Headed for Amsterdam and Brussels

Leaving Saturday for Amsterdam for a few days, then on to Brussels for about 2 weeks.

Will think about all of you while raising another glass! 8)

Have fun!  Brussels is  a beautiful city.  Take a day trip out to Brugges if you’re there for 2 weeks.  It’s a very nice ancient town/tourist magnet.

I haven’t been to Amsterdam.

Paul

2 things I highly reccomend in Brussels…the Musical Instrument Museum and especially this beer and chocolate walking tour…2024 (Brussels) Hungry Mary's Famous Beer and Chocolate Tour in Brussels

Not only great chocolates and beer (and lots of both!) but Adrian, the guide has lots of info about the architecture and history of Brussels.  Great tips on which bars to avoid, and you go to some of the historic bars of Brussels.

Thanks for the link, Denny. Will be working, most likely night shift, but that might leave some daylight time for exploration 8)

Don’t buy anything around the Grand-Place,  the prices are high for tourists (and don’t go into a restaurant in this area,  everything is too expensive. )
For bars:

  • Moeder Lambiek place Fontainas  (a lot of craft beers )
  • L’atelier rue Élise (small but a lot of Belgian beers)
  • if you don’t have one in your city there is a Brewdog bar in front of Gare Centrale
  • a myth: Delirium, impasse de la fidélité  ( 2000 beers) - close to Grand-Place

Don’t go to La Bécasse.  It has been sold and the beers are now industrial ones.

If you want to buy beers, go to the Carrefour Supermarket in Kraainem. They propose 600 beers at à normal price.

And you MUST visit Cantillon. Close to this historical brewery, you have a craft one, L’ermitage.

Envoyé de mon SM-A500FU en utilisant Tapatalk

Brouwerij 't IJ in Amsterdam.  Small brewery with a great selection, best dopplebock I’ve ever tasted, lively crowd of locals, closes early.

+1 for the musical instrument museum in Brussels.

Well, the Brussels part of the trip is cancelled. The aircraft operator found hangar space in Amsterdam, so all the repairs will be completed there. I was really looking forward to the Brussels segment. :cry:

I confirm 't Ij Brouwerij produces very good beers. I didn’t have the luck to visit it but I tasted their beers.

When you go to Amsterdam, definitely try some of the beers that originate from Holland, like Amstel, Dommelsch, Grolsch, Bavaria, and Heineken!

Worth noting that Duvel have a stake in IJ, so I’d imagine you should be able to get them across the pond.

As for Dutch beers, don’t forget Newcastle Brown Ale…

I’m planning a trip to Belgium in the spring.  I’m considering going to Brussels and Bruges with a stop in Ghent perhaps.

I would like to go out to Westvlerten to get some beer.  Has anyone done this?  How did you get out there?  It looks like it is about an hour from Bruges.

There’s a great thread here on buying from St Sixtus on HBT :

If you just turn up on spec you’ve got a good chance of being able to buy beer to take away from the café, and usually 12 will be one of the beers available for takeaway, and you can always drink the full range in the café.

It is in the middle of nowhere though - I’d brought my car across the Channel, it would be a pretty easy bike ride from Poperinge if you wanted to do that. (ditto St Bernardus)

Bruges is nice but very touristy, some great pubs though (and they are pubs not bars). Ghent a bit less touristy but nice, I’m not so much a fan of Brussels. Poperinge is lovely, has some interesting WWI history and a hop museum.

I Form a beer and chocolate walking tour in Brussels that I highly recommendhttps://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g188644-d12863472-Be…

We rented a car when we were in Belgium to get to Westvletren and St Bernardus.  There’s a Bed and Breakfast adjacent to St Bernardus that we stayed at, pretty cool as they had an honor bar stocked with their beer.  There was no additional fee to rent a car in one city and drop off in another.  Getting out of the touristy areas to see the countryside and the WWI museum were some of the highlights of our trip.

We stayed in Bruges and drove down to Westvletern. Took all back roads and it was a beautiful drive.

We have made some plans.  We were able to get a room at the St. Bernardus Guesthouse  for a few days.  We have a tour set for St. Bernardus and I’m planning to go to the cafe across from Saint Sixtus.  I might try to get a case of their beer from the preorder website buy but most likely will just try to get some at the cafe.

Has anyone gone to the other breweries in the area?  Has anyone went to the hop museum?  I plan to get a car and maybe drive in from Bruges.  Where is the WWI Museum?

I really enjoyed that area of west flanders.  We went to the WW1 museum in Ypres and the hop museum in Watou.  For breweries we had a tour of Van Eecke (which is now called Leroy Watou, I think). Not sure if it’s open to the public but you can drink Poperings Hommelbeir at the cafe across the street.  For dinner T’Hommelhoff was nice.

The group we were with last summer went on the Brewery Tour in Bruges and they said they had a blast.  My wife and I have old friends in Brussels so we broke from the group and took the train into the capitol for the day.

The brewery tour isn’t actually a tour of a brewery though.  All of them we were on in Europe, were brewing museums that came with samples. 8^)

We’ve talked about staying in Gent the next time we go. It’s half way between Bruges and Brussels, still a tourist trap but mostly Belgium residents and not so many international folks.  We’ve been to Bruges twice.  It was fun and interesting but three times would be too much I think.

Have a great trip!!

Paul

Sanctuary Woods outside of Ypres has trenches from WWI preserved.