Belgium Excursion, Part 1 of 2: Beer Edition

Part of Kasey and Evan's trip was spent in Belgium. They both like beer so we wanted to hit a few abbeys to try some out. We'd already been to two of them on our list, and were hoping to add two more. The plan was essentially to do a big loop: drive north and cross into Belgium, start at Val Dieu near Liege, travel southwest and over to Maredsous, Leffe, stop for the night in Bastogne, and the next day go to Orval and then head east across Luxemburg and finally end up at home.

Even though it was overcast, we still had a great lunch at Val Dieu. I was envious of Evan's bacon salad, and I vowed to myself that I will be ordering it the next time we visit.

 Here's Kasey before lunch:

I took over driving on the next leg, since Matt always really really enjoys the Val Dieu beers. We ended up at Maredsous and it's actually a pretty big complex. They had nature paths, really pretty scenery, and of course a cafe to try out the products.

Such awesome glassware! Too bad they were so stingy about them... this reads that it's not for sale. Also, don't take it.

As we did at Val Dieu, we stocked up on some goodies here as well. We also got some chalices to drink out of :-)

Next we drove to Leffe but alas, the entire abbey was closed for the year. (We figured they didn't necessarily make the beer there, but we had wanted to have some at least, and buy some, along with glassware!)

Matt tried to put on a happy face...

Luckily, we found an open bar that served us Leffe. Evan was kind enough to ask our server in French if we could have something to eat, something small.... But we each ended up with huge plates of perfect cantaloupe and even more perfect Iberian ham. And yes, it went great with the beer.

Our final stop the next day was Orval. I didn't get any lunch or drink pictures, but I did get a picture of our dessert waffle before we devoured it. Note to self: Always have a waffle when in Belgium.

We ended up with plenty of treats from the trip. At Orval we got another kilo of beer cheese (approx. 2.2 pounds!!) along with a bunch of other slices we came across at a nice-sized Carrefour supermarket on the way back. Thank goodness we had Kasey and Evan with us, otherwise we could have never gotten all this stuff up to the apartment.

Stay tuned next time for the rest of the Belgian excursion highlights!