All Chouffe'd out

A very cute tribute to mannequin piss
The Grand Place

Beautiful Antwerp
Happy travellers

The Delirium bar in Brussels, it currently holds the Guinness world record for the most stocked beer. 2004 different types available at anytime. My favourite beer is Chouffe Houblon -A Belgium only brew (Lachie was literally in a delirium!)

The most awesome flea markets in Brussels.

Vintage beer. Yes, this is a 1975 La Trappe with dust and all. This place was mind boggling. The bar was called the Kulminator. As the story goes, they forgot about all this beer in some of their cellars for decades and only discovered it recently. They have a book of over 1000 beers with lots of different vintages and the correct glass for each type of beer. The Kulminator is a tiny quirky pub in Antwerp run by a husband and wife team. I'll be back!
The Kulminator's cellar
A 1995 Westmalle Triple, one of 6 beers in the world brewed by monks in a monastery. Its a Trappist beer. All of them come from Belgium.
Drinking our favourite beer, Chouffe. This one is a vintage Devil Chouffe from 1998

yummy food markets in Antwerp.

YAY! we had the best weekend ever!

We got on the eurostar straight after work. The eurostar is total bliss compared to the painful transit with flying. Lachie had done all the research and got us into a VERY nice 4 star hotel which I had to be dragged away from. It was like a comfortable little warm bubble. Our bed at home is an absolute nightmare (too short) so a lush big bed was like sleeping on a cloud. zzzz

BUT we went out as soon as we dumped our bags. Straight to the Grand Place for a breathtaking view of the ancient architecture. Beautiful! Then to Delerium where we proceeded to try as many of the 2,004 beers on offer(the alcohol percentage per beer is between about 3% to 12%). I made it to about 3 beers and Lachie made it to about 6, before we stumbled home in the freezing cold to our 4star bubble.

The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed to the most lavish breakfast EVER. Lachie had probably a kilo of salmon! Yum!

We caught a quick train to Antwerp where we wandered the streets full of the best fashion I've ever seen! Antwerp is such a delightful, beautiful, interesting city.

After a few beers at the oldest pub in town we ventured out of the main area to this kulminator bar. it was OLD, with plants everywhere and books and about 4 cats and an old couple who are as old and dusty as some of the beers they sell. even for a non-beer junkie it was a pretty amazing experience. we ended up befriending an American local who is a fellow beer geek who, after they were done doing their thing with the beers, took us back to an awesome off the beaten track restaurant in Brussels called 'les brassins' (same street that Audrey Hepburn was born on!) for some 'rippa' steak and stew. Around 12:00am we finally sat down to eat and YUMMY! by this stage we'd been drinking for about 9 hours and Lachie hit the wall straight after dinner so we went back to our hotel and literally crashed.

SUNDAY we woke up to another de-lightful breakfast and wandered the streets of Brussels. heading to the most awesome flea markets. I went last time I was in Brussels and loved them even more this time. Even lachie was totally enthralled with everything on offer. Definitely recommend them for anyone visiting Belgium!

There was a really really cold wind all day so we tried to stay indoors as much as possible, not too hard in the land of beer! Heading back to Delerium was first stop, then to a delicious restaurant right on the Grand Place where Lachie had mussels (in Brussels) and I had one of the best steaks EVER (sorry Dad!) and then to a 'beer temple' where we stocked up on beers, I won't mention how much Lachie spent in there! And then ONE LAST STOP BEFORE WE LEFT THE LAND OF BEER an authentic Belgium beer cafe! More cats, very Art Nouveau, high ceilings and lots of mirrors. Can you believe Lachie left one of his bags full of beer there which I realised just before we were about to get on the eurostar!
We made it in the nick of time and got back in to London about 11pm last night to a freezing cold house. Ali is in Spain doing a half marathon with a few friends.

Today on the train into work we both commented on how dreary it seems. So grey, no greenery, just dreary, bleary London. I guess it can only get better now that spring is SURELY on its way...isn't it!? please!?

I'm flying home this Friday to finally meet my gorgeous niece and next week Lachie is off to Aspen, Colorado with his family. Then we meet up back in London and off to the canary islands for a week of fun with our pal Jenny from Germany!

Lots of good times to look forward to!