The next morning, groggy and covered in mosquito bites, we stumbled out for some food. We ended up at Waterhuis ann de Bierkant. I had a delicious rabbit stew made with Chimay.
We started lunch sitting outside. But the temperature started to drop and the wind picked up. It looked like rain. We decided to move into the restaurant. Shortly after we moved the skies opened and it HAILED. Gotta love the low-country weather.
While we watched the weather, we enjoyed
- Malheur 6 on tap.
- Gandavum house on tap – a dry hopped. The hoppiest beer I had so far.
- La Trappe Blonde Tripel on tap. Rather weak flavor
- Chimay Tripel on tap (to go with the rabbit stew, cooked in Chimay)
After lunch and waiting for the weather to let up we set off for the tourist office to find our way to a few of the other beer houses we wanted to visit. We were told that they were in a quarter of town that was closed off to public transport and cars because the Tour de France was coming through there today. We are not big bicycle racing fans, so we were unaware that the Tour de France even WENT to Belgium. We could get there, but we would have to hoof it all the way AND places were probably packed with fans. Alas.
As we pondered our options we realized that the big cathedral we were looking at was St. Baafskathedraal, the home of “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” by Jan van Eyck. It is a large work and in very good shape. Included in your entrance is one of those talking wands that will explain the history and significance of the piece. We had expected to go in, look around and be done in about 10 minutes. But we listened to the whole talk. It took about 50 minutes. It was well worth the time. It really is a magnificent piece of art.
After art-appreciation hour, it was SURPRISE, time for more beer!
So we walked to Trappenhuis and settled in for some serious sampling. While we were there, an Australian fellow over heard us talking and joined us. He was an interesting fellow. He is an actor/musician/street performer. His troupe, from Australia, spends the summer living in Ghent and travels around Europe doing various festivals. There was a big festival starting in a few days in Ghent, and he was going to be performing there.
After he had joined us, an American fellow asked to join us as well. He is a (currently unemployed) biomedical engineer from Minnesota(?) on a bicycling/beer drinking holiday of Europe. He had been to several of the breweries and had sampled a lot of beer.
The four of us compared beer notes and swapped stories for a few hours.
We had
- Oude Geuze Boon. Kaddee made quite the face tasting this. It was a very good geuze
- Bonne Esperance – we enjoyed this. Slightly hoppy.
- Achel Bruin – Beauty. slightly sour
- Dikke Mathile – Nice brown/blonde w slight spicy tones
- Ter Dolen Blonde – slightly sweet with a floral nose.
- Rochefort 6 – perfect, as always
We tried for Westvleteren again, but they were out. There were empty cases of it stacked, 6 or 7 high, in the bar. Bummer.
The four of us talked about HopDuvel, another famous beer bar in Ghent. We decided to head there and meet up again. The Aussie headed home to drop off his car and get his bike. [He never showed up. We were all pretty tipsy. I wager he decided to just call it quits]. The American was on a bicycle and he pedalled there.
We were unable to find a tram or taxi to take us there, because the area was still closed off due to the Tour de France. So we walked. It took about half an hour on a pleasant afternoon/evening.
Our welcome when we entered HopDuvel was something special. That will be my next post.