A Beer Wonderland

Brett was in heaven this weekend. Overwhelmed with all the choices, but a happy man. The Brussels Belgian beer festival had 40 of the top Belgian brewers on hand with tastings of their top beers. The festival was held on the Grand Place, which is this huge square set between massive (and massively beautiful) buildings. There were lots of festivities, like:

The beer tents


The beer parade. Some carriages even had special holsters for the beer built into the sides, kind of like a cup holder for cars!


The beer parade stilt walkers. They ranged in height, with kids on the shorter ones, but the guys at the end were WAY up there! I'm sure they had to practice proper falling technique when training to use those stilts, as the cobblestone streets of Brussels aren't exactly level.


The other cool thing about the beer in Belgium was special glassware for each beer. Not just special shapes, but the logos and labels matched for every beer. Not an easy feat for a bar with 400 beers. But I think Brett's favorite stop was the local beer store. Aisles and aisles of just Belgian beers. Our backpacks were pretty heavy by the end of the day.

A local organization was doing free blood alcohol content testing on the square. Brett's number wasn't too bad - but he definitely wasn't legal to drive in Belgium where the legal limit is .49 (compared to Virginia's .8). Brett was told not to drive in Belgium. Good thing we took the train :-)