I proposed an ambitious “cocktails followed by an early supper” plan for tonight, with the added bonus of it being a shakedown for our rental hybrid bikes.

It was an adventure.

We found the bikes waiting for us in the hotel parking garage, ready to go. After a few spins around the garage, we are headed out. After driving e-bikes all week, it was a transition back to “regular old bicycle”: the biggest change wasn’t missing the electric assist, but rather that the e-bikes shifted gears automatically. Suffice to say the first couple of kilometres involved a lot of gear-grinding on my part.

Our first stop was The Eight, a rooftop bar about 2 km away. Navigating Brussels streets was a level-up from Liège: twists, turns, cobblestones, and “always yield to the driver on the right” to remember. We made it.

The bar was pleasant, with a nice view. A light drizzle kept us inside, keeping us from the full-on rooftop effect.

After a drink and a snack we headed to nearby Fin de Siècle, which promised hearty Belgian fare. It delivered.

We shared the Carbonades à la bière—beef stewed in beer served with mashed potatoes—and the Salad maison—the salad to end all salads, with bursts, sun-dried tomatoes, prosciutto, Parmesan and pickled onions. We did not require dessert.

By the time we were done supper the drizzle had turned to full-on rain, and our 3 km ride home was soggy and more uphill than we’d have liked. The moral of that story: always (always) travel with the rain gear.

We’re settled in for the night now, checking our lists, packing our panniers, nervous about what day one holds.

Our base in Brussels is right beside the Berlaymont, headquarters of the European Commission. 

We cycled about 40 km over our 7 days in Liège, all of it on Dott e-bikes like this.

Being able to pick up and drop off a bicycle anywhere made urban navigation very different, and we leave the city feeling like we got to know it a little better as a result. Onward!

We all need at least one Belgian friend, and mine is Wouter. We met via our blogs, through mutual connections to Ton and Frank, and through our interest in fountain pens. Wouter joined our Pen & Pencil Club meetings on Zoom during COVID, becoming the first overseas member. We’ve stayed in touch over the years, chatting about children and bread and technology.

When Wouter learned we’d be in Belgium this week—only 30 minutes from him, as it turned out—he suggested we meet up. And so on Wednesday we got together for lunch in central Liège. It was lovely to finally meet in person. 

In that alchemical way that Lisa and I seem good at together, we conjured up a last minute introductory screen printing workshop here in Liège this morning, with Alain Preud’homme.

You’d think that either of us might have accidentally learned the basics of screen printing by this point in our lives, but no. It is the ham radio to relief printing’s personal computing: we know any each other, but we don’t hang out in the same bars.

Alain shares a well-equipped studio with two other printmakers of L’Atelier du Coin, Fifi et Bernbard Louis, and he offers a variety of introductory approaches. Our request: give us a cook’s tour so we can see if we want to explore farther at home. And that’s exactly what he did.

We learned about making transparencies, exposing the emulsion, cleaning the screens, flooding the screen with ink, and the mysterious and subtle art of pulling the ink over the screen with the squeegee.

We finished the day with a dozen prints, using an image that started as a lino print co-created by Alain and his son. It was all great fun, in a stimulating space. We emerge with a basic understanding of the basics.

Our Brussels to Bruges cycle doesn’t begin until Monday, but we decided we wanted to cycle around Liège this week, and the easiest way to do that was by using the Dott bikes scattered around the city that can be turned rented by the minute via the Dott app.

It wasn’t a seamless process to get set up: we’re using data-only eSIMs here in Belgium, and signing up for the Dott app requires being able to confirm an account via SMS. The solution was to sign up for a free three-day trial of Hushed, which gave a virtual SMS number.

Otherwise, it was all pretty painless: use the app to find available bikes, walk up to them and scan them with the app, they unlock, we ride, we park in a designated parking space when we arrive at our destination.

It’s 1€ to unlock and then 35¢ per minute. (After our first ride we bought a 2.99€ pass that gave us unlimited 2€ rides of 30 minutes for a month: we saved a lot of money that way).

The Dott bikes are all electric ones, so, as Lisa said after 5 minutes “it feels like flying.” Going back to human bikes in Brussels will be a challenge. 

Liège is in thrall of Spring, with green everywhere, including the back yard of our home exchange. It’s rained every day we’ve been here so far, but the sun is out today and it’s glorious. 

We landed in Brussels early this morning, hopped on a train to Liège, and arrived before lunch at the Santiago Calatrava-designed railway station.