Friday 25th July - What tour?

We decided to have a wander through town to find some Belgian waffles for breakfast. Ali liked them but I wasn't that keen. You can't beat toast and Marmite for brekky!

Then we had a post-waffle wander through the main shopping street which was full of the same chains of stores that fill every UK High Street so it was a bit of a let down after the grand streets with their beautiful squares and buildings that we saw the night before. What we didn't expect was the scale of the map we were using so that when we got to the end of the shopping street we were on the ring road.

We looked down to see the Holy Grail.................there it was in all its majesty. The Stella Brewery plant - and it was massive. I could almost hear the angels trumpeting our arrival at my spiritual home!

Deciding that there was not another moment to waste we hurried down the road to the main entrance and then discovered that it was back up a fork in the road within a few yards of where we first saw it, but no matter, we got to the main entrance in the end.

This is where we were told that the next English speaking tour is next Friday and that all visitors must be booked in advance :-(( On the bright side this does mean that a return visit to Leuven is well justified.

We then walked back to our hotel, checked out and drove the 0.7 miles to the new one. We couldn't stay at the Holiday Inn because they were carrying out air conditioning upgrades to the rooms and had limited capacity. The Novotel, cruelly, is about 30 yards from the brewery we can't visit.

I'm going to leave it there for now as we are checking out of the hotel on the way to Calais - Boo! I'll write the rest from home.

It's been quite a journey and brilliant fun. We can't believe that it is time to go home now but reality, and a nice cup of tea, awaits.

Ciao