I was having so much fun in Belgium that things seemed to fly by and it was already time for my last destination.  I took the train from Brugge to Brussels and was excited to get going on the sites.  I figured the best way to do that was to depart on a run through the city.  I caught up to John again and made arrangements to meet him at the end of my run.  I decided to end my run at the famous Atomium monument which was built for the 1958 Expo but re furbished between 2004 and 2006.  It was pretty cool, but a bit too expensive to go up for what it was.

We took a bunch of photos around the grounds and then went for a walk around the park to see what was there.

John took the subway back to the town center and I ran back with plans to meet up later after I had a shower.  I took the opportunity to see a few more sites.

John and I met up at one of the beer spots recommended online which happened to be having an Italian beer event.  The place was called Moeder Lambic and is famous for having some of the hard to get beers from the local breweries in town.  I broke my rule about having local beer and tried  few of the Italian ones.  They were pretty good!  Joey’s AirBnB happened to be right beside the bar, so we met up with him and then headed to a very happy coincidence.  The Brussels beer festival was happening the day we arrived!

I actually saw an ad at the train station then looked up the details.  We met up with Joey and then headed into the belly of the beast (a huge line for beer tokens)

We were in good spirits though…

This particular one worked on a token system which required you to buy as many tokens as you wanted tastes.  It also included a deposit chip which you had to give to each brewery as a deposit for the glass.  This is Belgium remember so they are obsessed with ensuring you are drinking the beer out of the proper glassware and they kept this obsession even at beer fests.  Kinda cool actually.

We weren’t really sure hoe many tokens to get and did not want to wait in line again, so decided to split a bunch and see where it landed us.

The festival was taking part in the central square and was one of the most beautiful locations for a beer festival I’ve been to.

the glasses situation continue to blow me away.

As we were wondering around we bumped into these two Canadian guys who we had met previously in Brugges at one of the brewery tours.  It was cool bumping into them again.

There was a crazy band and a lot of really really delicious beer!

and just like that we were out of tokens and feeling plenty happy!

Dinner was in order and after that I think we decided to just hang out that evening.

The next day, I really had no idea what I was going to do other than visit the famous Cantilion brewery which didn’t open until a but later, so in the morning I just went for a walk.

There are a lot of cool things to see in Brussels!

There was a huge church up on a hill near a big park and so I wandered inside and took a look.

I then took the subway back downtown to Cantillion.

This was one of my most anticipated breweries on my entire trip and I was really excited to check it out.

When you arrive they give you a self guided tour booklet and allow you to wander around the brewery yourself.  It was pretty interesting because everything was pretty old and it was clear that they had been doing this for a long time and had their process dialed in.  This is one of a few Lambic breweries in the world which means they make their beer with spontaneous fermentation and are located in the Brussels area.  It is very similar to the champagne region of France in that you are not allowed to call a beer a lambic unless it comes from the Brussels geographic area.  The coolest thing is that that use something called a coolship to inoculate their beers with natural yeast from the air.

Their brewing is about the same as any other brewery, but after the boil they pump the beer into the attic which contains a shallow tank open to the air.  They can only brew in times of the year when it is cool enough outside.  They have shutters on the walls that they open and close to control the temperature of the air (as well as let in the natural yeast) They cool the beer overnight and let the natural yeast from the air fall into the beer.  They then empty the beer into barrels and allow them to age for various lengths of time.  Most of their beers are blended with many different ages of beers to create really cool complex flavors.

The self guided tour was really cool and highlighted how small the operation really was and why their beer is not overly distributed.

After the tour it was time for the tasting.  We were provided three tasters with our tour admission and then you had the option to purchase whatever you’d like.

The options were excellent!

Joey and I were only two people and getting a bunch of bottles to split between the two of us wouldn’t end well, so we made friends with some of the others in the bar area and decided to split a few between all of us.

The guy had more untappd checkins than me at over 10,000.  He knew a lot about beer and had beer traveled a lot.  It was fun to chat and drink delicious delicious beer.  We stayed until close and had a pretty good bottle count by the end.

The bottles all come in the a special basket that places the bottle at the correct angle for sitting and then pouring.  We had a lot of time and the beer was sooooo good!  After last call, I bought a hoodie as I didn’t have one from a brewery and it was one of the things I could use during my trip and it wouldn’t be extra baggage.

Joey and I decided to wander around Brussels a bit to see the famous peeing boy statue and get some Belgium waffles.  The statue called Manneken Pis is a pretty tiny statue of a peeing boy that is on many lists as one of the most underwhelming tourist attractions in the world.  They dress him up in little costumes for special occasions and he has a museum nearby with all of the costumes displayed.  The original statue was created in 1618 but was replaced with a replica in 1965 with the original placed in the Museum of the city of Brussels. Anyways, i got my photo ip and that’s really all there is to say about that.

Then on to the waffles.  We looked up the best place to get waffles in the city and there were mixed suggestions, so we decided to just pick one and are pretty sure they would be good.  We were right.

We had been in contact with a Jade (the NZ girl from Antwerp) and she had met a few people that were interested in coming out.  One of the recommendations on my list of places to go was called La Porte Noire, which was a bar located in a basement and was really really cool inside.

It kind of felt dungeony and had all of these other nooks and crannies that made the place way bigger than it seemed.

Joey and I grabbed a beverage while we waited for the others to arrive and continued to chat about the meaning of life…. no, we were mostly talking about beer.

After everyone had rendezvoused, we walked around the streets for a bit and eventually ended up at the Delirium Cafe which has locations all over the world, but this one was one of the largest.

The place had a lot of options and a really cool set up of the taps.

One of the options on the menu was a 3L goblet of beer that required a 75 Euro deposit.  Since we had a group of 3 that were into it, we decided to go for it.  It great decision overall.

As the night went on, I made some friends and ended up having a fantastic time.

And that more or less completes my time in Belgium.  I really enjoyed it there and will for sure be returning on another trip to spend more time in the countryside and outside of some of the bigger cities.  Perhaps renting a car is in order.

It was also the last night I would get to hang out with Joey and John which had been a lot of fun over the last several days.  I really enjoyed talking beer to these guys in one of the best beer countries in the world.  It was also really nice to travel with the same people for a bit and not have to meet new people in every city.  I like meeting people, but sometimes it’s nice to hang with the same group for a while.  Florida John as he would soon be named, will pop up again on this adventure!

Overall Belgium had some beautiful architecture, cool people and a really amazing beer culture.  It is for sure one of those countries I will return to in order to give it a proper look see.  Hopefully with a travel partner next time.

Onward to the next country…. Luxembourg!