Fleur-de-Koffie

Cappuccino met Slagroom

Some people may think it odd that I would seek out cafés in Ghent, that I would make a point of reading descriptions, listing names and addresses, and then search for them.

I beg to differ. When I moved back to State College, Café Lemont was on my way to work. It was also, conveniently, about three-quarters of the way on my weekend bike rides. The baristas there were the first faces I saw in the morning, the first smiles of the day, the first friendly banter I encountered. I can’t tell you how important that is—and all for a $2 cup of coffee to-go—greetings that light up the morning and T-shirt slogans that brightened each day.  And yes, plenty of cream to pour into that dark roast to make it a lovely shade somewhere between Benjamin Moore Saddle Tan and Valley Forge Brown.

So I indulge in the caffeinated brew, here and abroad.  In Belgium, café beverages include not just coffees, teas, juices, and chocolate, but beer, wine, liqueurs, and cocktails. But, let me remind you, I rented a bicycle for two weeks, so I was concentrating on the non-alcoholic beverages at cafés.

Old-School Mokabon

I had 18 cafés on my original list. I eliminated two immediately because I had already indulged during previous trips—Barista (with a coffee sommelier) and Simon Says (where baristas dance the Lindy and harmonize while delivering your order.) Here is the rundown of my stops, and a little on the personality of each place. And, before I forget to give credit where it is due, my first cup each day was ‘Koen koffie’ in Marina and Koen’s kitchen.

 

Red Mokabon Sign Down Alley

Mokabon Café:  My first stop is the Nonno of cafés in Ghent, started by a young Italian man who began a coffee roasting business at this location in 1937. A few years later, it became the city’s first coffee bar. The address is Donkersteeg  (Dark Alley) 35, but nowadays it is most easily found by looking for the Starbucks Korenmarkt,  walking past the front door, and turning right down the alley.  Marina, not a coffee drinker, had warme chocomelk  (hot chocolate) and I had a Cappuccino met Slagroom.  The Dutch language never ceases to intrigue. Slagroom, simply put, is whipped cream in English.

DreamCATchers Cat Adoption Café & Shop,  Schepenhuisstraat 17: By far the most expensive cup of coffee I encountered in Ghent … but for a good cause. We paid 3 euro each just to get in the door to listen to the rules and regulations recited to us by a woman with a cat tattoo on her forearm. Turn off your cell. No flash photos. Put out your hand like you do with a dog and let the cat come it you, if it chooses. Five homeless cats wander around the café, climbing, nesting, stretching, leaping—doing what Belgian cats do. Eventually they find their full-time humans and another five come to the café. Waiter Ulysses teased one cat with a fishing pole and string, but could also translate the Dutch menu if necessary. We could figure things out well enough … Latte Meowchiato, Capurrrr-ccino, Ameowicano. You are there to pay the cover charge, drink the coffee and socialize the cats—but only if they want to socialize with you.

DreamCATchers

Café Labath, Oude Houtlei 1: This koffiehuis is a pleasant stroll from Marina’s neighborhood and could be my low-key regular morning stop if there weren’t so many other places to investigate.

Jungle Terrace

 

Clouds in My Coffee, Dendermondsesteenweg 104:  OK, I knew I was going to love this place just because of the name. It didn’t disappoint. We sat in the Jungle Terrace, near the B&B and around the corner from The Chapel, a loft-space to rent for workshops, meetings, or photo shoots. I asked for a coffee with cream and got a mug of steamy coffee with a billowing puff of slagroom—definitely a cloud in my coffee.

Bar Bidon, Bisdomkaai 25:  This place is hyped for cycling enthusiasts, and sells retro-bicycle brands and accessories as well as lattes and espressos. There are a few outdoor tables and I was lucky enough to snag one, sip on an iced latte, and watch workmen dredge the canal that runs along the koffiebar.

Moor & Moor

Moor& Moor,  Jakobijnenstraat 7: Speaking of iced lattes … this was my go-to café because it was close to the corner where I met Marina after her class. We enjoyed an “Indian Summer” while I visited Ghent (not normal for October in Belgium), so “iced” was the beverage of choice, especially after a sweaty pedal along the canals.

As with many businesses in Ghent, Moor & Moor is no-cash and promotes low food miles. One afternoon I was fortunate to see a bicycling gardener arrive with a baby-blue cart wedged between his two front tires and filled with potted plants. He stopped at Moor & Moor and efficiently planted vines on either side of the shop door and left for his next planting—a job I lust after!

Wasbar, Korenmarkt 37: Throughout cities in Belgium you’ll see Laundromats called Wassalons. In Ghent, if you have laundry to do I’d suggest the Wasbar. Washing your skinny jeans with turned-up cuffs while sipping on a Beetroot Latte has to be the hippest of hip. I stopped by one afternoon and found an outside table to people watch, minus the spin-dry cycle.

Wasbar Outside

No caffeine for me, instead a Limonade with red raspberries and a sprig of mint, and the Wasbar’s carrot cake with caramel and, yep, slagroom.  I must say everything was lekker (yummy).  Up-and-coming beverage note: Lemonade, with add-ons of raspberries, strawberries, apple, ginger, mint or vanilla, was offered at every café we visited.

Wasbar Inside

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

De Olijfboom, Forelstraat 37: The cup of coffee with the most warmth in Ghent was pour-your-own from a thermos at De Olijfboom (The Olive Tree). And it was free. OK, story time.

Koffie at Olijfboom

In 2015 when the refugee crisis began in Belgium, Evelyne, a young mother in Ghent, decided she needed to do something and started posting on Facebook, requesting donations from the community for refugees and asylum seekers. In no time, Een Hart Voor Vluchtelingen Gent (A Heart for Refugees in Ghent) caught Marina’s attention and soon she was helping Evelyne in her spare time.

Evelyne in Pink

What started out simply as grouping donated items into personal packages for families and individuals sprouted into an actual community center where refugees could find necessities, talk to Gentenaars, get advice for living in their new country, and celebrate holidays and special events with locals and other refugees.  De Olijfbloom, Evelyne explained to me over a cup of coffee, keeps evolving. After the organization received a donation of a virtual wall of bolts of fabric, some women began making cloth dolls, pillows and toys to sell there, all to support strangers seeking a new life in Belgium.  Laurie Lynch

Written in Steamed Cream: “… I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee, and …”  –Carley Simon

Fleur-de-NotSorry

Before going to Ghent, I read about a Concrete Canvas Tour map of the city’s street art.  I decided one of my first stops in Ghent would be the Visit Gent Information Centre near the medieval Gravensteen,  Castle of the Counts.

The woman at the desk knew what I was talking about but said it wasn’t called the Concrete Canvas Tour anymore, and it wasn’t a tour.  She handed me a map entitled Sorry, Not Sorry, with numbered locations of street art and a legend of artists corresponding to the work.

Ghent Artist Roa’s Heron

For all of its ancient architecture, Ghent is a youthful, irreverent city. Hawkers set up stands to sell giant gumdrops called cuberdons  (the Noses of Ghent). A sign above the grill of a Lebanese restaurant reports: I kiss better than I cook. Prior to the city’s October elections, top-hatted minstrels with red carnations, bow ties, kazoos, whistles and triangles, traveled from square to square singing ditties poking fun at each candidate, drawing laughter from the Flemish crowd. Sorry, not sorry.

And, as you walk or bike down narrow streets or cobbled alleys, you never know what fantasy will pop out above or beside you.  I went in search of this oh-so public artwork, perhaps as homage to Kutztown’s Keith Haring, but mainly, just to explore as many corners of Ghent as I could.

Sorry, Not Sorry is the label for street art in Ghent and the city has developed a graffiti and street art policy. Cultuur Gent encourages artists and provides four legal zones for street artists to use as their galleries. With this support, muralists paint under bridges, above street corners and decorate the city with urban art without defacing historic buildings. A group called Eco-Werkhuis  removes illegal graffiti, tags, and stickers in the streets of Ghent, free of charge.

Peter Perch, The Netherlands

On the 2018 Sorry, Not Sorry map, 93 locations and 46 artists are highlighted. Many of the artists are from Ghent; others were commissioned to visit and paint. If you have a home in Ghent you might be lucky enough to get a slip of a sketch in your letterbox. If you approve of the proposed street art for your domicile, you post the sketch in your window to let the artist know.

There is even an official Werregarenstraat,  a narrow alley that doubles as a street art tunnel, where anyone armed with a spray can of paint can get artistic. (They also have piles of sidewalk chalk for youngsters to let their creativity shine.)  Lais posed with her glitter spider on Graffiti Street, as it’s called, while I was there in October and it’s a good thing Marina took the photo. During the first week in November the city painted over the walls to give artists a blank canvas to create new works—and gone is the growling tiger. Laurie Lynch

Lais, Spider, Tiger

Kutztown Keith: A few days before I left Ghent I went into a second-hand bookstore De Slegte to buy a few cards. When I walked out and turned to retrieve my bike, I looked in the window. At that moment, a store clerk placed a giant Keith Haring picture book in the window: Keith Haring, Gegen Den Strich.

I went back into the store and asked if the book displayed in the window was the only copy. “Oh no,” and she led me to a stack of books. I was beyond myself. I picked up a copy, still wrapped in plastic, and carried it to the checkout. I handed the clerk my VISA card.

“I am so excited! My daughter grew up in the same town as Keith Haring and now she’s taking Dutch classes, so this book is perfect for her. A combination of her past—and present.”

Klass Van der Linden, Ghent

I signed the receipt.

“But Madam, the book is in German.”

“Ahhh, well, then after she learns Dutch, she’ll have to tackle German.”

The book is a catalog of the 160 artworks included in the Kunsthalle Munchen solo exhibit of Haring’s The Political Line, May 1-Aug. 30, 2015. Haring, who died in 1990, is described on the Munich art museum’s site as a political artist and visionary. His art on NYC subway walls and city murals drew attention to social ills during the conservative Reagan era, taking a clear stand against capitalist excess, and making a commitment to nuclear disarmament, environmental protection, and equal rights, regardless of origin, color, religion, or sexuality.

Written in Spray Paint:  “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.” – Anais Nin

Captions: Horses by Cee Pill, Moth by Pol Cosmo,  and Gloves by Matthew Dawn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fleur-de-OktoberOctobre

M&K’s Place

My visits to Belgium are few and far between, so I wanted to make the most of my trip this fall.

I spent the bulk of the two weeks in Ghent, visiting Marina and Koen, and enjoyed a long weekend in Charleroi with my granddaughter Lais and her mother Sabine.

I’ve seen most of the tourist sites before, so I travel to Belgium to see my loved ones. The week before I arrived, Marina left her corporate job to start a new venture and had a full-afternoon schedule of Advanced Dutch classes while I was there. In anticipation of this, I did a little homework and branched out from my typical garden hot spots and vegetarian restaurants. I focused on cafés and concrete canvases, lucked into a family-run chocolate shop, and rented a bike to make the explorations possible. I’ll be sharing those adventures with you in future blogs, but first, I’ll update you on my Belgian family.

Richard and I crossed paths for about 12 hours. He picked me up at Brussels airport and we took the train to Ghent. The next day, Richard returned to State College to take care of my mother, his Nonna.

Marina and Koen have been restoring a fire-damaged row home in Ghent for almost two years and they’ve been living in it since March. There is still much to be done, so my mornings were spent sorting through second-hand furniture shops, matching paint samples at tintelijn, a natuurverwinkel (a natural paint shop), as well as sanding, painting, hanging curtains, and sketching out plans for the terrace gardens.

Marina & Koen

During the afternoons, Marina went to class and I biked along the canals, the Leie (Lys in French) River, and the cobbled streets of Ghent. In the evenings, we ate out or in, took a 45-minute drive to the coast and each attempted to eat a kilo of mussels with frites on the Ostend oceanfront (Koen was successful), and went to Film Fest Gent for the Belgian premiere of Beautiful Boy, directed by Belgian Felix Van Groeningen.

 

 

 

Lais

Parks and playgrounds were the highlights when Lais, 4, and Sabine visited Ghent or when I stayed with them in Charleroi.

I got to see Lais hug her favorite Monsieur l’arbre (Mr. Tree), do tricks on her scooter, climb, swing, slide, and bounce, and we even got to go swimming together at la piscine.

 

 

 

Lais, Sabine, me, and photographer Marina’s Chai latte

Une visite parfaite, as they’d say in Charleroi. Een perfect bezoek, as they’d say in Ghent.  Or, as I’d say: A perfect visit! Laurie Lynch

While I Was Gone: Roofs were replaced and patched (I had 107 invoices to send out the week I returned … a personal record). Then my co-worker Bill sent me this photo.  I thought it was a joke—an AstroTurf putting green with square holes (the estimators are all big golfers).

But no, he said it was a real photograph of a Green Roof we just completed at Penn State’s Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Building (I had done the LEED submittals).  The leftover flats were outside near the loading dock.

I went out to take a look, and sure enough, there they were, stacked up.  Far from fake,  they are beautiful tapestries of green, gray, and red sedum.