The Trappist Tradition

I know I've mentioned the impressive array of truly excellent beer available in Belgium before, and the country's reputation for brewing is certainly known worldwide. There is however, a small category of beers for which Belgium is particularly famous, and that is the Trappist brews.

The Trappists are a branch of the Cisterian order of monks, and they live in about 170 monasteries around the world. They support themselves primarily through manual labor and the sale of goods produced at the monastery. For seven of the Trappist monasteries, that includes beer brewed by the monks themselves, and six of these are located in Belgium (the 7th is in the Netherlands). To be called a Trappist beer, there are strict rules surrounding the brewing process, and laws exist to prevent the misuse of the title by non-Trappist operations.

The seven Trappist abbey-breweries are:
Achel
Chimay
Koningshoeven (Netherlands)
Orval
Rochefort
Westmalle
Westvleteren

Having tasted five of these seven beers (all except Koningshoeven and Westvleteren), I can tell you that they are among the best you'll find anywhere. Chimay is my personal favorite, my favorite beer in the world in fact! Carl's favorite is Westmalle, and we both recently cemented our "fan" status by purchasing the official glasses of both beers so we can enjoy the full Trappist beer experience at home!

Cheers!!

Beautiful Baden-Württemburg!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe, happy and healthy holiday! As I mentioned in a previous post, we spent Christmas with our friends Volker and Johanna in Tübingen, in Baden-Württemburg state in Germany, and then returned to Brussels for New Year's Eve. We had a wonderful time in Germany, and as always I have some photos and commentary to share!

First up of course, is Tübingen. It's a university town of about 88,000, located approximately 30 minutes drive south of Stuttgart, and it's absolutely beautiful...think cozy riverfront Alstadt (old town) complete with half-timbered buildings, cathedral and hilltop castle. The best part was that it's the hometown of our good friends, so we had very knowledgeable guides and the unbelievably warm hospitality of their families. We were made to feel so welcome, almost like we were part of the family! It was truly a memorable holiday and we can't wait to go back in June to attend their wedding!

While we were there we also had some time for daytrips, one to the small town of Gosbach (SE of Stuttgart), where our friends from Portland, Andreas and Lyndsay, were visiting his family for the holidays. Andreas' parents fed us a terrific traditional Swabian lunch (one of several spectacular meals we enjoyed); afterwards we hiked to the top of one of the small mountains above town, then back down into the neighboring town to warm up in the hot spring pools located there. We followed that with dinner at a local restaurant and board games back at the house, topping off a great day. Thanks guys!!

Finally, on our last day in Germany we drove about 90 minutes southwest to Freiburg, a city of just over 200,000 people on the western edge of the Black Forest, close to the French border. The drive crossed over some beautiful mountain terrain before dropping back down into the valley where the city is located. We enjoyed the old town for a few hours, had lunch in a great brewery and visited the big cathedral called the Münster, located on a very picturesque square in the center of the old town. One of the original city gates also remains, but sadly any photos of it are ruined by a huge McDonald's sign prominently featured on the adjoining building...they did at least avoid using the bright yellow and red colors but still, couldn't they have found somewhere ELSE to put that??

On the 28th we returned to Brussels, and spent New Year's Eve with friends at a party that was conveniently located only 3 blocks away...which came in quite handy when we stayed there until 4:30 AM!! :-)

Photo #1: Riverfront of Tübingen, with the Alstadt to the right
Photo #2: the Christmas tree at Johanna's mother's house - with REAL CANDLES!!
Photo #3: side of the Münster cathedral, Freiburg
Photo #4: Happy New Year!