We walked the thirty minutes back into town only to find that Le Chapitre was closed, when it should've opened 90 minutes prior. So following some aimless wandering for half an hour (and after being chased out of the park by the guys below) we headed back with fingers crossed.
As we walked up the alley we heard music, we saw chairs outside, success!
Everything about this place is shambolic and I think that will be a common theme over the next few weeks. After a Caracole Blanche, Blonde and Ambrée and a Witkap Pater Tripel we thought it was time to call it quits, knowing that I had to be on my game the following morning.
The reason being was this - my first time driving on European roads, and we had a lot of ground to cover too.
We had a few (quite a few) hairy moments to begin with, and I spent the first hour thinking that the third gear was actually the first and drifted too far right a few too many times for Nicola's sanity.
We made it to Orval though and after wandering around the grounds of the monastery for an hour (we were here for the beer brewed by monks) we sat down at the brewery tap so Nix could try the unaged, very bitter Orval while I was limited to a 150ml serving of Orval Vert - the brewery's watered down "table beer" - designated driver sucks. Nix seemed to take great pleasure in switching our glasses after the waiter placed the full strength Orval in front of me.
We were then back on the road and off to Brasserie D'Achouffe, which was a decidedly less stressful experience - Nix actually loosened her grip on the door handle by time we got there. It also meant that we could enjoy some of the beautiful Ardennes scenery on the way to the brewery.
Given that Chouffe's logo is a gnome, this place is gnome central and straddles a very precarious line between naff and good taste. Nevertheless the beers were great and after McChouffe, Chouffe Bok and Chouffe Houblon, we were off again, time was of the essence.
Note the cappuccino, for some reason I felt an urge to have one after seeing the table next to ours all order them. I shouldn't have bothered.
We zipped through countless tiny Belgian villages to end up at a truly obscure and unique brewery - Brasserie Fantôme - only to find great disappointment. The cafe was closed, as were all the doors to the brewery itself and as Nix began to walk back to the car disappointedly (I'd talked this place up a lot), as a last ditch effort I pushed open a door to a room full of bottles and yelled out "bonjour" to which I got a "oui" back, from deep inside another room.
Before we knew it the brewer had placed two full glasses in front of us and sat us down for a chat saying that he was sorry that he only had a few minutes to spare. We tried his "Classique" which had the most amazing and distinct aroma of strawberries and his "Summer Beer" which was out of this world, a slightly sour, acidic fruit beer that we would love cartons and cartons of. A few minutes quickly turned into twenty and after showing us though his brewery (which takes shambolic to an entirely new level), he sent us on our way with a bottle of his "Classique" and one of his Fantôme de Noël - both of which went down very nicely that night.
Walking down the road we knew that we'd had an experience that we will remember extremely vividly for the rest of our lives.
We successfully navigated our way back to Namur and after a couple of roadies, some beautiful scenery and a 5km walk we were back at our hostel, exhausted but rewarded.
During the day we were also offered joint head brewing roles at Orval but had to knock them back, there's still too much travelling to be done...
*the best thing about Luxembourg City is the train station, so you can leave
Pug Sightings - a thing of the past
The Barrie-ometer of "Feel" - relieved satisfaction
The Beers
Caracole Troublette, Ambrée, Saxo
Witkap Pater Tripel
Orval (Young), Vert
Chouffe McChouffe, Bok, Houblon
Fantôme "Classique", "Summer Beer", de Noël
