Last
weekend we attended the Belgian Beer Weekend in Brussels with a good fun group
of Ingrid’s work colleagues. It began immediately after school on Friday with a
loud and beery 3 hour train trip to Brussels. On arrival at our hotel, we found
that we could not have our rooms because they were “polluted”. We never found
out exactly what this signified. Ingrid was delighted to find that our
substitute hotel was right on the Grand Place where the event was held.
After a bucket of moules for dinner, we joined the
rest of our troupe for a late night in the famous Delirium Café. It was
jumping. The pink elephant is the café mascot. It was a bit of a tart.
On Saturday morning, we had a lovely late breakfast at a window table
overlooking the hoi polloi queuing for entry to the festival area in the Grand
Place. We wandered out a little later to find that the rest of the team was
already out of the blocks and sprinting.
I figured that if I were to enjoy the whole day, I should start off
rather slowly.
Ingrid and I took a break to look for some lunch. We
both love Brussels and it is always fun just to wander around. Its apparent
haphazard juxtaposition of architectural styles is fascinating and I love the
abundance of Art Deco extravaganzas. We searched out the start of the
procession of traditional beer carts with their magnificent draught horses. After, we
had a delicious soup and chunky bread lunch in a local café and enjoyed being
able to sit down for a while.
Not being a beer drinker, Ingrid was delighted to
find a cassis flavoured lambic beer from Lindemans. I tried a sip. It was
really girlie. At only 3.5% alcohol content, it was good for keeping Trixie
away.
It was a long trip home on the train, longer for
some than others. At least we had Sunday to recover before work on Monday
