Leaving Amsterdam for Beer Country
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by ekowalc
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Leaving Amsterdam for Beer Country
After a month of Amsterdam I am positive there was no street we left unturned. We had seen everything we had come to see, except maybe the purse museum, and well you know gotta save something for never.
Our trip out was pretty strange. The mysterious volcano in Iceland had happened the night before and when we arrived at the train station we found HUGE lines everywhere. Luckily we were only going to the next country over, Belgium, so other than a packed intercity train we didn't have any issues with the trip. I can even say I earned by international "wings" on this trip. Belgium has tolerance laws as well.
We hit Antwerp first and stayed at an Ibis hotel. It is an Accor company (same company that owns Motel 6) and it is run pretty similiar. Let me warn you if you are tall or a little overweight, this room will not work for you. The room was the smallest room I have ever seen, but worked and was comfy. Best part was it cost about 59 Euros that night.
Antwerp was a bit more industrial than we had realized, but the trip was still worth it. We visited the famous painter Ruben's house and studio. We also enjoyed a the cathederals, one of wich housed Ruben's masterpeice the accension of Christ. Really quite spectacular to see in person, even if the religious meaning is lost on me.
The next day found us heading off to Brussels, the capital of Belgium. We scored an even cheaper than above room at the Sheraton for about 65 USD a night. Not bad at all for a 4 star hotel. Though it wasn't immedialy downtown we walk everwhere so its proximity wasn't an issue.
We visited the last Lambic brewer left in Brussels and one of the last left in all of Belgium, Cantillion. Lambic brewers are kind of like the vegans of vegatarianism. The most interesting of there craft is the beer they make using spontaneous fermentation. This involves making the wort (grain hop mix) and then letting it cool in the roof of the brewery while it accumulates yeast & bacteria from the air. This is only possible in Belgium, in a certain valley Senne and in Brussels, as they are where the bacteria they are looking for live. Anywhere else and it's just not the same.
The beer itelf is a bit sour. Without flavoring it's called a guaze(sp). The fun comes in when they add organic fruit into the beer during it's fermentation stage, resulting in all sorts of really great tasting beers. Mango, Coconut, Banana, Rasberry, Cherry.. to name a few. As you can guess they were K's favorite!
Belgium not only takes my vote for Disneyland for beer, but I think more importantly to them they rule the land of chocolate. Godiva being from here should tell you something. Every single coner had a amazing chocolater on it. We wound up spending so much time eating chocolates that we forgot to eat dinner! A burger at the hotel had to suffice (for like 25 bux, damn pricey burger!). Sheraton gets me again.
Our next stop found us hoping over to Brugges, which we both agreed was one of the coolest towns yet. While Brussels had several fine examples of Gothic architecture Brugges was an actual gothic town. If you check out our picture section you'll see a few shots from there. We walked everywhere we could and took as many cool pics as possible. Most houses were buit in the 1400-1500's, which made for some really awesome scenes. I really liked the work we did below and do confess the nights drinking might have helped some.
In Brugges I was also able to score another personal goal, finish tasting every Trappist ale. There are only 7 Trappist ales left in the world, and while most are available in the US, several are not, and 1 is very rare. Trappist ales are still brewed by monks, with the brewmaster being a monk and every function of brewing to sales is still done by a monk. An interesting quote from one of the trappist monks "We brew beer to be monks, not the other way around"
Unfortunatly you can not visit the trappist's monestaries (there are 6 in Belgium, one in Holland), however you can find there beer all over. There is one ale that is brewed in very limited quantities and is almost never sold commercially. To get it, you usually have to call ahead and reserve a case or 2 (they don't sell more than that to 1 person). They also take your license plate to make sure you aren't a commercial seller. These guys are serious about there beer!
In Brugges this is a really awesome restaurant called Cambrinus that is one of the only places that are allowed to sell Westvleteren. The brown is seriously amazing and defintly hit to the top of my list of brown ales.
Off to the micronation of Luxumbourg and then Germany.
After a month of Amsterdam I am positive there was no street we left unturned. We had seen everything we had come to see, except maybe the purse museum, and well you know gotta save something for never.
Our trip out was pretty strange. The mysterious volcano in Iceland had happened the night before and when we arrived at the train station we found HUGE lines everywhere. Luckily we were only going to the next country over, Belgium, so other than a packed intercity train we didn't have any issues with the trip. I can even say I earned by international "wings" on this trip. Belgium has tolerance laws as well.
We hit Antwerp first and stayed at an Ibis hotel. It is an Accor company (same company that owns Motel 6) and it is run pretty similiar. Let me warn you if you are tall or a little overweight, this room will not work for you. The room was the smallest room I have ever seen, but worked and was comfy. Best part was it cost about 59 Euros that night.
Antwerp was a bit more industrial than we had realized, but the trip was still worth it. We visited the famous painter Ruben's house and studio. We also enjoyed a the cathederals, one of wich housed Ruben's masterpeice the accension of Christ. Really quite spectacular to see in person, even if the religious meaning is lost on me.
The next day found us heading off to Brussels, the capital of Belgium. We scored an even cheaper than above room at the Sheraton for about 65 USD a night. Not bad at all for a 4 star hotel. Though it wasn't immedialy downtown we walk everwhere so its proximity wasn't an issue.
We visited the last Lambic brewer left in Brussels and one of the last left in all of Belgium, Cantillion. Lambic brewers are kind of like the vegans of vegatarianism. The most interesting of there craft is the beer they make using spontaneous fermentation. This involves making the wort (grain hop mix) and then letting it cool in the roof of the brewery while it accumulates yeast & bacteria from the air. This is only possible in Belgium, in a certain valley Senne and in Brussels, as they are where the bacteria they are looking for live. Anywhere else and it's just not the same.
The beer itelf is a bit sour. Without flavoring it's called a guaze(sp). The fun comes in when they add organic fruit into the beer during it's fermentation stage, resulting in all sorts of really great tasting beers. Mango, Coconut, Banana, Rasberry, Cherry.. to name a few. As you can guess they were K's favorite!
Belgium not only takes my vote for Disneyland for beer, but I think more importantly to them they rule the land of chocolate. Godiva being from here should tell you something. Every single coner had a amazing chocolater on it. We wound up spending so much time eating chocolates that we forgot to eat dinner! A burger at the hotel had to suffice (for like 25 bux, damn pricey burger!). Sheraton gets me again.
Our next stop found us hoping over to Brugges, which we both agreed was one of the coolest towns yet. While Brussels had several fine examples of Gothic architecture Brugges was an actual gothic town. If you check out our picture section you'll see a few shots from there. We walked everywhere we could and took as many cool pics as possible. Most houses were buit in the 1400-1500's, which made for some really awesome scenes. I really liked the work we did below and do confess the nights drinking might have helped some.
In Brugges I was also able to score another personal goal, finish tasting every Trappist ale. There are only 7 Trappist ales left in the world, and while most are available in the US, several are not, and 1 is very rare. Trappist ales are still brewed by monks, with the brewmaster being a monk and every function of brewing to sales is still done by a monk. An interesting quote from one of the trappist monks "We brew beer to be monks, not the other way around"
Unfortunatly you can not visit the trappist's monestaries (there are 6 in Belgium, one in Holland), however you can find there beer all over. There is one ale that is brewed in very limited quantities and is almost never sold commercially. To get it, you usually have to call ahead and reserve a case or 2 (they don't sell more than that to 1 person). They also take your license plate to make sure you aren't a commercial seller. These guys are serious about there beer!
In Brugges this is a really awesome restaurant called Cambrinus that is one of the only places that are allowed to sell Westvleteren. The brown is seriously amazing and defintly hit to the top of my list of brown ales.
Off to the micronation of Luxumbourg and then Germany.
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