A crowded hotel bar in the heart of Brussels on a Sunday afternoon. What do all the people there have in common?  Their love for good beer and their interest and curiosity for the way it is made.

At 3 PM all participants of the Global Fun and Beer Tour 2007 met in the Novotel La Tour Noir for the start of one week of exploring. Over a Chimay Bleu or a Duvel or an Orval, they met and got acquainted. Twenty seven participants, coming from all over the United States, one couple from Australia and a Belgian guide, Regnier, are to spend one week together, tasting the best of the Belgian beers, and the country’s beer gastronomy.

One hour later the bus of the touring company Albion picked us up and our friendly bus driver, Gino, showed us all the tourist highlights of the Belgian capital. First stop was at the Atomium, a monument representing an iron molecule enlarged a couple of billion times and erected for the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels.

Atomium

Then it went further to the gates of the Royal Palace of Laken, where the royal couple King Albert and Queen Paola have their residence, then onwards to the church of Laken, where all the members of the royal family are buried. We also made a halt at the Cinquantenaire, a monumental arch and surrounding Art Nouveau buildings in a huge green park that were constructed for the 50th anniversary of the founding of Belgium (1830).

Cinquantenaire

A drive along the Parliament, the Park of Brussels and the second Royal Palace finally brought us to the Central Station where Gino dropped us off.

We walked the short trip from there to the central square, called ‘Grand Place’ in French and ‘Grote Markt’  in Dutch.

Grand Place => Grote Markt

This is one of the prettiest squares in Europe with its medieval guild houses and it’s impressive city hall with Saint Michael on top of the huge tower. We sat down and had dinner in one of the best restaurants of the area, called De Witte Roos-La Rose Blanche. It is located next to the guild house of the brewers! It was excellent!

Restaurant "De Witte Roos"

The aperitif was a wheat-beer flavoured with black-current! How refreshing!
After dinner Regnier took the volunteers on a pub-crawl to Delirium Café, the bar that holds the Guinness Book record for most extensive beer-list, over 2000 beers from all over the world.
We had a good place by the bar and sampled some unusual draft beers such as Rader blond and Rulles Triple.
Great way to end the evening!

Menu Aperitif of White beer with dash of Crème de Cassis (Black-current liquor) Salad with goat cheese and Brugs Wit beer Breast of duck prepared with Ciney Abbey ale Brussels waffle with La Chouffe

Day II