Met de auto door België (or Roadtrip through Belgium)
Just got back from a 9-day trip to Belgium.
We rented a car and drove to Brussels, which took about 6 hours from Hamburg. After Jim's EuroIA Conference and my short trip to Antwerp (see previous posting), we spent Sunday Oct 16 together in Brussels. We were out to dinner with Eric and introduced him to geuze, the Belgium specialty beer, at the Delirium Cafe. Eric was really brave: he drunk the whole glass (though he said it tasted like mouse pee).
On Monday we started on our way to Brugge. We first stopped at Drie Fonteinen in Beersel shortly to buy...more GEUZE.
It was 10 am and they weren't open. But the brewer's brother came and opened the brewery shop for us. He sold us a few bottles, and, after realizing how interested we were, he even showed us around the brewery. Free, private tour at 10 am. He showed us where they open the roof to let in the special yeast in the Payottenland for spontaneous fermentation. The result is lambic beer, which is stored in wooden barrels. To make a geuze, the brewer takes an old lambic and adds it to young lambic. To taste which ones are compatible is an art of its own.
Afterwards we drove to Ellezelles, where the Ellezelloise brewery is. It's an old farm house out in the sticks. We were having a tough time communicating since in this region they do not speak much English or German - only French. But we managed to fill our trunk with their Stout and tasted a nice refreshing Saison 2000
Then, we stopped at Oudenaard and had something to eat. We bought some Kriek at the Liefmans brewery for Circe (yeah, Babe - we thought of you) before hitting the road to Brugge.
Brugge is a fairy tale city! The houses are mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries. The city also has a lot of canals. They call it the Venice of North. Funny - Hamburg is also referred to as the Venice of North and they say the same about Amsterdam. Guess there are lots of Venices of the North.
View from our hotel:
Walking around:
and resting:
Bike Cam!!
Mini Houses:
We had a good time in Brugge, including great food and beers. The chocolate was also very good - sometimes with an interesting form. We changed our minds about getting each of you these chocolate lovelies for Christmas. Sorry, you'll just have to do with something else.
On Wednesday we drove to Ghent - also beautiful city - but more lively due to the university in town. We spent a couple of hours there.
Karen, Bill: Don't you still think that the Jacket is BLUE? (Looks pretty black to me - Jim)
Old warehouses all over:
...and meanwhile filling the trunk as we went along:
We then drove to Ursel to visit Joris and Lut. We stayed in a very nice bed & breakfast only 5 minutes from their hosue. It was a great evening, though it was very sad that Lut had to work later. Joris' beer cellar is just incredible:
Joris treated us with some unbelievable treasures: A Saison de Voisin 1987, Nat's favorite of this evening (Rated 4.7), a Moriau (St.Pieters-Leeuw) from 1989, a Geuze Heyvaert Kriek 1981 which tasted unbelieveable smokey (Rated 4.1), a Cnudde Kriek (something really special) and another favorite and special one: 3 Fonteinen Pinoit Noir 1997 (Rated 4.6). To all the treasures Joris could tell us their history and stories about the brewers - you should really write them down, they are awesome! Thank you so much Joris for treating us soooo good!
On Thursday we went way down south near the French border to Orval, a wonderful little area in the sticks where the Trappist beer Orval is brewed. You can't visit the abbey itself, but here is a pub nearby and a the ruins of the abbey are open to the public. Wonderful nature and a wonderful place to hike (though we really didn't do any hiking). We enjoyed great food: beer, bread and cheese all made by the monks - Delicious!
That night (Thursday) we stayed in Courtil near the German and Luxembourg border, about 1.5 hours north of Orval. Yet another place that was difficult for us because of the French. Weird thing, though: ten kilometers from there, still in Belgium, all the street signs are German and they presumably speak German as well.
On Friday we drove to Wuppertal to visit Aunt Margot, Aunt Waltraud and Uncle Walter. It was a wonderful evening. We went had coffee and cake, talked a lot, and looked at old pictures of Nat's great grand parents. The three of them told us their life stories - what a real treasure that they did! We had a nice dinner together later on.
Aunt Waltraud and Uncle Walter
Aunt Margot and Nat
It was wonderful - I love you three! - Nat
The fun began when we came home on Saturday. Only after dragging all those new Belgian treasures up to the fifth floor did we get to take a break (about 9 cases of beer in total). But hey, for a couple of beer geeks it was well worth it:
YES - Joe and Shell, you are very welcome to share those with us for Christmas!!!!
posted by Nathalie Kalbach @ 2:19 AM
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