Early up this morning, since the people from the Brasserie de Silly were waiting for us in the center of Edingen-Enghien to welcome us at 9:30 AM. Although we had an extensive breakfast in the hotel, most of us couldn’t resist the pastries with coffee so nicely offered at the ‘Chat Moine’ pub. (The Cat Monk). But we couldn’t lose too much time, since a guide wanted to show us some of the splendors of this old small provincial town.

We learned that this town was very busy in the middle ages since it was a tax-free city for a long time. Its tapestries are world famous, and we saw some great examples in the museum Jonathan-house. The weather was too nice to stay inside too long, so we headed to the local castle build in a very large park. The history of the Dukes of Arenberg, a famous German family who lived there, was told while visiting the old structures and the many gardens and lakes. Leaving the park, being on a beer tour, we had to make a special stop at the beer fountain statue of "Titje van Edingen". This image is also represented on the label of the WIT beer brewed by Brasserie de Silly, that is called ... you guessed it: Titje. Titje used to be a local chap indulging in beer every day of his life. Every one knew and appreciated him for his kindness and his helpfulness. He was the Optimist of the town.

Park in Edingen

Statue "Titje van Edingen"

Around 11:30 AM we arrived at the Brasserie de Silly, where we were offered to taste all the different beers of the brewery. Read ‘taste’, since the brewery brews 8 different beers! After this tasting we were offered a guided tour of this rather small family brewery, that survives in its local market and thanks to export around the world. Amelia got us scared there, when she missed that step on the stairway. But it was not that bad, and many of us were there to support her.

We can not mention enough the warmth and generosity with which Didier and his wife Martine welcomed us in Edingen, in their brewery and later at the restaurant ‘Au Bas Silly’ where we had a dinner-like lunch. We were in Belgium, you know, and there everyone eats good all the time. Plenty of beer was available to wash it down, before we jumped on our bus for our longest trip.

Menu Fresh Salad with Bacon. ~ Stew of Lamb, vegetables, prepared with "Titje". ~ Beignets Coffee or tea. ~ Selection of the beers of Br. de Silly. The choice will be easy, since we will had time to taste them at the brewery.

Many of us used this time to take a nap. Didn’t we, Jay? We have the picture!

Our goal was the new farm brewery De Dool, where we arrived about an hour behind schedule due to heavy traffic around Brussels. This small operation is located in a beautiful green region in old buildings that used to be the farm of an abbey.

A quick walk through the new stainless steel brewery, accompanied by our local guide, taught us that only three beers are brewed there: the blond, the dark and the triple. This brewery is very popular with the cycling tourists in the green country side. It is a pub restaurant. We had some country sandwiches with local fare (patee, cheese, ...), since that was all we could handle after that extensive ‘lunch’ in Silly.

Before sun set we "moved out" to our hotel, the Park Hotel, in Hasselt, that lay a bit too far from the center for some of us. The 10-minutes of the brochure were in fact 10 minutes with a car. But no worry, some had still strong legs to walk, others preferred to stay in the hotel-pub, and most of us went for an early nights rest. In the morning all men assured that they had not visited the bordelo across the street. They only serve expensive Champagne there anyway (what do you mean, how do I know?), and who wants to drink that on a Belgian Beer Tour?

This was also the day some of us noticed that we had a stow-away in the bus, a secret passenger. Indeed, Cupid was travelling with us, and it was fun for all of us to see a romance slowly blossoming.

Day IV