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The four
intrepid adventurers. We travelled from Hull to Zeebrugge via North Sea Ferries. As you
can see from the table top, the trip started involving great amounts of beer, and
continued to develop along the same path. We ended up playing Jenga with some
lorry drivers - no mean feat considering the amount of beer we had and the fact that a
boat does have a tendency to sway a bit while crossing the channel. |
| We decided to take a boat trip
around the canals in the centre of the town. The pub we drank in, Erasmus, is
just at the tables over at the left hand side of the picture. Another classic view I
thought. |
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A view of our pub again - I
beginning to think we had some kind of problem here. |
| At last, a picture that doesn't
contain the pub we drank in. I know you were beginning to think that it wasn't possible.
Again, just a nice view dwn a Belgian canal. |
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I liked the look of the sticky oot window,
sorry to lapse into architect speak there, and the pretty window boxes. Again, I came over
all David Bailey'ish. |
| The Belgians are really serious
about their beer, this bar had a menu of over 100 different ones. So when you are
presented with that many beers, on what basis do you select the one to drink - so we found
the strongest and worked down from there. Jim is modelling a bottle of Delerium Tremens (9% - Barley wine), a wicked little
beer that comes in a glass covered in pink elephants. |
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Getting a drink for Mo is a story
in itself. She originally asked for a Pils and lime, which the barman wouldn't give us (an
insult to his beer apparently) and then gave her nothing. Ellie selected this wee charmer,
Duchesse de Bourgogne
(6.2% - Flemish Red) |
| I'm to be seen here drinking a
little number called La
Guillotine (9% - Massive
ale), another little head kicker. As a wee aside, the glass you get your drink in
always matches what you ordered, in one pub they had run out and apologised profusly about
it. |
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Ellie imbibing the old (not very)
amber necter. This beer was picked both for its' nice name and a pleasant description and
not because it loos like a small Guiness. Note the extreme use of tartan to show pride in
heritage stuff. |
| The view from our hotel room
window - a real classic. Your probably thinking 'man what a stunning view, I bet that
thing can really make a helluva lot of noise when it wants to'. Well, when it wants to, it
really can, like every hour and on Sundays it plays a fine collection of tunes all day
long - worth it though. We climbed up the bell tower and took some pictures that you can
see later, nearly killed us, but we always seem to have this compulsion to climb the
highest building around (see Prague) |
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I think we had just climbed up
the tower, the market hall, in the background and earned to best deserved beer of the
holiday. |
| Just a nice view that
characterized the whole feel of the city. |
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Just to prove that we didn't
spend all of our time drinking, this is a park (probably near a pub). I seem to recall
that it was chucking it doon at this time. |
| We ended up going to the same
pub a lot, once we got over our little disagreement with the barman over crimes
against beer. The pub overlooked the river and we always got served dead quick - ahhh
the simple pleasures in life. |
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A view from.... you got it, a bar
across the main town square. Our hotel was down a wee street just to the left of the very
imposing, and pretty anonynous, building in the middle. We would gradually work our way
down the bars here, following the sunlight, it was pretty cold in May. |
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