Ghent and GrappleThon Belgium 2018 at Aorta BJJ

I'll take any excuse to go to Belgium, so when Weronika announced she was organising a GrappleThon in Brussels, I was very excited! That meant I could indulge myself in some wonderful Flemish and Dutch art after the GrappleThon. I've been meaning to go to Ghent/Gent for ages, so finally took the opportunity to pop down with Kirsty.

İ was heartily impressed with Ghent, very attractive city. Previously, I'd just wanted to go because it has the van Eyck altarpiece, but having finally made it, I now know there is a lot more. Gorgeous buildings, a massive castle, interesting museums, tasty food and awesome people (like Leen). I'll definitely be back! 😍

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The Ghent Altarpiece in St Bavos Cathedral is one of the key works of Western art. For that reason, particularly as I love FlemishArt, I've wanted to see it for years. Jan Van Eyck was a massive influence in the development of oil painting. Though he certainly didn't invent the technique (it has been erroneously credited to him by art critics in past centuries), he was an absolute genius with oils. The Gent Altarpiece is probably his masterpiece, though there's a strong argument to instead point to the Arnolfini Portrait in the National Gallery.

As it's an altarpiece, this is huge and wasn't done by Jan alone: his older brother Hubert was also involved. İt's difficult to say who painted what, but most likely Jan did the donor portraits on the outer panels, which I particularly enjoyed given their secular nature (in that these are normal humans, not biblical figures 😉).

The altarpiece is housed in a gigantic glass vitrine, so unfortunately you can't get very close to the inner panels. However, walking around the back, you can get pretty close to those donors, plus the #risaille saints stood by them. John The Evangelist is one of my faves (depicted here by the donor) along with St Catherine (not here, but I think in a group on the lower central inner panel), as both of them fit into a fantasy setting due to their attributes. John has his poisoned cup filled with dragons (because poison 😉), Catherine has her big sword. 😍

You're not supposed to take pics, so I was being a bit naughty, but I tend to find it irksome when pics are banned. As long as you don't use flash, I think it's ok, but meh, still naughty. 😜 İt's only €4 to get in, plus another €1 for a stripped down audio guide. İt purely gives you the description of each panel, so one of the most concise audio guides I've listened to. The cathedral is also worth a look, but I was mostly just there for the altarpiece. Then it was off to meet my friend Kirsty for waffles and waffling.

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Monday is closing time in #Belgium, but fortunately there were a few cool places open in Ghent yesterday. Along with St Bavo's, I was also able to check out the Design Museum Gent: hooray for chairs! Also chandeliers, but mainly chairs. There were all sorts of materials used, from cardboard to 3D printed plastic to 18th century wood, even a #chair made out of fungi. The info was pretty thorough too, with snazzy themed booklets you can take away. Well worth my €8. Gent Wins Again! Or wins a-Gent? 😉

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Class #1059

The first edition of the GrappleThon Belgium was a big success, so I hope it becomes an annual event. In terms of the actual rolling, as ever I didn't do all that much. I flow rolled for over an hour with Kirsty, relaxed and staying loose so I could go longer. Tougher roll with Kenny the next day, but he was still taking it easy. Trying to keep everything in place, remove from attacks. I think he eventually got a toe hold, can't remember? On butterfly guard pass, be sure to control at least one of their hooks.

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16th to 25th June 2016, Bruges & Leuven

Transport

Getting on the Eurostar is fairly straightforward. You don’t need to worry about any liquids and the like, as the security check doesn’t appear to care. There is a relatively long queue, meaning you’ll want to leave a decent bit of time, especially as the gate will close thirty minutes before departure. You arrive into Brussels Midi: be aware that there are a lot of stations in Brussels with similar names, which can get confusing.

For the Eurostar, you want Brussels Midi, which for some reason is also Brussels Zuid. Brussels Nord and Brussels Centraal are different, so avoid getting mixed up with those. There are plenty of trains to Bruges, which depending on the one you select can take up to an hour and fifteen minutes. You will most likely have a second class ticket: 2nd class is further down the train with less plush seats (though 1st class doesn’t look all that swisher).

The only thing I knew as a child about Bruges was that I liked Club Brugge's attractive blue and black football kit on Sensible Soccer. Even that knowledge was tenuous, as I didn't realise until later that 'Bruges' and 'Brugge' were in fact the same place: for quite some time as a pre-teen, I thought 'Bruges' was another name for Brussels. Fortunately my knowledge of the town has increased since then, largely based on the interest I developed in Flemish art. ;)

If you’re in Bruges for at least three days, then it makes sense to get yourself a Musee Card for €20. That covers you for fourteen different museum sites around the city, all within walking distance. It isn’t a big place: you can walk from one end to the other in around forty minutes or less. The card is actually a ticket, which you can pick up from any of the fourteen places it covers, but be aware not all of them take card payments: the ones that do are the Belfry/Belfort, the Groeningemuseum, Our Lady Chuch/O.L.V-Kerk (OLV stands for Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) and the Old St John’s Hospital/Sint-Jans Hospitaal. The €20 is paid off after visiting three or four of them, though if you were pressed for time, the main places to see are the Belfry (€10 on its own), the Groeningemuseum (€8) and Sint-Jans Hospitaal (€8).

Unless you’re used to eating frugally, bring plenty of Euros with you, as Bruges is not cheap. It’s possible to get by on €2.50 cheese toasties and fries, but for a proper meal you’re looking at a good €20 to €40. Around lunchtime there are a number of deals, where you can get several courses for more like €16: we paid €15.90 for two cheese croquets, a beef stew and a flan dessert. Waffles and ice cream is also more expensive than a similar treat would be in Brussels, though it is very tasty. A bus to the station will set you back €2, though that may be worth it if you have a huge bag.

Bruges

I went to Belgium last year for an art and training trip, focusing on Brussels. This time, I’m spending around the same time on the art side of things, but much longer on BJJ, with a full week camp rather than a day. In Bruges, there is less on offer compared to the capital, though it can boast some exceptional masterpieces. Back in the 15th century, Bruges was an international art centre, its most significant school now known as the Flemish Primitives. That misleading moniker does not refer to the style of their art, which is highly refined, particularly the most famous member of the group, Jan van Eyck. He revolutionised art throughout the whole of Europe with his innovations in oil painting. Up until van Eyck, egg tempera was the dominant material: that all changed after his fellow artists experienced the incredible works van Eyck could produce.

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There is an illustrious history of art in Bruges, particularly during its most prosperous period over the 14th and 15th centuries, after which it went into decline (which got a whole lot worse when access to the sea silted up and business moved to Antwerp). The Flemish Primitives spent a good proportion of their careers in Bruges. Jan van Eyck earned himself a statue, while Hans Memling has his own museum. Memling was actually born in what is now Germany, but his masterpieces are to be found over at the Sint-Jans Hospitaal (St Johns Hospital), including a lavishly painted shrine to St Ursula and several triptychs. Aside from Memling there isn’t all that much to enjoy at Sint Jans Hospitaal, but he’s worth the price of entry.

Van Eyck's triptych with Joris Van der Paele is probably the best known work held by the Groeningemuseum, collected together with several other Flemish Primitives in room two. Directly across is Hugo van de Goes ‘Death of the Virgin’, while along another wall you’ll find Hans Memling again. The Groeningmuseum is less of a one-hit wonder, but the quality falls off considerably after you’ve been dazzled by Van Eyck and friends. I had hoped there would be more examples of Belgian Symbolism, but it's mostly just Ferdinand Khnopff and a couple of dreary cityscapes. The place to see the Symbolists is Brussels.

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In the centre of Bruges, head up the Belfry for an excellent view of the town, slightly obscured by netting tightly strung across all the windows (meaning an In Bruges style finale is impossible without wire cutters ;D). If you are claustrophobic, note there are 366 narrow steps to reach that view, though there are also several landings where you can pause to catch your breath. I’d suggest climbing up towards the end of the day, between 16:00 and 17:00, as that marks the last time you can enter. You can therefore be sure you won’t meet anybody coming on the way up as you make you way back down the cramped spiral staircase. You’ll also want to steel yourself if you’re heading up the Sint-Jansmolen windmill, another site on the Musea Card. That isn’t especially high, but it’s quite steep with no handrail, so not one for those who don’t like heights.

The Arentshuis has a few interesting sketches upstairs by Frank Brangwyn, a follower of William Morris who was also a dab hand at designing patterns for chairs. He is best known for his propaganda posters during the First World War for Britain, where he spent most of his life after being born in Bruges. Downstairs hosts rotating exhibitions from the nearby Groeningemusem, which was a selection of prints during my visit. That included several from Goya, Bruegel and Hogarth, among several other recognisable names.

I doubt I would have gone if it hadn’t been part of the Musea Card, but it was suitably diverting. The same was true of the O.L.V Kerk, full of anonymous paintings. It is more exciting if you’re religious, as there are two ‘miraculous’ pilgrimage sites inside. Firstly is the statue after which the church is named, allegedly the source of various miracles. There is also the last resting place of a local saint, whose body supposedly showed no signs of decay or stench, despite lying inside a lead coffin for a few centuries.

Leuven

It was then back to Brussels for my gf to head home, while I set off for my second visit to Leuven. Unlike last time, I wouldn’t be staying on my own. I also would be going to the full camp, rather than just one day. For 2016, three other people from Artemis BJJ were taking part: Simon, Oscar and Ben. We were booked into the Condo Gardens (thanks to Oscar's organisational skills), a short walk from the Sportoase that was hosting the camp itself. With my sense of direction it took me a while to work out the route, but once I had, it was a mere ten minutes or so door-to-door. Condo Gardens has an excellent location and it was cool how many other Globetrotters were staying there, but I got very little sleep (due to a combination of fiddling around on the internet too much and the light from the window hitting me directly in the face every morning).

Goodbye Condo Gardens: I loved your proximity to the gym, not so keen on never sleeping. Now for the @olivergeddes side control session! :D ____________________________ #brazilianjiujitsu #bjjGlobetrotter #bjjGlobetrottersLeuven #bjjGlobetrotterCamp #bjjGlobetrotters #CondoGardens #Leuven

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jun 25, 2016 at 12:45am PDT

The range of different teaching styles was fascinating. Some instructors took the opportunity to think through a technique with one or more follow ups, like a BJJ lecture. Others went for short chunks, breaking down a move into sections. Still others took a more conceptual approach, laying out their main principles, then following with multiple drills. My preference is the second of those, as I am easily confused if there is too much information, but all pedagogic approaches have their place. I guess the first option is essentially offering you the chance to pick out the details you need, especially if you’re a more advanced practitioner. I'll be writing up every class here, though it will take me a while to get fully up to date. Fortunately I took videos of everything I attended, a useful memory aid.

I also took three private lessons. I hadn't intended to do any before going to the camp, but then David 'Morcegao' George mentioned during his group class that he was offering private lessons for a mere €40 between two people. That was too good a deal for me to miss. After that, it meant that I started looking at group classes differently. During Kenny Polmans' class on side control, I wanted to go into more detail, so I asked him what his prices for privates were too. As that price was extremely affordable, I booked a private lesson with him too. Finally, the Nathan Adamson class on pressure passing was so good that I wanted to grab him for a private as well, my last class of the camp on Saturday.

It wasn't all training. Although it isn't Bruges, Leuven was still a centre for art during the Northern Renaissance, most famously in the form of Dieric Bouts. A number of fine altarpieces by him can be found in the Sint-Pieterskerk Schatkamer (St Peter's Church Treasury), in the centre of town by Oude Markt. It was much better than I expected. Along with the famous work by Bouts, there was quite a lot of other good quality 16th century Flemish art, as well as 18th century Rubenesque painter and Leuven local, Pieter-Joseph Verhaghen. My favourite was an anonymous 16th century 'Fall Of The Rebel Angels'. I find that the best Catholic art is invariably when it gets infernal. ;)

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jun 22, 2016 at 12:14pm PDT

The audio guide was good too, filling in lots of detail on the various treasures owned by the church. Though the altarpieces were the highlights, you could also examine statues, sculptures, bas relief and the like, all for less than €6 (for both entrance and the audio guide). The guide is unusual in that you don't key in numbers. Instead, you hover the audioguide itself near little red boxes until you hear a beep, then the relevant narrative starts up in your headphones (if you have headphones: those aren't supplied, but you can listen to the speaker on the audioguide too. I much prefer headphones and had some with me).

There is a combined ticket that will cover you for all the sites in Leuven (similar to the ticket we got in Bruges), but I knew that I would only have time to see two. I therefore just got the combined ticket for St Peter's and the M Museum, which was €16 (including audio guides for both).

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jun 23, 2016 at 6:23am PDT

I wasn't sure what to expect from the M Museum Leuven, but I'm very glad I went: it was excellent. I'd suggest you need 2 to 3 hours for this eclectic, high quality collection, which also has a good audio guide. In the top left of my Instagram post (above) is another cool 16th century altarpiece. Next to that, you're looking at Isala Van Dienst, on the right of her sister. Her father Pierre Joseph Van Dienst was Leuven's municipal surgeon and an early feminist. He wanted his daughters to have the same opportunities as his son. Hence why in 1879, Isala graduated with a medical degree from Bern (it would be 1920 until Leuven accepted female students).

In 1884 she forced the authorities to let her practice as a doctor, thanks to a royal decree. She campaigned for women's rights, did a lot of work to prevent the exploitation of prostitutes (I think?) and the first ever female doctor in Belgium. Isala Van Dienst sounds like an impressive woman! The bottom left is apparently called 'The Kiss' (Dutch is a bit like German, so I understood some of the captions). However, I think it looks more like she is going to do an effortless takedown on some guy who's been bothering her. ;)

Finally, the bottom right is part of a massive alabaster altarpiece. The M Museum has a broad range of art, as well as sculpture. If you're in Leuven, I'd highly recommend it. I will most likely be back next year. It's a shame they don't have much in the way of English guidebooks, but that often happens with smaller museums (or even larger ones: I had that problem at the Prado last year). Perhaps a sign I should get in touch with my Belgian roots and learn Flemish? ;)

This was the perfect trip for me. I got to spend time with my girlfriend in a beautiful city, explore loads of magnificent Flemish art from the 15th and 16th centuries, train as much BJJ as I could want and make tonnes of new BJJ friends from across the world. If you have the chance to go a BJJ Globetrotters Camp, jump on it. For the price of a few seminars, you get six full days of training with a broad variety of instructors, including some extremely experienced teachers like Chris Haueter.

Socially, it feels like that first glorious week of university, when everything is still fresh. Everybody has similar goals in common, everybody is actively looking to make contacts and there is a potent sense of community. On top of all that, you get to learn awesome techniques, with easy access to as many black belts as you could want, offered private lessons at reduced rates. For a mere €199, you'd be crazy not to book Leuven next year. I'm planning to go again in 2017, as well as the US and hopefully a Germany camp too (once Christian gets that sorted). See you there! :D

A video posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jun 25, 2016 at 9:46am PDT

13th to 16th August 2015, Belgium

I was born in Brussels, but I haven't been back since my parents moved to the UK when I was three months old (which is why I have a posh English accent: there isn't a drop of British blood in me, just Turkish and German with smatterings of Dutch and probably Greek). When I saw that there was a BJJ Globetrotters Camp in Belgium, I decided to finally make a return, especially as I love Flemish art. Somehow transmitted via the womb, perhaps? ;)

My arrival into Brussels Airport was free of problems, unless you count getting up at 3am for a 6am flight as a problem. There are regular flights from Bristol: I booked well in advance, costing about £70 return. There are cheaper options, like a 6 hour bus from London. I'm told that's only £35 return, but I prefer the speed and convenience of a plane (if less environmentally friendly).

Leuven

After my train from the airport arrived at Bruxelles Noord (Centrale station is fine for this too), it was straightforward to get a train to Leuven, which will be down in French as Louvain on the information boards. Tickets were €8.80 each way, taking about 17 minutes. Checking my Sygic SatNav, it was only a 24 minute walk from the station to the BJJ Globetrotter Summer Camp at the Sportoase, but my route was immediately made easier once I saw some guys carrying their gis. The Sportoase itself is pretty big, as is the cavernous matted room where the classes were taught, deep within the building. The heat hits you straight away: I was sweating immediately upon entering the GrappleCave.


I ended up doing four classes, starting with Oli Geddes' rolling back attacks. Next time, I'd like to stay for the full week and bring some Artemis BJJ students with me. Handy that I know where it is now and have experienced the process. I'd recommend bringing a very light gi. There's probably no need to book onto the meals (especially as there is open mat time during the booked eating slots).

As if to punish me for complaining about the temperature, a thunderstorm hit just as I was leaving for my CouchSurfing host's house. Fortunately I had checked the weather before I left, so knew to pack waterproofs. After an interesting chat with those hosts (they're building their own house, using straw bales as the main construction material), I fell asleep pretty quickly.

Brussels

Friday to Sunday was dedicated to Brussels. Fortuitously, the location of my next CouchSurfing host meant that I could travel via Etterbeek station, the district listed on my birth certificate. Indulging my narcissism, I took a few pictures, but it's basically just a suburb. Apparently a well known Belgian footballer is from there, so that's presumably the only famous thing a non-Belgian would know.

My host had to rush off to meet up with her mother in Paris, but still had enough time to give me loads of useful info about getting around Brussels. I already knew where I was heading: the museum district. Specifically, I wanted the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. The translation is Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, but it sounds much better in French (be careful you don't get it mixed up with BOZAR, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, as I did at first). My guidebook said it was split into three museums, but technically it's four (although the Musée d'Art moderne is just a handful of exhibits). In fact, there are six on the Musee ticket, but two of them are outside of the main building. Getting there meant navigating Brussels public transportation, a relatively straightforward affair.

Trams, trains, buses and the Metro in Brussels all connect. I started off on the 'pre-metro' line 7, heading towards Heysel, then changed at Petillon to the Metro line. Walk around the corner and down the heavily graffitied alley (you should see a big M sign) for the Metro station. There's a ticket machine if you need one, on the way to the Metro. It's €2.10 for an hour of continuous travel, or there are options for multiple trips, 24hrs etc.

For the centre of town, cross over the platform (you should be able to walk straight through the gates, I think. Regardless, you can use your ticket again if not) and get on the Metro towards Gare de L'Ouest (Weststation). Alternatively, you could continue past Petillon and instead switch at Montgomery station, moving to Metro line 1. Either way, get off at Gare Centrale. From there, exit through the main Bruxelles Centrale station, continuing on through the Galerie Ravenstein (built in the '50s). Head up the posh stairs just outside, then turn right and walk to the large square, where you should see the main art gallery in the corner. The museum address, if you want to plug it into your SatNav like I did, is number 3 on rue de la Regence.

There is the option of buying an €8 ticket for a single museum , or paying slightly more (€13) to get access to all of them. On my initial visit, I stuck with the Old Masters Museum (aka Musée d'Art ancien) on the top floor. Its audio guide (€4) is pretty good, full of both interpretive and contextual information, but annoyingly it doesn't come with headphones. There is what looks like a headphone port, but it was too small for my earphones. You therefore end up listening on a speaker, broadcasting to everybody else in the surrounding area. There is also a cloakroom with lockers, costing you exactly nothing (you do need either a €1 or €2 coin to operate the lock mechanism, but you get that back when you unlock it).



Staring intently at every single painting, listening to all the entries on the audio guide, took me three and a half hours. I loved every minute of it. Many of my favourite artists are represented, including Pieter Bruegel (both elder and younger, along with other members of the family), Hieronymous Bosch, Rogier van de Weyden and Petrus Christus. There's the famous painting of Marat by Jacques-Louis David and an assortment of David Teniers as well.

I'm familiar with a lot of the art here, especially Bruegel. The Brueghel family (Pieter, the patriarch of the family, decided to drop the H) is all over the gallery, as you'd expect given they are among Belgium's finest exports (although they wouldn't have called it Belgium in the sixteenth century: that country only came into being after the revolution of 1830).

If you've read my babbling about art before, you'll know my favourite period is quite narrow, from 1450-1750 or so, meaning that once the collection moved towards the 18th century, there were more surprises. For example, a painting of what looks like a female Hercules, sadly not covered by the audio guide. I forgot to take a picture of the caption, but I think this was either 17th or 18th century. It's housed in a section away from the main square of corridors that house most of the Old Masters: the highlight is probably Rubens.

I had a good chat with a fellow CouchSurfer who was staying with the same host when I got back. I had expected him to be Eastern European, given his name is Ivan, but it turned out he was from Northern Italy, which has a lot of German influence. Nice guy with lots of stories from his travels around Asia. He's finishing off seven months exploring that continent with a brief European tour, before heading home to the land of pasta.

On Saturday, it was time for more gallery action at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts. This time, I wanted to check out the Fin-de-Siècle and Magritte sections (technically separate museums, but I got a €13 combined ticket and could therefore flit between all of them). The gallery opens an hour later on weekends, from 11:00-18:00, so I had an hour to kill before my second gallery visit on Saturday.


I slayed that hour with the help of Experience Brussels, just across the way from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts/Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts. It's a free interactive exhibit on the city, mentioned in my guide book (the unfairly maligned Rough Guide Snapshot: Brussels). It is relatively dry, full of population statistics and EU history, but I like dry. There are flashing lights and loads of video, if you need shiny things to keep you occupied. ;)

I was especially keen to dig into the demographics of Etterbeek, something the exhibit provided with not only a map, but a video tour of Etterbeek sights too. Contrary to what I thought, there are a few things to see there, such as the Art Noveau Couchiehuis, a museum, a church and even some kind of cool medieval festival. I'll try and head along to some of that next time I'm in Brussels.

Getting back to the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts, the Musée Fin-de-Siècle was an entirely different experience to the previous day (starting with a queue: on Friday I walked straight in). I knew almost none of the artists, whereas in the Old Masters section I got to see a lot of my long-standing favourites. The audio guide this time went for depth instead of breadth: there would often be long gaps between paintings, then it would go to town on those paintings (and photographs, a major part of this section of the museum) it did deign worthy of comment.

Jarringly, a video of something related would sometimes follow the audio portion of the commentary. That has the plus side of more content and benefitted from video, but on the downside you would sometimes need to sit and concentrate. That's because the pictures under discussion might be on the viewscreen rather than in the museum. With the first entry in the audio guide, it's a whole video to watch, featuring news footage from turn of the century Belgium.


Although I frequently wanted more information on certain paintings, like the massive depiction of a naked baby swarm or Circe with her magically piggified Greeks, I'd say this museum is not far off the quality of the Old Masters section (though that's still easily the best). While it's outside of my usual area of interest, I like art noveau, of which both artists and furniture were on display, reminiscent of the Kelvingrove in Glasgow. How this expansive art noveau collection came to the museum was interesting, detailed at length in the audio guide. There were also some artists I have enjoyed before (mainly at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris), like von Stuck and the Belgian Symbolist Jean Delville,

The Musee Magritte was less engrossing than I'd hoped: whereas I spent over three hours exploring the Fin-de-Siècle, I whizzed round Magritte in about an hour. I got tired of his pretentious posturing, along with the unpleasant memories of Lacan all that talk of signifiers brought up. It was essentially Dali but without the charisma. Magritte's frequent assertion that "oh, all this obviously very densely referential imagery doesn't mean anything, I just threw it together" was especially irritating.

That left me with two extra hours I hadn't expected, so I spent them at the Comic Strip Museum (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée). Your €10 journey starts with a history of comics, originating with hieroglyphics, the Bayeaux tapestry and illuminated manuscripts, through to Hokusai, Hogarth and eventually Little Nemo in Slumberland from the early 20th century. Lots of videos with examples are included throughout.

Next up is a thorough dissection of the comic artist's craft. This display breaks down the whole process, from the initial idea through to inking, colouring and publication. There are multiple examples of original sketches and notebooks (unfortunately all in French, but as these are Belgian artists that's to be expected), along with videos giving further details. You can watch a digital artwork for a comic book being drawn step by step, very interesting for me as I have the long term goal of learning how to scribble proper pictures on my phone.


Upstairs, the focus shifts to famous examples of the comic strip genre. I've never been a Tintin reader, which is the first character that springs to mind with Belgian comic art, but I do have fond memories of the Smurfs. Both had large displays, detailing their history as well as offering up sundry artefacts associated with each series. I didn't know that the Smurfs began life as essentially extras in somebody else's comic, before they gradually took over.

I also got to explore a character I had not encountered before, Thorgal. He seems to be in the vein of Conan with a similar sword and sorcery setting, albeit with a heavy Norse influence. There were Thorgal graphic novels in English and French available to read, which was enjoyable enough. I like that it's an ongoing narrative for the last 40 years, rather than a constant reboot as appears to be the case with many other long running comics.

When I got back to where I was staying, my CouchSurfing host had returned from Paris. I spent the rest of the evening with her and Ivan, then the next day she took us on a cool cycle tour of her city. The bikes can be rented inexpensively (though you need a credit or debit card, as they will charge you €150 if you break the bike, so want to have that security before you're allowed to take the bike) through an automated system. Compared to riding my teeny little Brompton it felt like riding an elephant, but I soon got the hang of it. Be aware that the many cobbled streets can make for a teeth-rattling experience.

I flew home to Bristol in the late afternoon, still eating the €2.80 loaf of sugared bread my CouchSurfing host had recommended from her local bakery (she had loads of great tips like that). I will definitely be back, as I'm keen to return for the 2016 BJJ Globetrotters Summer Camp. My plan is to head with my girlfriend to some other Belgian cities first, then meet up with Artemis BJJ students in Leuven for the camp: I want to stay for the whole thing next time. That should also give me a chance to wander round Etterbeek, hopefully learning more about that awesome Renaissance Fair type thing I saw at Experience Brussels.