Beer Reunion in Belgium

Originally we were really just going to Belgium as flying via there was an inexpensive way to get from the Balkans to Denmark.  But of course it's Belgium. And I'm a brewer. So not only did we visit one of the greatest lambic (spontaneously fermented sour beer) breweries, we also arranged to spend a few days in Namur centred around a beer festival.  Even better, because Kiwis are such world travellers, we had several friends in Europe who we'd convinced to come meet us there for the festival as a sort of Wellington beer scene reunion.

But first the lambics.  We'd had a fairly lengthy bus, then train trip in to Brussels, then back out to Lot (Brussels South Charleroi airport is one of those ones that is actually in an entirely different city than the one it claims to be serving, though I'm not complaining, as we knew about this beforehand and the flights were super cheap).  Anyhow, a single Airbnb is the only place to stay in Lot, a suburb of Brussels. We'd decided to stay there and visit the Lambik-o-Droom, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen's aging and packaging facility and tasting room.

The whole experience was marvelous.  The tour was super-cool, the host was lots of fun, there was a huuuuuuge (somewhere over fifty I think) list of bottles available in the tasting room and nowhere else.  In some of their beers 3 Fonteinen use a full kilo of organic sour berries and raspberries for each litre of two-year old beer that goes into the bottle! The one minor downside was that between the tour a few bottles to drink on premises, some branded merch and some takeaway beers (including a magnum of their premium Cuvee Armand & Gaston Geuze) we spent about four full days of travel budget.

From Lot we headed to Namur, where we checked into our big, fancy Airbnb and met up with our reunion crew who were joining us from London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Ghent.

Namur isn't one of Belgium's premier tourist destinations, but it has a lovely medieval centre, several very nice beer bars and we'll more than it's share of fun and whimsical public scupture.  And of course there was a beer festival on while we were there.

We set out in a convoy for it the day after arriving and as Rory said, we managed to find the only hill in Belgium.  The festival was held within the remains of an old citadel on a big rocky outcrop over the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse Rivers.  To be honest the beer wasn't particularly special by Belgian standards (the exception being a Lindeman's-Mikkeler collaboration basil lambic).  The weather was fairly grey too. Nonetheless we had a great time playing with traditional Belgian games (including a crazy one which involved strapping a frame to your body, then lifting a tray with your drink in it to your mouth using a system of four pullies).  And of course one another's company was the main attraction anyway!

We spent most of Sunday going from one closed shop to another (maybe half of the cafes in Namur were open, and pretty much nothing else) trying to find a place to print boarding passes for our departing flights.  We eventually managed by going into a boardgame cafe, having a few beers and playing a game or two of Citadels and then asking very nicely.

Most everyone was leaving that night.  Sarah and I were at least technically departing the. ext morning.  But so early was our flight from (not even that terribly distant) Charleroi that we had to wake up at 02:15 to walk out to a petrol station near the motorway and catch an 03:30 bus to the airport.  I'm usually okay with our money saving decisions when it comes to flights, but this is something I'd probably not choose to do again.

Everything else went smoothly enough, however, and by a bright and early 08:30 we'd arrived in Copenhagen for our final stop in Europe.