Another year, another country and another city; 2011 was a new and interesting experience for me and my wife. The year in Brussels and Belgium has been a very positive one.
Grand Place in the evening
The New Year celebration was quite traditional here and we had some friends from Sweden over to join us.
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If you like to see some serious fireworks look at this from London.
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We did a city tour and saw some of the traditional sights, visited restaurants and pubs where we had carbonade flamande (Flemish beefstew in beer) at Le Cirio,
Le Cirio
Moules Frites at Chez Leon and beers at Poechenellekelder, Bon Vieux Temps, Le Bier Circus to mention a few.
Gaston and my wife
I finally got to see the Belgian Comic Strip Center (Rue de Sables 20).
Belgian Comic Strip Center
The museum is housed in a gem of Art Nouveau by the grand master himself Victor Horta (1906). Here the visitor gets a thorough view on the comic strip industry in Belgium with its long history.
Lucky Luke and my wife
Of course the classics like Tintin, Lucky Luke and the Smurfs are all to be seen. There was also an interesting exhibition on the Romanian comic strip history. A large bookshop, café and a small exhibition in Art Nouveau can be visited.
Tintin
Not far from the museum is one of Brussels wellknown pubs Le Bier Circus (www.bier-circus.be) situated, an establishment well worth a visit.
Le Bier Circus
You will find an extensive menu of beers covering Lambic, Geuze, Kriek, Framboise, Faro, Trappist, Witbier, Oud Bruinen, Honey beers and several blondes. The beer menu also includes a short desciption of the taste which will help you choose.
If you are hungry and everything is closed there is always a Pizza machine, completely automatic. I found this one at Luxembourg railway station.
Automatic pizza machine
At Beer Circus I tested “Avec les Bons Vœux de la Brasserie Dupont“ 9,5% the longest beer name I have encountered sofar. It means best wishes from Dupont brewery. The Bons Vœux is a blond top fermentation beer with refermentation in the bottle.
Bons Vœux
Since 1970, the brewery has been brewing a special beer to give as a new years present to their best clients. This Bons Vœux is coppery blond,the taste has a nice bitterness, fruity and mild. It was quite good.
Oerbeer
The next one is Oerbier 9% means original, from the spring and comes from De Dolle brewery. This beer has been brewed in small scale (5 gallons). Oerbier is brewed from no less than 6 malts. After a couple of years Oerbier tastes like it has been blended with wine … The little person on the glasses is the Oerbier man, a simple creature who holds a brewers fork in his right hand, symbolizing the work and science, but looking to the other side, the result of all this, the glass of (Oer)beer. The artwork on the poster is a wallpainting found in Spain. The beer is dark brown on the sweet side but with a floral taste that I didn’t like. There is in additiono some bitterness with a taste of hop and spices.
2012 is just starting and I am really looking forward to new and exiting experiences.
Coming weeks:
• EU continued
• In search for the best beer (an on-going quest for the perfect pint)
• More seafood
• Cheese
• Parks
• Culture, Comics
• Markets
• Politics
Facts of the week;
Drink; Avec les Bons Vœux de la Brasserie Dupont 9,5%, Oerbier 9%
Location; Le Bier Circus (Rue de l’Enseignement, 57)
POI: Belgian Comic Strip Center (Rue de Sables 20)
