Our journey so far has been really wonderful. We have a great set of students and all the tours and hotels have worked out wonderfully, especially considering that Gudrun and I didn’t do a scouting trip. So finally some things have gone wrong. One was an inconvenience, the other was actually pretty bad.
After our trip to Cantillon the other day, several of us needed to replenish our cash reserves so we found an ATM and did so. At some point, Gudrun noticed that her wallet was hanging out of her bag. When she checked it, about 340 Euro were gone. She remembers a young lady distracting her, at which point her accomplice probably grabbed the cash from her wallet. This has put a real damper on our time here, as I’m sure anyone can imagine. Even knowing that where we are is a hot bed for pick pockets, it is difficult to be careful enough.
The next day (21 Jan) we had planned to be picked up by a bus for an all day excursion to visit the DuBuisson brewery (makers of Bush de Noel, among other things) in Pipaix, and the Het Anker brewery (Gouden Carolus) in Mechlen. Everybody was up in time, and we went to where we were supposed to meet the bus. But it wasn’t there. We eventually enlisted the help of our hotel front desk staff (who have been very helpful in many ways) to contact the driver. He swore he was in the correct place, but we couldn’t find him.
We contacted Christa, the local travel agent who led us on a tour on Friday, and she found out the bus company had sent the bus to the wrong place. Brussels is made up of seventeen different districts, and street names repeat. So he was on the right street, but in the wrong district of Brussels. Eventually, he made it to us, two hours after we were supposed to leave for our brewery tours.
Christa had called the breweries to let them know we would be late, and both were ok, so we embarked on the trip. None of the students had really eaten anything other than breakfast. DuBuisson was a 1.5 hour drive southwest of Brussels, in Pipaix. We shouldn’t have bothered. The “tour” turned out to be a movie/ad depicting the history of the brewery. The beer wasn’t good either. I’d never go back there – and I’ll steer clear of their beer (Bush – Bush de Noel, and Troll).
Het Anker, in Mechelen was another 1.5 hour ride, this time to the northwest of Brussels. The routing was crazy. The tour, however, was great. Our guide was from the Netherlands, and ran tours and the onsite hotel at Het Anker. He had retired there after working for the US Government for something like 40 years meeting with embassy staffs in other countries as and advance team for Presidential visits. He started with Nixon and ended with Obama.
Het Anker is a historically important brewery, and has been around since the 15th century. The king on the label is Charles V (I believe), and had a special tax exemption from the king. The brewery has been through many ups and downs, most recently almost going bankrupt in the late 1980′s because the owner enjoyed the product a bit too much. Fortunately it was revived by the current owner (all in a long family line), who has really focussed on the brewery. Over 80% of their beer is exported, most to the US (you can buy Gouden Carolus at the Oak & Ivy in McMinnville).
After tasting two beers (the triple and the dark, original Carolus, which is brewed with licorice) we headed home. Everybody ran off to get some snacks (it was 4 pm and no one had eaten since breakfast). Later, we met for dinner at La Becasse – a wonderful little pub/cafe not far off the Grand Place that we went to the first night here in town – for some much needed comfort food: large bowls of pasta and oven baked lasagne.
