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Excursions
After the morning sessions, Wednesday afternoon is dedicated to guided tours.
There will be three different events:
- Visit to the Magritte Museum
- Visit to the Cantillon Brewery (Brussels Gueuze Museum)
- Visit to the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate
The visit to the Magritte Museum is organized in 3 groups of 60 people, at 14h30, 15h00, and 15h30.
The visit to the Cantillon Brewery is organized in 3 groups of 60 people, at 14h30, 15h00, and 15h30.
The visit to the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate is organized in 2 groups of 75 people, at 14h30, and 15h45.
The tickets for each event and group (together with a transport ticket) will will be available on Wednesday morning at the registration desk at the Sheraton hotel. Please note that it is not possible to reserve a specific event, and that the distribution of the tickets will be done according to the First Come First Served principle.
Members of the organization will guide you to the event and will leave the Sheraton hotel one hour before the starting time of the event (of the first group).
Map with the three events and the Sheraton Hotel
View EventsICDM2012 in a larger map
Visit to the Magritte Museum
The museum displays the artwork of the Belgian artist René François Ghislain Magritte (21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967).
René Magritte became well known thanks to several witty and thought-provoking surrealist images. His work challenges observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality (text from Wikipedia 
some rights reserved).
This is how the artist described his artwork in his own words: "My paintings are visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question 'What does that mean'? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable."
The exhibition area of the Magritte Museum displays a collection of more than 200 works consisting of oils on canvas, gouaches, drawings, sculptures and painted objects as well as advertising posters, musical scores, vintage photographs and films produced by the artist (text from the Magritte Museum web-site).
The museum is located in Brussels at the Place Royale at Rue de la Régence 3 (see the map below). Below are the instructions on how to get there from the Sheraton Hotel:
- Walk to Rogier Tram/Metro Station (1 minute)
- Take the metro 2 or 6 (direction Simonis Leopold II)
- Stop at Porte de Namur
- Walk to Rue de la Régence, 3 (about 6 min / 500 m)
The map below shows the directions from Porte de Namur metro station:
View ICDM2012 Magritte Museum directions in a larger map
The visit is organized in three groups of 60 people with 4 guides each, and according to the following schedule:
- first group 14:30 – 16:00
- second group 15:00 - 16:30
- third group 15:30 – 17:00
Visit to the Cantillon Brewery (Brussels Gueuze Museum)
Cantillon Brewery (Brasserie-Brouwerij Cantillon) is a small Belgian traditional family brewery based in Brussels and founded in 1900, notable for its lambic beers.
Cantillon Brewery brews lambic beers like kriek, faro, and gueuze in the traditional style. The brewery was founded in1900 by Paul Cantillon, whose father was a brewer as well, and his wife, Marie Troch. As of 2011, the owner is Jean van Roy, fourth-generation brewer at Cantillon. Since 1900 the only major change has been a shift to organic ingredients in 1999. In the traditional lambic style, beers (from 2/3 malted barley and 1/3 unmalted wheat) are spontaneously fermented, aged in oak, blended (from different batches and ages), and bottled, and then refermented for a year. Half of the brewery's production is gueuze; once a year a batch of kriek is made. For fruit-flavored beers, empty oak casks are filled with various fruits and macerated for three months to dissolve the fruits; young lambic is added to supply sugar for fermentation. (text from Wikipedia some rights reserved).
Description of the visit (from the official site):
"Welcome to the Brussels museum of the Gueuze, the living museum of the traditional Gueuze. A living museum, where you'll find different forms of life, not only the Van Roy-Cantillon family but also the living micro-organisms which cause the spontaneous fermentation of the lambic.
Come in and discover a unique brewers' patrimony, a lambic brewery from 1900 where a family of master-brewers which is proud of her traditions and her products is still brewing.
Machines, most of them original, barrels with Lambic, Kriek or Framboise, cellars where bottles of Gueuze, Kriek or Lambic Grand Cru wait patiently till they get transferred to a customer's table, a mashing tun and boilers, a granary with a cooling tun where the Brussels air has free play, a filter and a bottling machine, these are the things you'll see during your visit.
You will see one of the last traditional breweries where nearly nothing has changed during the last century. You will experience a unique moment amid the lambic fumes which escape from the barrels in which the beer matures for three years.
The Van Roy-Cantillon family welcomes you and will be glad to unveil to you the mistery of the production of traditional lambic."
The address is 56 rue Gheude 1070 Brussels. Below are instructions on how to get there from the Sheraton Hotel:
- Walk to Rogier Tram/Metro Station (1 minute)
- Take the Tram 4 (direction Stalle) or the Tram 3
(direction Churchill) - Stop at Lemonnier.
- Walk to the Gueuze Museum (6 minutes). The map below has the directions from Lemonnier tram station:
View Cantillon in a larger map
For the interested, here is a map with walking directions to the Gueuze Museum, from the Grand Place (with tips of places of interest on the way). The walking trip takes around 40 minutes.
The visit will take place on the 12/12/12 at 14h30, 15h00, and 15h30 (60 people each turn).
Visit to the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate
Chocolate, located just off the Grand Place at 9/11 Rue de la Tete d'Or, offers a walk down chocolate history lane. From its discovery by the Aztecs to its development on African cocoa bean plantations, to the invention of the Belgian praline, this museum tells the story of chocolate with photographs, posters, chocolate-making artifacts and even a few samples.
Created in 1998 by Mrs. J. Draps, third in line of a family of chocolate makers, The Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate is spread out over three floors of a Belgian walk-up restored in 1943. (text from brussels-belgium-travel-guide some rights reserved).
Description of the visit (from the brussels-belgium-travel-guide):
Upon entrance, visitors receive a Speculoo cookie dipped in fresh Belgian chocolate as they take in chocolate-making machines, videos, and posters. Old chocolate molds, displayed in a glass case, come in all shapes and sizes including: Saint Nicholas, fish, waffles, seashells, turtle shells, bunnies and chickens. Also displayed is a 100-year-old almond broiler and a centrifuge machine for sugar created in 1910.
A master chocolatier works in a small chocolate workshop in the back on the first floor to demonstrate the making of Belgian pralines. At the end of the session, he offers onlookers a tasty sample of his work.
Up the two flights of stairs is a continuation of the chocolate story with more posters, artifacts - including chocolate molds dedicated to the Belgian Royal family - more video and a canoe used by Island natives on their cocoa bean harvesting missions.
The museum is located in a magnificent house built in 1697 just off the Grand Place at 9/11 Rue de la Tete d'Or. Below are instructions on how to get there from the Sheraton Hotel:
- Walk to Rogier Tram/Metro Station (1 minute)
- Take the Tram 4 (direction Stalle) or the Tram 3
(direction Churchill) - Stop at Bourse (first stop).
- Walk to the Grand Place and then to rue de la Tete d'or (3 minutes). The map below has the directions from Rogier tram station:
View Larger Map
The museum is just 1.3 km from the Sheraton hotel, so it is possible to walk (17 min) instead of taking the tram.
From Rogier tram station walk into Rue Neuve until the end and you will arrive at the Grand Place.
The visit will take place on the 12/12/12 at 14h30 and 15h45.