, with the carnival feel given by the other dancers creating the sense of a Ferris wheel in the back. Carla Körbes gave a masterly portrayal of the shy young woman and her gradual winning over. Setha Orza as her suitor danced with moves clean, musical, and ardent, the best I’ve ever seen from him.
Wheeldon creates a situation where neither dancer can reach the other for all the people in between, and at one point the corps make an actual carousel with poles rising and falling as they go around, in which they mirror the circle of the carousel itself, wrists, feet, heads and all in circular movements.
Perhaps the most mesmerizing work of the program is the After the Rain pas de deux. The music, by Arvo Pärt, is in a slow three-time with violin and piano, gentle, spare, songful. The dance is the slow, flowing exploration of a relationship between two dancers, done with exquisite synchronization of seamless movement and requiring enormous—and invisible–control and strength. Karel Cruz and Maria Chapman were the dancers, and to watch them was an absorbing, moving experience. When they came out for their front-of-curtain bow, one could see the sweat shining on them both.
The abstract third work, Polyphonia, is perhaps the one which most displays the legacy of Balanchine. To excerpts of ten piano works by Gyorgy Ligeti, four couples dance side by side, then in smaller groups, often couples, a solo, or trios of one sex. At times the dancers move in canon, but always there is a flow to the work and fluidity to the movement.
The start is extraordinary. The four couples each dance disparately yet with a subtle canon within all four pairs, and sometimes they all magically come together to the same steps and then split apart again. The busy music gives no helping indication of place at all. Extremely difficult, it was ably played by company pianist Christina Siemens.
Wheeldon’s steps never shout out their difficulty or originality. It’s all much more subtle. You never see dancers positioning themselves for a turn or a balance, they just happen in the tide of the dance.
Wheeldon’s extremely funny spoof of backstage at rehearsal and performance, Variations Sérieuses, completes the evening, complete with temperamental ballerina (Laura Gilbreath), new young dancer, (Sarah Ricard Orza), ubiquitous stage crew with mops, stage manager, ballet master, conductor, pianist, corps and premier danseur (Seth Orza). Sarah Orza, who shone in Polyphonia, did as well here, while her husband continued his excellent work.
Music director Emil de Cou, who has been here on and off this past year, is now taking the full reins of the orchestra, and gave the dancers excellent support in both first and last works of the program.
At the start of the evening, artistic director Peter Boal dedicated the performance to the memory of Charles Bagley Wright, citing his tireless efforts on behalf of the fine arts in Seattle. He also announced the promotion of Lesley Rausch and Rachel Foster to principal dancer, presenting each with a bouquet of flowers.
The brochure from the Belgian Tourist Office tells me the country has 28 castles. Appeals to my childhood fantasies. 35 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. That sounds educational and fun. 500 types of beer (each with its own glass). I’m getting thirsty. And over 2,000 chocolate shops. Alright, when is the next flight?
All this and much more in a compact country where Brussels is somewhat central and most everything is accessible by Belgian rail. Ah, the romance of rail travel, which in Europe is so easy, enjoyable and reliable.
Might I mention this is a country of mussels, Magritte, and many famous cartoon characters, like the Smurfs? And which will celebrate 2012 as the Year of Gastronomy?
With so much to do in a place that is often overlooked in European travel, here are just a few ideas for a memorable trip to Belgium, where we stamp this week’s Passport to Pleasure—a hedonistic quest for great food and good times for two, from nibbles to naughtiness.
BRUSSELS
You’ll land at Brussels Airport, just northeast of the city. If it’s late, it’s convenient to stay at the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel just steps from the airport entrance. If it’s incredibly early and you can afford the luxury, the Sheraton is a great place to get a rest and get refreshed.
It’s a quick train ride to the city, and when you step outside Central Station, prepare to be blown away by the historic Grand Place. This is the site of the May Jazz Marathon and the August Tapis de Fleurs (when it becomes a huge canvas for flowers), and it’s one of the most beautiful squares in the world.
Courtesy of Hotel Amigo
You can spend a lot of time admiring the splendor of the Grand Place, but lunch beckons. If you’re meat-loving carnivores, make your first meal Viva M’Boma. It’s a short walk away, though the fish market eateries at Saint Catherine Square just might distract you. At the restaurant, ask for an English menu, or try your hand at the ubiquitous cursive handwriting in French on the blackboard menu. Located in an old triperie, you’ll want to eat offal here. It’s a wonderful place for a first meal in Belgium. Viva M’Boma…long live the grandmother, indeed:
Calf’s brain “meuniere”
Mix of veal kidneys and sweetbreads (served with French fries)
Pot-au-feu with veal cheeks, oxtail, and marrow
Satiated, you can stroll the city without succumbing to the temptations of the street food and snack shops. Then again, it’s vacation, so sample away. You’ll find the famous frites (with a wide variety of sauces, going way beyond ketchup), waffles (Brussels style and Liege style), speculoos (gingerbread-like cookies made in wooden molds, given to well-behaved children during the celebration of Saint-Nicolas on December 6), and more.
But there are other temptations as well. For example, not far from the Manneken Pis, but far more interesting, is Lady Paname—a boutique that sells “Sex Life Accessories.” Here they say that every day is Valentines Day. Inside is a classy salon-like atmosphere with erotic art and photography, sexy clothes, books, and all kinds of sex toys and paraphernalia. (I laughed when I saw collectible figurines of characters from the Pirates adult video, which I recently “reviewed.”) With a sensual smell of something seductive in the air, Lady Paname offers a sensual feast for the nose, eyes, and other senses:
Lady Paname from BrusselsLife on Vimeo.
Speaking of seduction and sensuality, you can’t walk the streets of Brussels (or most anywhere in Belgium, it seems) without noticing all the chocolate shops. Explore without feeling a need to eat, for you’ll have endless opportunities. The Valrhona store has lots of interesting information, so you can use education as an excuse to visit this export of France without offending the Belgians around you. But be sure to visit the stunning Pierre Marcolini shop in Le Sablon (the antiques district) for a jewelry store-like experience. Most of the small shops sell various-sized boxes of mix-and-match filled pralines; if you’re looking for pure chocolate, you might also want to go to a grocery store to buy solid bars from makers like Cote d’Or.
When you’re in the mood for sensuality of the surrealist type, head over to the Magritte Museum. You’ll want to budget ample time to learn the history of what may be Belgium’s most intriguing artist and to enjoy the vast display of his art. Here are over 200 of his works, making this the largest collection of his paintings (and some sculptures) in the world. The man had quite the imagination, and his work will likely inspire your imaginations as well.
Orphyse Chaussette in Le Sablon is an ideal place for dinner to experience a bistro atmosphere. Be sure to climb the spiral staircase to the funky bathroom for a birds-eye view of all the knickknacks scattered about the restaurant. Your meal might vary from mackerel to foie gras with passion fruit to a chicken leg stuffed with pork and veal (along with chorizo and mushrooms). Pictured is white asparagus with wild asparagus.
Make friends with Hotel Amigo as a perfect (and perfectly exquisite) place to overnight in Brussels. Just around the corner from the Grand Place, it’s central and convenient to transportation and sightseeing options. Rooms are contemporary with classic touches, with Belgian comic characters (including Hergé’s Tintin) in the spacious, marbled bathrooms. Inside the rooms and out is art from the surrealistic to the classic, and outside your windows the view says historic, urban Europe. With any and all amenities available, Hotel Amigo is a most comfortable and classy place to stay.
Courtesy of Hotel Amigo
WEST TO FLANDERS
From Brussels, it’s quite easy (and fast) to hit some favorite spots in Flanders—the Dutch part of Belgium.
Bruges is like a fairytale setting that’s come to life, and perfect for a pleasant daytrip. A World Heritage City with medieval architecture and many waterways, it’s a romantic town for strolling or taking a canal cruise. And if you find yourself in the narrowest street in town (Stoofstraat), note that this was part of the former red light district (and that you can find remnants of red light districts in Belgium’s larger cities):
Bruges is bursting with chocolate shops. Some sell sexually suggestive chocolates right in the window. Dumon Chocolates is in a striking little building that seems to be in miniature from afar. There’s even a chocolate museum that is quite educational.
Most intriguing is the Chocolate Line (above), where shock-o-latier Dominique Persoone and his crew play with chocolate, pushing the boundaries of sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and spicy. Persoone has worked with some of the finest chefs in Europe; perhaps more relevant to the “Passport to Pleasure” theme, he has also painted bodies in chocolate for Spencer Tunick’s nude art photography.
You can enjoy similar play with chocolate lipstick and body paint available at the store. Or, if you prefer to consume your chocolate the more traditional way, try some of Persoone’s classic pieces, or some of the “his way” creations (high quality chocolates using fine ingredients), such as Atlanta (ganache, almond praline, Coca-Cola, pop rocks), Green Tokyo (bitter ganache, marzipan, Japanese wasabi), and Monkey’s Favorite (caramel of coriander and a peanut-salted praline). A sampling of Chocolate Line’s treats:
Ghent is a delightful city, well worth a stay. It’s bigger than Bruges, and while not as large as Brussels, it’s a collegetown and a cultural center. Many days there’s an outdoor market to be found (the Sunday market has some of the best roast chicken to be found anywhere), and chances are there’s a festival or two in town. Like Bruges, there are waterways and winding roads that make for good strolling, as well as a medieval core. Here you’ll find Gravensteen, a 12th century stone castle that just might appeal to the S&M sides of you, for inside you’ll find a torture museum.
Ghent has just about everything you can want: outdoor cafes, chocolate shops (check out Daskalides, shown above, for some of the best eating and drinking chocolates in town, and Yuzu for some Japanese-influenced treats), “noses of Ghent” (also called cuberdons, these are cone-shaped candies that are gummy), an historic mustard shop (Tierenteyn-Verlent), charcuterie shops, cheese shops, pubs with endless varieties of Belgian beer, etc.—and that’s just food.
Near Vier Tafels (a Flemish restaurant that serves unique meats like kangaroo and even giraffe—once), check out a cute shop called ANINA Soap Creatories. Shopowner and artist Karien Vandekerkhove learned soap rolling from a Master Savonnier in Melbourne and a few years ago launched “AdorAballs,” handmade soaps with 100% extra virgin olive oil, pure spring water, and organic essential oils. The store has tables with artistically arranged balls and blocks of soap with combinations like Thai lemongrass and Corsican lemon, French lavender and lavender seeds, and even Belgian Chocolate and Japanese Mint.
Most fascinating is a natural history museum called De Wereld van Kina. Targeting young schoolchildren with interactive exhibits of birds and the like, the museum also has a permanent sex education exhibit that’s quite progressive by our standards, and worth a look regardless of age. Through hands-on and multi-media exhibits, here you learn about sexual hygiene, consent, healthy relationships, condom use, and so much more. The red-light district and educational peep show booths are particularly exciting. It’s playful and positive and fun for the kids, who learn about sex in a perfectly natural way. (The exhibit also contains a Scandinavian sex education video that I show to university students in America, many of whom are skittish to watch it and then shocked to find out it’s intended for middle school students.)
There are so many places in Ghent and throughout Flanders to get a spectacular meal. Pictured above is the traditional Belgian dish witloof (chicory in bechamel sauce with cheese) as prepared at the café in Vooruit—the performing arts/social(ist) center in Ghent. And below is filet Americain (steak tartare), served with frites at Café Parti.
If you want to see greatness in the making, get to Boury restaurant in Roeselare. In a mansion on the main street, young chef Tim Boury (with too much talent under the age of thirty) opened his own place less than a year ago. The style is contemporary and the cuisine is classic, updated. Even lunch is an elegant affair, and touches like towels scented with eucalyptus and geranium are terrific. Be sure to note the sleek bathrooms at the entry, as they’re well-disguised. Part of the experience:
An opening drink
Watercress mousse with eel
Bulgur with shrimp and tzatziki ice cream
Halibut with langoustine paste, langoustine sauce, mashed potatoes, sea spinach and white asparagus
Strawberries with lemon ice cream pannacotta discs
A look inside the restaurant
EAST (AND SOUTH) TO WALLONIA (AND THE ARDENNES)
Head in the opposite direction from Brussels and you’re in Wallonia—the French part of Belgium.
There are lots of activities in the Ardennes, the hilly terrain providing texture to the land. Some of the sites are a little more remote, perhaps requiring a bus or taxi from the train if you don’t have a rental car. Go to the Wepion region at the right time and you’ll enjoy ripe strawberries that are some of the sweetest in the world. There’s even a strawberry museum to explore if you’re so swept up by the fruit.
Speaking of unconventional museums, L’Abbaye de Stavelot, founded circa 650, plays host to various exhibitions—most recently an Andy Warhol affair that offered great contrast between colorful pop art and an historic old building. Of course, you’re more likely to find beer brewing than art hanging in a typical Belgian abbey. It’s possible to visit and sample beer at some locations, while others are closed to the public. For example, you can knock a few down at Maredsous, whereas you’ll need to sample your Rochefort brews at one of the pubs in town such as La Gazette Gourmande, which has quite the comic book style menu.
With a population of about 400, Durbuy bills itself as “the smallest city in the world.” The setting is picturesque, and you’ll enjoy the array of historical buildings. But just as you think you’ve gone completely back in time, a stop at the Osez Jozefine store will enable you to buy some provocative sex aprons and other novel items.
Up the hill is Confiturerie Saint-Amour, a traditional jam factory with copper preserving pans that makes jams and jellies of wildflowers and fruits—think dandelion and elderberry—and even massage oils. Stroll around and you’ll see a charcuterie shop and a brewery and some pleasant eateries. For example, the Victoria grill restaurant serves up a simple but intriguing “poulet Victoria” that puts a whole new spin on grilled chicken. (You can learn more and get an adapted recipe here.)
Highly recommended for lunch is Lemonnier in Lavaux-Saint-Anne. You’ll feel like you’re dining in a contemporary art gallery; feel free to walk around and see the entire space. Service is appropriately attentive and the food is fabulous with occasional flourishes of whimsy. And there are nine bedrooms above the restaurant if you feel like making this an overnight stay. Samples of the food:
An amuse bouche trio: local ham with melon, crab with fennel, and a fun little version of moules frites
A basket of breads
White asparagus with eggs, butter, and parsley
Red point trout with green peas, morels, and lettuce
Meringue with chocolate and passion fruit coulis, along with passion fruit and banana ice cream
You shouldn’t travel to the Ardennes without a visit to Spa. It’s not just the place where a company produces mineral water of the same name; it’s a famed location for healing hot springs and the reason “spa” is used for such health and wellness retreats today. Spa is the site of old Roman bathhouses (people starting come to this area for healthy restoration in the 14th century), but the jewel is the newly renovated Thermes de Spa. High up and accessible only by a hillside funicular, it features numerous saunas and hydrotherapy pools in a stunning indoor/outdoor setting. You can also sign up for various wellness treatments and packages.
Since you’re living it up in Spa, why not stay at the RadissonBlu Palace Hotel? Privileges include discounted entry to Thermes de Spa, as well as a dedicated funicular so that you can walk out of your room in your bathrobe and head right to the spa.
Round out your first-class stay with a real treat: dinner at a castle. Manoir de Lebioles is in the middle of an Ardennes forest; getting here feels like living in a fairytale. (You can also choose to stay in one of Manoir de Lebioles 16 luxurious rooms and suites, and enjoy a spa treatment, too.) The gourmet restaurant may be one of the most impressive places you’ll ever eat, with both the setting and the service spectacular. And the food is great, too. Feast your eyes:
Scallops, peas, mashed potatoes, and Iberian ham
Lamb with candied aubergines
Perhaps the most memorable meal you can enjoy in Wallonia would be a dining experience at Li Cwerneu in Huy. Arabelle Meirlaen is the country’s only female chef with a Michelin star. Li Cwerneu means “town crier;” you’ll find one among the whimsical but tasteful and contemporary art pieces in this intimate, 20-seat restaurant. When the dishes come out from the kitchen, you’ll notice that the art has moved to your plates, maybe too pretty to eat at first, but take a bite, and the flavors are as good as the looks:
Amuse bouche called “garden of herbs and wildflowers,” with country cheese, deactivated charcoal, almonds, carrot, radish, and a snail
“Gold ingot foie gras with nuggets and dust”—mousse of foie gras, nuggets of roasted almonds, gold, maple syrup, and balsamic caramel
Brittany fresh prawns marinated with beetroot and ginger
Veal (“cute calf”) with citrus, celery and turnip
Assorted cheeses (the center is a special “house” cheese)
Passion fruit cake, rhubarb, cotton candy, and dandelion sorbet
