Today we visited another brewery on our bucket list for Belgium. Rodenbach Brewery is famous for its barrel aged Red beers. After our best nights sleep so far we headed out on the 45 minute drive to the brewery.
Part of the restaurant at Rodenbach Brewery.
We arrived at the brewery and signed up for the tour. They have a unique way of deciding what language the tour will be in, the tour guide speaks French, English, and Flemish/Dutch, which ever of those languages is spoken by the most people on the tour, is the language for the tour. Today there were 9 Dutch/Flemish speakers and 2 English speakers so the tour was in Flemish. They asked us if it was ok and we said sure. She did fill us in on key points in English as we walked on the tour.
Enjoying my lunch in front of retired beer barrels.
The pub and gift shop were beautiful but empty. We were the only guests for lunch, but the food was outstanding, and our first taste of the beer convinced us we had made the right decision to drive over.
The malt room is from 1863, but the wind vane on top was installed in 1933. It helps control the heat when they are roasting malts.
The brewery has been in business for 200 years and produces a rare type of beer. Most beers are bottled very quickly after they are brewed usually within a few days. But in the case of Rodenbach a lot of the beer goes into giant wooden barrels called foeders and is aged for 18 to 24 months. There are 296 of these barrels and the larger ones hold 17000 gallons of beer.
They have nearly 300 of these giant barrels called foeders.
After the beer finishes aging it is mixed with newly made beer to create different classes of beer. The most expensive is pure aged beer, and the least expensive is 1/4 aged beer and 3/4 new beer. The type of fermentation they use gives the beer an interesting fruity and sour taste. I am not usually not a fan of these sour beers, but these were exceptional and I enjoyed them.
This lady is quite tall so you can get a perspective on the size of the barrels.
The barrels are made of French oak and require constant maintenance. The brewery employs a full time cooper (barrel maker)which must be tough to recruit for when there is turnover.
The old brewery which now hosts the restaurant. The new brewery is very modern looking.
After the tour was over we enjoyed our sample beer and purchased some more excellent beer for the trip. I am really going to be looking forward to our evening beers as we head south.
Ton tried this fruit beer which is mixed with lemons and limes to make something like a Aperol Spritz.
Today was one of the days we really enjoy when we are traveling. We saw nothing spectacular, but we will really remember this day when we look back on this trip. Our plan was pretty small for the day, we wanted to visit two breweries that are quite close to our campground in the Belgian Hop farming country. But it was the place that was not on the itinerary that made the day memorable.
They are starting to harvest the hops, but this field was still untouched.
Just as we were getting ready to depart Ton mentioned one other place she wanted to visit. Some time last night while I was sleeping Ton came upon an article about a small inn that she found intriguing called De Helleketel and was very enthusiastic about it. I punched it in to Maps and found that it was on the way to the first brewery, so we made it our first stop of the day.
De Helleketel Inn on a quiet one lane road in the middle of the Belgian countryside.
We were driving on single lane roads with pull outs, and I was wondering what we were going to find when we came upon this really cute inn. De Helleketel means the Witches Kettle in English so we were intrigued. We arrived a little before noon and there was one couple sitting at a table with the owner Lena having a boisterous conversation in Flemish. We entered a little tentatively but Lena made it clear we were welcome and told us to sit anywhere.
The view from the window of De Helleketel in business since 1895.
Over the next few minutes several more couples about our age entered and joined in the conversation with Lena. Next to our table was an old Seeburg jukebox that used to fill all the corner taverns in the US. Lena saw us looking at it, and came over and encouraged us to pick out some music. For the next 45 minutes Ton became the resident DJ spinning 60’s and 70’s hits for an appreciative Belgian crowd.
The last working jukebox of its type in Belgium. (According to Lena.)
The Belgian couple next to us struck up a conversation, they are from Leuven in northern Belgium and he is a retired policeman. What was interesting was he informed us that he was having a really hard time following the conversation of the local Belgians. He told us that this was a very old form of Flemish close to the way the language was spoken two hundred years ago. He was really enjoying hearing this old fashioned dialect and told us that these kind of places, the local country inn, were getting rarer and rarer, as were people who spoke this dialect. He kept referring to the inn as a treasure which we both agreed with.
The gloriously tacky bar in the Witches Kettle.
Unfortunately, I was driving or we could have settled in for another hour or two at De Helleketel. But we enjoyed it so much we may squeeze in another trip before we head south.
St. Bernardus Brewery.
Our next stop was a former Abby Brewery. The last priest retired a few years ago and the recipes and the brewery was sold to a private party but without a priest working it can no longer call itself an Abby Brewery. The beer is being brewed the same way as when it was an Abby Brewery but the owners are marketing it widely including in the US. The last time we were in the area some local people recommended we visit it as it had spectacular views. We had our lunch here and the beer and food was excellent and the dining area was sparkling and very modern. The views from the third floor of the restaurant were spectacular. We enjoyed ourselves but it lacked the down home charm of Lena’s Witch Kettle.
The corn is standing tall.
All of our driving was through different fields of crops on single lane roads. Luckily the traffic was light today so we could enjoy the peace of the countryside while trying to guess what some of the crops were. Except for obvious ones like corn we were both pretty clueless.
The entrance to Saint Sixtus Abby.
Our last stop was Saint Sixtus Abby which produces one of our favorite beers Westvleteren Beer. The monks make just enough beer to keep the Abby open, but they make very good beer. One of their beers is frequently on the best beers of the world list so the scarcity makes for high demand and people drive from all over to get a case or two of the beer.
Painting of the monks who produce the nectar of the gods on the table.
We had our third beer of the day, (spread over 4 hours), and picked up two six packs for our trip. We then headed back to our campground in the fields and settled in for a quiet night after a memorably quiet day we both really enjoyed.
Despite jet lag continuing to have an edge in the battle of sleep we decided to get going south The big motivator was the fact that it was supposed to rain heavily all day in Amsterdam. We selected Westvelerten as our stop because there are several breweries in the surrounding area. We stopped here last year to pick up some samples of one of our favorite beers and Ton did some research and found several more breweries conveniently located within 30 minutes of Westvelerten. It is only three hours south of Amsterdam so it is a perfect place for our first stop traveling south.
Political signage using hay rolls.
The drive was pretty easy, it was just starting to rain when we left the campground in Amsterdam but after a few minutes we were out of the rain and it was mostly dry for the rest of the drive. The traffic was light in the Netherlands though it got heavier in Belgium.
The campground is on a working farm/pub. The goats are cute and trained to look for handouts from the guests.
Right after we arrived at the campground and finished setting up François the skies opened up. We took that as a sign to hunker down and enjoy some movies.
We are starting to get ahead of the jet lag, this time we both woke up around 8 and could have functioned, but it turns out we are retired and don’t need to do anything at 8 am, so we went back to sleep until a more civilized hour.
The main library in Amsterdam is the largest in Europe.
Today the weather was perfect blue skies and temperatures in the mid 70’s so we headed into the city for the day. Ton loves bookshops and libraries and Amsterdam has the largest library in Europe so it was our first stop for the day.
Part of the interior of the library.
We wandered through the 7 floors of the modern building that hosts the library. In addition to books it has a conference center, a theater and two cafes. It is an impressive and well used facility. We really enjoyed a small art feature by a Portuguese photographer they were showing.
The sixth station of the cross.
As we were heading to our next destination we came across St. Nicholas Basilica and popped in. While Ton is Buddhist she was educated in Catholic Schools, she enjoys visiting Catholic churches and always seeks out the 6th station of the cross which is known as “Veronica wipes Jesus face”. Ton likes the story of Veronica helping Jesus. St. Nicholas had a very large and detailed depiction of the scene that Ton enjoyed.
The interior of the Stork. Our favorite Brown Bar in Amsterdam.
After our detour to St. Nicholas we headed on to our main destination for the day the Stork. Last time we visited Amsterdam we stumbled into the Stork by accident and had the best time. The server then went out of her way to make us feel welcome and even ran down the street to get us a slice of apple pie when we mentioned we were looking for a slice of it. It was magnificent customer service.
The required picture of a canal every story about Amsterdam must contain.
After that we decided the Stork was our hometown bar in Amsterdam. Today there was a different server worker, but she was just as nice. The Stork is what is known as a Brown Bar. These are local places that used to be frequented by working people before the tourists overran the city. And while the Stork is located in the infamously over touristed red light district it has found a nice balance between catering to locals and tourist. Dutch is definitely the language of the bar, but everyone also welcomes visitors and happily switches to English. We again enjoyed our visit to the Stork and will return again next time we are in town.
Cafe Karpershoek, the oldest continuous operating bar in Amsterdam from 1606.
Our final stop of the day was the oldest continuously operating bar in Amsterdam. Cafe Karpershoek has been a licensed establishment since 1606. It was also located on the waterfront in Amsterdam, but unlike the Stork its clientele was almost exclusively tourists and English was the first language in the place. We recommend you try it as how often can you drink in a place that has been serving beer for 420 years, but then move to the Stork where you can drink in a place nearly as old that is indisputably Dutch.
Well it is jet lag 2 Ron and Ton 0. Between 3 and 5 am we found ourselves having a nice conversation and doing some planning for the trip. At 5:30 I gave up and got up to watch the second half of the Timbers game on Apple TV thinking I would just power thru the rest of the day. At 6:30 I decided to lay down and read, and woke up at 11:30.
Walking down the aisle at the strangely named Mega Drinks and Food. It is a very large and well stocked Asian Grocery.
After our second brunch in two days we decided it was time to get out and do some more shopping. Our first stop was Mega Drinks and Food which is a giant Asian grocery store. It was influential in our decision to make Amsterdam our base as it allows Ton to stock up on true essentials for the trip. Then it was a quick up the street to Tong Fong which rivals Mega in size and has a deli that serves some of the best Barbeque Pork Ton has had west of Thailand.
Albert Heijn the biggest grocery chain in the Netherlands.
Having stocked up on Asian food it was time to finish our shopping for Dutch food so we were off to an Albert Heijn near the campground. The shopping trip took about 3 hours in total, but our Fridge is now stuffed with a wide variety of foods to last us until we get to France.
Jet lag won the duel today. After tossing and turning most of the night I woke up first at 11:30 am, Ton a little later. In fairness Ton claims I slept quite well all night and loudly, which was why she woke up later than me.
We spent the rest of the day doing a couple of little chores, and relaxing. There was an African heritage festival going on in the park next to the campground so we spent some of the afternoon enjoying music from the festival and emailing friends.
We are working on our short term plans which includes visiting some breweries in Belgium that have been on our tucket list.
Our start to the fall trip may have been the smoothest day of travel ever. The drive to the airport was easy and quick. We walked right up to the check in and were done in minutes. There was no line at TSA and we were through in less than a minute. We relaxed in the excellent lounge at Portland until it was time to board our flight. The flight was full but took off on time and arrived 45 minutes early in Amsterdam. We had heard about 3 hour immigration checks due to the implementation of a new biometric system in Europe. When we got to immigration we were about 10th in line, and our biometrics were collected by a nice Netherlands immigration agent and we were on our way in about 10 minutes. Our bags were waiting for us when we got to the carousel, and the Uber arrived within 2 minutes of us asking for it.
As a result of this we arrived at our storage less than an hour after arrival to find François waiting for us. A quick check and everything was working as designed and we had no mouse residents to deal with. We made a run to a Lidl near the campground to stock up with a few days worth of food, and arrived at the campground at 10:30.
Ton spent the rest of the day unpacking our bags and removing our leftover food from mouse proof containers while I sat nodding off out of the way. Hopefully, the rest of the trip will be as smooth as this day was.
