jack's cairochronicles

The next day was a travel day. Packed up and headed for the train station.

Right next to the train station is this huge flea market held every Saturday. We put our luggage in a locker in the train station and wandered through the flea market. It was a interesting experience. Apparently it is a common place to shop for furniture, clothing, housewares, art etc. One could easily furnish an entire apartment from scratch in one (very busy) afternoon at this market.

I know if I ever end up living in Ghent, I am gonna rent a truck and park it around the corner and go shopping here to get my apartment started.

On the train, we were *bad*. There were a couple of American women who headed to Ghent for the day. They asked tons of questions and really had no idea what to do in Ghent. They had no guide book. I got the distinct impression they were looking to latch onto someone as a tour guide. We ditched them. I felt bad. For about 5 minutes.

We stopped in Korn Markt square on our way to our B&B for some lunch.

And beer

• Petrus Gouden Tripel
• Pilaarbijter Tripel Blond
• Tripel Karmaliet
• Duvel

After lunch and a stroll around the square to find an ATM, we made it to our (rather disappointing) B&B above a bakery just off one of the main squares in the old town.
We started our beer tourism of Ghent at Aba-Jour, a nice place on one of the canals. Great food, prepared with beer.

To drink we had (ordered Westvleteren, but they were OOS):

• Agustijn Grand Cru – very nice
• Villers Tripel – fruity, and somewhat spicey. great companion to the food
• Gentse Tripe- floral with a nice finish. Very good beer
• Pater Lieven Blonde – slightly malty for a blond. Smelled like socks.

We then returned to our mosquito and fly infested B&B for a crappy nights sleep.

So, we departed Brussels, and boarded a train for Brugge. We decided to work our way back to Brussels from the western end of the country. [Since we were relying on public transportation and only had about 10 days, we decided to stay in the main cities].

On the train to Brugge we were trying to figure what to do with our luggage and backpacks. A rather stern woman “tsk-ed” at us when we put the backpacks up above our heads and said “pickpockets” and pointed to the seat next to us. So we moved the backpacks to the seats.

She then tsk-ed again when we put our wheeled luggage in space between us [We were sitting in a 4 top with seats facing each other] and pointed to the space behind the seats. Behind each set of seats was just enough room slide a rolling bag. Perfect.

She turned out to be very pleasant and friendly. But “dere is a vay dese tings are done!”. Once we learned the way, she chatted with us a bit.

On the way to Brugge, the train stops in Ghent. At this time an announcement was made that basically said

Since the Tour de France would be stopping in Ghent in a few days, expect crowded trains and hard to find lodging.

Tour de France? In Brussels? Who knew? This would later play a small part in our travels.

Anywho…

Brugge is a very pretty town. Lots of canals and picturesque 15th and 16th century architecture.

After some confusion, we found the correct bus and headed off to our B&B. Great little place decorated, seemingly, entirely from Ikea. Ok, it was little more upscale than that. A very simple sort of elegance.

After checking in we were off for lunch. The nice woman that runs the B&B told us about a great little place that serves “Egyptian” food.

blink

blink

After 3 full filled nights in Amsterdam, we boarded a train for Brussels. We were somewhat sad to leave Amsterdam, but eager to begin the “We’re here for the beer” tour in earnest.

Thanks to Kaddee’s mom, we scored a place at the Brussels Marriott. This is way above what we would normally spend on a hotel room, but we got it with her Marriott Miles. This was important because we starting and ending our time in Belgium in Brussels.

And since we had been in the US, we had way more luggage than we wanted to schlep around Belgium. So, we had one night at the Marriott at the start of our trip, and one night at the end of our trip.

When we checked out we left the B.A. rolling suitcase with the concierge and said we would be back for it in 10 days. Ah, the good life.

First impressions are hard to shake, and the first impression of Brussels was not kind. The train and metro stations had an overwhelming smell of urine and were littered with trash and beggars were everywhere. In the half hour it took us to get from the train station to our hotel, we saw more trash, beggars and men urinating in alley ways than we ever saw in 3 days in Amsterdam.

Welcome to the capital of the EU.

So we settled into our hotel room and plotted our plan of attack on the poor helpless barmaids of Brussels. [Most of them were anything but helpless.]
Thanks to the tips I got from the Good Beer Guide to Belgium and our friends DonS and Gary from BPP.

Our first stop was Delirium Cafe, across the alley from the Jannekin Pis (photo to follow). They, apparently, hold the Guinness Book record for the most beers available: 2000.

It was a smokey, loud, dark cellar bar. Just perfect. We sat down and asked for the beer menu. I got a tri-fold table tent that listed maybe 100-150 beers. I thought that was odd, they supposedly have over 2000 beers available. They I spied “the book”. A three ring binder about 3 inches thick, filled with page after page of beer listings and description.

First, I wept.

And then, depression set in. How was I supposed to chose?

I panicked.

I ordered a St. Idesbad Triple in bottle.

Kaddee had a Rodenmocher blond on tap.

We sipped these while we thumbed through the rest of the book.

Then I realized WE NEEDED A PLAN. We had to pick beers heretofore known as the “while I am reading the menu beers”. These were 2 or 3 beers we knew we liked and were commonly available. When the (surly, far too french for my liking) waiter was breathing down our necks waiting for us to order, we could ask for one of these.

We could then read the beer menu at our leisure and decide on what the _next_ beer should be.

After a few days we realized we also needed the “emergency backup beer”.

The scenario:

We sit down, order the “while I am reading the menu beer“. As we drink that we peruse the menu and decide on the next beer. When we are ready to order our next, we tell the waiter our selection and he collects the beer menu and goes off to the cellar.

He then returns 5 minutes later and informs us that they are out of that, what would we like instead. But he has collected the menu and not brought it back! This is where the emergency backup beer comes in! It is invaluable to be able to blurt out another choice immediately.

I am telling you, drinking beer in Belgium requires stamina, planning and organization. Well one out of three will do in a pinch.

So, after Delirium Cafe, we headed to Poechenellekelder. This is an interesting pub right across the street from the Mannekin Pis. We sat outside on the patio and drank beer, had a nibble and watched all the tourists taking pictures and having pictures taken with the little pisser.

There was a large festival in the Grand Place, which is not far from the Mannekin Pis. Many people were dressed in traditional garb and there were wandering minstrals. Many of them stopped to have their photos taken with the piss boy. It was an entertaining way to pass the afternoon.

We then strolled around and headed back to the Marriott. We picked up a couple of beers from the “Bier Temple” bottle shop for the room. And fell asleep before we could drink them.

They were tasty for breakfast.

We spent 3 days in Amsterdam.

We stayed at mediocre hotel near the Amsterdam Zoo. It was extremely faded and worn hotel. When new, it was nothing special either, but it was clean and inexpensive by Amsterdam standards.

It was conveniently located on a tram line (the #9 and #14) which allowed us to get to the Centraal station quickly and from there hop a tram to anywhere in the city.

RIGHT downstairs from the hotel was nice little pub/restaurant. They had La Chouffe on tap and a few other bottled Belgian beers. I was afraid that I was going to be stuck drinking Amstel or Heineken for the 3 days we were in Amsterdam, but it seems that every bar or restaurant we went to had Duvel, so that was a pleasant surprise.

We were beat when we arrived [We slept till 2pm the second day we were in Amsterdam]. We managed to hump our luggage to our hotel and leave it there and then we started to explore the city.

We walked a great deal. We ate many mayonnaise drenched french fries, we drank much beer, we had “coffee”.

We visited the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh house. We never made it onto a canal boat cause it was cold and rainy the entire time were in Amsterdam.

We spent many hours sitting in cafe’s and watching people live their daily lives. It looks like a very livable city. I think I would choke on a pickled herring if I knew how much rents were though.

Everyone, it seems, has a bicycle. Lots of different styles, but most of them single speed, with coaster brakes. Lots of elaborate (and some no-so-elaborate and obviously homemade) methods of keeping the ever present rain from being splashed up on the rider from the tires.

There were lots of contraptions attached to bicycles to haul groceries, children and dogs. The oddest one was a long bicycle with a big bucket, about 1meter x .75 meter (kind of like a wheelbarrow) in front of the rider. The front wheel was in front of the bucket.

Here is what they look like:

The handlebars were in the normal place and connected to the front wheel with a linkage.

Oh and it had 2 sidestands that deployed on each side to hold it upright so nothing fell out of the bucket. Many of them had tonneau covers that snapped on to keep the cargo dry.

I wonder how that baby handled. (heh)

I cringed many a time watching someone ride a bicycle on those wet cobblestone streets, with the tram tracks embedded in the cobblestones. My teeth are on edge just thinking about it!

Not a lot of motorcycles, though there are many scooters.

One interesting thing about scooters:
Some of the streets have dedicated bicycle lanes or there is a lane painted on the sidewalk for them. It seems that scooters below a certain size (50cc?) can ride in the bicycle lanes. The riders of these scooters do not apparently have to wear helmets [or obey the traffic signals.].

I did not see any lane splitting per se, presumably because any place that was congested enough for that to be useful had its own bicycle lane. A great way to beat the traffic in the city.

All in all Amsterdam passes the “would you live there” test.

Belgium has, arguably, some of the best beer in the world. Lots of small, and not-so-small breweries.

But almost none of them have any logo-wear of any kind. Sure, they have glasses, and maybe coasters, but no caps, polo shirts, t-shirts or anything else.

The really big places do, like Chimay. And I was able to buy a pressed metal sign from Het Anker (we stayed at the hotel attached to the brewery), but that is it. Almost nothing.

Now maybe swag is an American thing, and maybe no one in Europe would buy the beer swag, but I don’t know. I see Europeans wearing some pretty ridiculous looking (imho) logo wear from clothing manufactures and auto racing teams.

I think the breweries are missing out on a money making angle here.

Hmm, maybe I can get a job as Administrator of Selling Swag for a major brewer.

After a few days in Belgium, we came up with a slogan or title for our trip:

We’re here for the beer.

This came about because of the reaction that just about every single resident of Belgium had when we discussed our plans.

It went, invariably, something like this:

Belgian: So, how long are you in Belgium

us: about 2 weeks.

Belgian: 2 weeks? Where else are you going?

us: Ghent, Antwerpen, Brugge.

Belgian: No, i mean you are taking 2 weeks, where else in europe are you going.

us: No, we are spending the entire 2 weeks in Belgium.

Belgian: ….. 2 weeks? …. In Belgium? Why?

us: We’re here for the beer.

Heh. we should have printed t-shirts.