city of fools

is, apparently what Bruges is known as.

I feel right at home.
And the local brew is delish
<burp>

Dan L [on tour]

 

Cool. And details man, details!

Also, can you check out both of the brewery tours (De Halve Maan and De
Gouden Boom) and the Chocolate factory, let us know how you get on and
we'll be right over.[1]

[1] Actually, not until July 27th, but it's not far away.

 

Which particular local brew?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ DS#8
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

De halve maan brewey tour is good, 5€ which includes a beer at the
end. They do 2 varieties a blond and a bruin, both are very smooth
[brugge zot]. Doing the chocolate thang today, will have to suss out
the other brewery in due course.

Dan L on tour

 

Right, yesterday we did the chocolate thang, it was ok, but really one
more for the ladies. We then went in search of de gouden boom
brewery.After walking for fucking ages we found it, and...


It appears to be closed, it's external appearance would suggest this
is a permanent arrangement, as initially we walked right past it.
Anyhoo, all was not lost as we came across a platy-esque motorcycle, a
retro scooter thing with bloody stabilisers ffs. Had to have a couple
of leffes to recover from this visual excessence,and have photographic
evidence of its existence.

Ho hum, happy holidays.

Dan L on tour

 

Oh, I know, but if I want to do a brewery tour then I have to do the
chocolate factory. It's called penance.

I found some info on it and it seems tours are only by prior
arrangement.
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/bruges/A6356.html

You have evidence of the Leffe? Good man.

 

Phew, back in rainly blighty now, so a chance to rspond properly:

The stuff in question is this: http://www.halvemaan.be/eng/bier.htm

Very palateable indeed, in fact my beer consumption league table for
Bruges is as follows:

1. Leffe Blond - Very slurpable stuff.
2. Brugse Zot Blond - equally slurpabl;e, but strangely not as a
available.
3. Brugse Zot Bruin - Nice, in a bark beer kinda way.
4. Pauwel Kwak - only because of the comedy glass affair it's served in.
5. Jupiler - Cheap and wet.

Brief synopsis of Bruges, if anyone is interested:

Doing it by rail rocks. No point going specifically there by car as
the roads are very narrow, and mostly one way.
Best Western Hotel Navarra rocks mightily - very comfotable, plus small
pool in cellar, plus gym and sauna. Would recommend.
Bruges people mostly seem to eat mussells, steak, or a thing called
waterzooi, which can be either fish or steak based, as just about every
restaurant had identical menus.
It is possible to walk the complete perimeter of the town in a day,
with only 2 beers for sustenance (DAMHIKIJD etc).
The 3 day music festival in the market square consists mainly of a pair
of 1960's pop has-beens singing all of Belgiums eurovision entries at
full blast, which alarmingly, all of the locals were able to sing along
to, word for word.
Disabled dudes in Bruges don't **** around with mobility scooters, they
just bolt stabilisers on to standard scooters.
It rained a bit.

So there you have it.

 

Leffe's brewed by InBev (of Stella fame), the largest beer company in
the world. Relatively wide availability of their drinks is about as far
from strange as Des is from rational thought.

On a "posh stella" tip, I've recently found myself partial to Peeterman
Artois. Cheap'n'cheerful, but actually seems to have some real flavour
lurking under the chemical wee.

Chemistry sets ahoy!

Without Jupiler, 99% of bars in Belgium wouldn't have a sign out front.
Just for that, it's to be commended.

 

Laying a concrete base at my B-i-L's (just outside Liege) on the hottest
day ever (in the UK), it was just about the only thing you could drink

It's the San Miguel of northern europe