Barbie, Beer and Babies!

So, I think the last entry was from the Brussels airport waiting for Craig's aunt Barbie to arrive for the Belgian Beer Festival... Her flight from Amsterdam was four hours late (yes, I think you could practically ride a bike from Amsterdam to Brussels in 4 hours, but oh well!), but she finally made it and we started our whirlwind tour of Belgian beers, starting at a tiny, smoky, neighborhood bar in Brussels called Moeder Lambic. There, we tried 5 different beers, then went on to Het Biercircus (luckily walking distance from the Phileas Fogg B&B) where we tried 6 more... you get the picture.

We did a two-day driving tour of the breweries in the Ardennes (the hilly part of Belgium, in the southeast), then swung back to Brussels for a tour of the Cantillon Brasserie, and headed to Sint Niklaas for the culminating event, the Zythos Bierfestival, a trade-show style event with over 50 breweries represented, all sampling their brews for 1 Euro a taste. By the end of the event, we had tried about 100 different Belgian beers, and the scary thing is that their was only about 5 or 6 that we wouldn't buy again -- beer is really that good here! (Steph's #1 pick: Rochefort 8; Craig's #1 pick: Dubuisson Bush 12; Barbie's #1 pick: Du Borq Triple Moine?)

It was after the first day of the Bierfestival (so we were probably up to about 75 tastings), that the phone woke us up at 7:00 in the morning. Twice.

It was Andrew calling to tell us that our nephew was born! Congratulations to Andrew and Cori, and welcome little Toby!