Beer Pilgrims - day 3 and 4

Day III - Friday - The Metropolis

On third day's morning we visited the Orval abbey, you can find the story in the previous post, the afternoon we left for civilization, after a day and a half spent between empty meadows and woods.

We arrive in Bruxelles at dinner time. It's freaking cold, it's snowing and we spent 3 hours in a train.We get to the hotel and prepare for the evening. First let me say that we don't care about visiting the city that much, especially because there are low-cost flights that allow you to have a weekend here with really little money.

Dinner with Bruxelles main dish. Fries. Small place, frying all they can, 450g of fries with € 2,50. And huge sandwiches.

We head to Delirium Cafè. The pink elephant is the same to the Delirium brewery. We immediately realize that the name is appropriate. The whole Bruxelles nightlife gathers on the two sides of a closed little street. On one side Delirium, on three floors, on the other side a pirates place, still the same pub of the pink elephant. Literally bursting at the seams. They have more than 2400 bottled beers plus 15/16 on tap and on the wall there's a plate to celebrate Guinness World Record for most beers served. They have Tanzanian and Far Oer beers, just in case you want to taste them. 

Pink elephant beers didn't match our taste after all. The only one that passed the exam was Delirium Nocturnum (dark red, 8,5° caramel and liquorice flavours), though the Delirium Tremens, her blonde sister, was rewarded as Best Beer in the World in Chicago. We do not agree our Chicagian friends. Wait...Chicagian?

The evening goes straight on. Well...sort of.

Day IV - Saturday - Really that far?

Early wake up. We leave. Fresh and ready.

Bruxelles - Gent - Kortrijk - Poperinge. We are in the south-west part of Belgium. Edge of the country.

Cold don't leave us a second. In the  Poperinge station we check for the bus, no one is going towards our destination, we ask a bus-driver. Nothing. We are on foot. Again.

A girl that is waiting a bus next to us asks us where we are going and if she can help.
"We are going to Westvleteren."
"Uhm, there are not bus to get there."
"A taxi?" "No way, but try to go to the bus central station, probably they can give you infos."
"Thank you."

Wear your bags on  your backs boys, get ready to walk(the abbey is about 8 km from Poperinge).

After 100 meters i hear a horn...PE PE. I turn around and  I see the earlier girl, with her sister, in a lightblue Punto.

"You'll never get there, get in, we are taking you there.".

Eyes wide open and angelic choirs. We get in the car and after a while we realize that we would never have arrived to our destination only by ourselves. Looks like the mistery and exclusivity aura that surround Westvleteren abbey starts from the road to get there. No signs. Fields as far as you can see (hop fields).


Finally the abbey, in all its....well....ugliness. We are so used to wonderful buildings, living in Tuscany, that the abbey don't impress us that much. But we are not here for the architectural beauty...

We enter In de Vrede, next ot the abbey and take a sit. We had to reverse our Belgium tour just to get here on Saturday, so check for the opening hours, they are tricky.

Sint Sixtus abbey produces three beers: Westvleteren Blonde - 5,8°, Westvleteren 8 and the one that is called "The best beer in the world" Westvleteren 12. 
To give you an idea of the exclusivity of this beer, if you want to buy a six-bottles crate of Westv 12, you have to take an appointment y phone and tell them the licence number of the car you are going with. You can only buy one crate a car and you can not buy another one before 60 days.
Furthermore the customer assume the responsibility not to resell the beer he buys.

Tasting our meals we notice that also Blonde and the 8, a 8° dark one, are superlative. The place is full of different languages speaking people, we have a laugh  learning the local dialect and speaking of Italy and italians.

Ok, if finding a ride to the abbey could have been only a lucky stroke, it was clear that Someone up there guides us when we discover free sell  Westvleteren 12 in the restaurant's shop.

Due to some renovation works monks needed hard cash and were forced to loosen the grip to their precious bottles, 33 cl, label-less.
The question is: "How many crates do I take?"
After a few thinking I choose only six bottles, we are on foot ater all. If I could get back there I would take 10 crates.

Is Westvleteren 12 good?
It is good. I can not tell if it is the best in the world (at least till I taste all the beers in the world), but it is the more exclusive, for sure. Let me explain better, it is not a fake exotic exclusivity of a beer crafted in elephant skulls by a community of aborigine dwarves on hovercrafts. It is authenticity, tradition and strong proof of its roots.

We head back to Poperinge, a couple of photos and say goodbye to our hosts.
Thank you far all, Katrijn and Tine, you are two angels.

We open another 12 waiting for the train. Oh yes, that's good.


I should write down about Bruges, too. More to come.

Beer Pilgrims - Day 2

Day II - Thursday - to drudge

Eindhoven Breakfast

The day after we have a dutch breakfast based on toasts with ham, cheese and eggs. Early morning hit of calories. Here we go!

We take a train to Maastricht and then cross the dutch border to Liège.

Liège - Guillemins station was designed in 2009 by the famous catalan architect Santiago Calatrava and it's a huge but light structure, simply beautiful. After few minutes and lots of photos to every single station's corner, my mates wake me up from my ecstasy and take me to the city center.

Packed lunch and quick tour of the city center and it's time to leave again.

Intermediate stops: Namur - Libràmont and finally Florenville, the nearest city to the Abbey of Orval.

City...300 inhabitants maybe (Wikipedia says 10.000...).  There is a Carrefour, well supplied of Belgium good beers (everything under € 1.50), that can provide you a cheap meal.
When you are there take a step to  Les Chocolats d'Edouard and have an hot chocolate or cappuccino and a taste of their pralines. Edouard is one of the best chocolate artisan of Belgium, speaks italian very well and is very friendly and kind.

There are two ways to get to Orval: a bus leaving from Florenville at about 12:20 (back from the abbey at 16:54) or to call a taxi.

We choose a third solution. We walk.
Please make sure you know better the way to go before starting to walk.
Our information was "just go straight in the wood, at the river turn left".

After about 2 hours we finally get to the Orval Abbey.

It is possible to visit the ruins of the old abbey and have a tour inside the structure. There is a small Orval beer museum, with some old bottles and old beer machineries. Unluckily you can not visit the brewery nor the cheese factory, but you can take a look over the walls of the right side of the abbey, through the big windows.


Let's get straight to the point. At about 300 m from the abbey you can find A l'Ange Gardien, the place where you can taste abbey's products. They have the classic Orval 33 cl bottle, for those who don't know, it is an intense aromatic beer with a dry character. We tried a lot of Orval bottles and we noticed some difference between one and another, especially on aroma and bitterness.
We can also find a Orval 33 at least one-year-aged and a draft Orval, restaurant exclusive.

While the draft beer mantains her sister's features, the aged Orval enhances those, with a stronger body and way more intense aroma.
Basically it is a normal Orval bottle, kept a year in a fresh cellar.
We decided to take a crate and store it in our basement for 2014.
Recommended. Actually, once you are there, taste the three variations.

Talking about food we suggest you a giant omelette and a sample of abbey's cheese.

More to come...

Beer Pilgrims - Giorno 2

II giorno - giovedì - La Sfacchinata

Eindhoven Breakfast

La mattina dopo ci aspetta una colazione olandese a base di toast con prosciutto, formaggio e uova. Botta calorica di prima mattina e via.

Dalla stazione prendiamo un treno, varchiamo il confine olandese a Maastricht e ci troviamo a Liegi.

La stazione di Liegi - Guillemins è stata progettata nel 2009 dal famoso architetto catalano Santiago Calatrava e si presenta come una struttura imponente ma leggera, semplicemente bellissima. Dopo qualche minuto che ero lì a fare foto a tutti gli angoli della stazione, i miei compagni d'avventura mi svegliano dalla trance e ci avviamo verso il centro di Liegi.

Pranzo al sacco e giro veloce del centro storico della città ed è già ora di ripartire.

Tappe intermedie Namur - Libràmont e finalmente Florenville, il centro abitato più vicino alla nota abbazia di Orval.

Paesino da 300 anime a dir tanto. C'è un Carrefour molto ben fornito di birre belghe (tutte sotto € 1.50), che può farvi risparmiare su un pasto.
Quando siete lì fate un salto da Les Chocolats d'Edouard e prendete una cioccolata calda o un cappuccino e una degustazione di praline. Edouard è uno dei migliori chef del cioccolato del Belgio, parla molto bene italiano, avendo lavorato per molto tempo a Parma, ed è una persona molto affabile e cordiale.

Per arrivare ad Orval ci sono due modi: un bus che parte da Florenville alle 12:20 circa (ritorno dall'abbazia alle 16:54) o chiamare un taxi.

Noi abbiamo optato per una terza soluzione. Siamo andati a piedi.
Voi magari informatevi meglio sul sentiero da intraprendere, le nostre indicazioni erano tipo: "andate a dritto, poi al fiume girate a sinistra".

Dopo circa 2 ore arriviamo alla seconda abbazia del nostro viaggio:
L' Abbazia di Orval.

E' possibile visitare le rovine della vecchia abbazia e fare un giro all'interno della struttura. C'è un piccolo museo della birra Orval, con qualche bottiglia d'annata e i vecchi impianti brassicoli.
Purtroppo non è possibile visitare nè il birrificio nè il caseificio, ma potete sbirciare da sopra i muretti di cinta sul lato destro dell'abbazia, dalle grandi vetrate.

Veniamo al dunque. A circa 300 m dall'abbazia si trova A l'Ange Gardien, il locale dove è possibile degustare i prodotti dell'abbazia e non solo. Servono la classica Orval da 33 cl in bottiglia, per chi non la conosce, una birra con aromi intensi e un carattere asciutto. Ci è capitato di aprire molte bottiglie di Orval e abbiamo notato alcune differenze tra una e l'altra, specialmente su profumi e amaro.
Nel menù troviamo poi una Orval da 33 invecchiata almeno un anno e una Orval servita alla spina, esclusiva del locale.

Mentre la birra alla spina conserva le caratteristiche della sorella in bottiglia, l'Orval invecchiata un anno le esalta, con un corpo più robusto e aromi decisamente più intensi.
Alla fine si tratta solo di una bottiglia di Orval normale, tenuta al fresco in cantina per un anno. Abbiamo deciso che ne prenderemo una cassa e la stiveremo in cantina per il 2014.
Consigliata. Cioè, visto che siete lì assaggiate tutte e tre le varianti.

Sul cibo vi consigliamo un omelette di dimensioni pantagrueliche e un assaggio di formaggi dell'abbazia.