Thursday 24th July – Leuven, The quest for the Holy Grail of brewing

We woke up late this morning, despite promises made last night to ourselves that we would make an early start for Belgium to be in Brussels or Leuven by mid afternoon. We woke with the unnerving feeling that we’d left the fridge and cool-bag out all night as they weren’t in the room. They weren’t by the bench outside when the (much needed) coffee was got in the morning. When we got to the car, there was the fridge and cool-bag, but neither of us can remember how they got into the boot of the car! Needless to say we were, okay I was, hung-over (Nik blames the last glass of wine – but it always is!), and we still needed to book a hotel for this evening. A visit to McDonalds in Dijon for free wi-fi got us a hotel booking in Leuven and an instant hangover cure – Big Tasty burgers, fries and coke – We’re lovin’ it!!

We headed off for Leuven and although tired we did our now customary two hours, stop, coffee, then change drivers, and we were in Leuven in less than six hours. Again, the driving was easy although lane discipline and motorway etiquette has dropped the further north we have driven.

I was half expecting Leuven to be a bit of a crappy industrial town with a huge brewery, but it is a fantastic place. Unfortunately Hercule Poirot is out of town. We are staying in the Holiday Inn right in the centre of town. It is a university town and is chocolate box beautiful.

Every bar sells at least 20 types of beer but we had to go straight for the Stella Artois. It has a more sharp flavour and more of a bitter aftertaste than the Stella in the UK, but it’s served very cold and the head is cut off with a knife, just like in the adverts – Brilliant!!!

There are so many bars and cafes in town. It seems like very corner you turn there is another street or square packed with bars with outside tables. There’s quite a cosmopolitan atmosphere here with lots of tourists and students milling about. Most importantly everyone speaks impeccable English which is great because neither of us know a word of Belgian.

After trying out a handful of bars, just to check that there was consistency in the serving of the famous brew, we started looking for somewhere to eat. It’s not that hard as every bar seems to also be a restaurant. We were walking down a street looking at menus when I saw a side street which seemed to have quite a few tables at the top of it. We walked up into a huge market square which was packed with bars and restaurants and decided on one called The Meating Place. They served one of the best, and hugest, steaks either of us has ever eaten.

Tomorrow is the brewery tour so blogging may be a bit tricky by the time we get back from there. We can’t believe that this holiday will be over in just 48 hours but we are determined to maker the most of those precious remaining moments.

So, from the beautiful town of Leuven, bye bye for now.

Cheers!