Christmas Beer Festival, Essen, Flanders, Belgium Dec 16, 17 in 2017

Essen in Flanders, Belgium. The building in the middle has the stepped gable typical of this area.

Problem
Belgium produces so many beers that it's fun to try several. If you like beer, you want to try new ones. If you don't like beer, it's a chance to try new varieties and find out if there's one you like. Where?

Answers
Big centres with cultural attractions are:
Brussels: You will ask to see, or be taken to see the Mannekin Pis. Big city with historic areas.
Bruges: A pretty place with bridges and lace and swans.
Essen: Beer festival in December, cycling moto
Ghent.
Antwerp.

What's Where In Europe?
Spain is to the south. Going north we come to the French border. Further north is Belgium, a country sandwiched between France and Holland, with those speaking French in the South, The Netherlands or Northern Lands to the north. Germany is to the East.

Tell Me About Essen
Now there's a new place to add to the old favourites.
Essen. Essen is not familiar to those who live in England, but it's easy to remember because the German word to eat is essen.  Essen in Belgium is twinned with the town of the same name in Germany! If you go to Essen in Belgium it's a place where you will both eat and drink, Belgian food and drink.

It would be fun to do visit both places named Essen on the same or subsequent trips. Lots of opportunities for punning captions to photos: "Here we are, fressen in Essen."

Fressen sounds like German, or Yiddish, which is mostly German with the occasional Hebrew word) Snacking in Essen. I checked. Wiktionary says: From Yiddish פֿרעסן (fresn) or German fressen (“to devour, gobble”), from Middle High ... fress (third-person singular simple present fresses, present participle ...)

Travelling To And Through Belgium
Belgium is a country I have often crossed, usually by car, occasionally by train or coach, on my travels going from England to Europe. Where is Essen? Essen is on the Northern border of Belgium. Essen is in the middle of the border going east from the coast, or west from central Europe. Essen is north from Brussels, in the twelve o'clock position.

The train passes through it as well. The next train station stop going north from Essen in Belgium is a town in the Netherlands.

Biking Race and Contest
If you are into cycling, The Grand Prix Rouwmoer is a cyclo-cross race held in December, which is part of the BPost Bank Trophy. Cyclo-cross racing can be in the town or countryside or both and involves meeting obstacles, dismounting and carrying your bike across. More challenging for the participants, more fun for the supporters and observers.

Learning Belgian Languages and Spotting Signs
Now that I remember the country's layout, geography, it's easier to guess that you might find more people speaking French in the south, and more speaking Dutch or Flemish, going north or east. Flemish and Dutch sound like a softer version of German, less clearing your throat with the CH sound familiar from the Scottish words Loch Lomond, and more pursing your mouth to make oo sounds.

Belgium's Bilingual Signs
Belgium is the place where you see signs in two or three languages. I remember driving along looking for a place name in French, missing the turning. I soon realized that Gent was Ghent. It took a look at a map for me to recognize that place names in Flemish and French, Gent and Gand, were both the same place, the one we wanted.

I had been looking at Duolingo and wondering which language to learn next. Belgium is a great country for brushing up your schooldays French or German or adding Dutch to your existing smattering of languages.

Belgium For Fun

A popular Belgian books series features Asterix and this one is set in Belgium. You can buy it from Amazon before your visit.

Let's Be Serious
Where next? Also in Belgium, a huge number of wartime sights and museums and trails.
If you are into recent history, where Dad and Granddad were sent in WW1 and WWII, Flanders Fields is the place to go. With the centenary of the 1914-18 war, all the places with connections have made maps and routes and enhanced museums and visitor experiences.

If you are into literature, you will recall the words, "In Flanders' fields the poppies grow, between the crosses, row on row ..." by a Canadian soldier, written at a funeral in WWI and now repeated on Memorial Day, a Monday in May, in the USA.

Belgian Food
Marks and Spencer in the UK and worldwide sell Belgian chocolates at Christmas time and all year. Belgian chocolates are renowned for their soft, smooth milk chocolate, and their brittle dark chocolate formed into unusual shapes. You can visit chocolate factories and go to speciality (the online dictionary seems to like a word which to me sounds like an Americanism, Specialty) chocolate shops in Belgium.

Belgium For Food
Belgium is known for chips which you can buy from stalls, like fish and chips in the seasides of England. This meal or snack will keep you going on your travels, when either driving or walking. To keep warm, instead of cakes, try hot waffles. The French for waffle is gaufre. I thought I had also seen gaufrette. You can buy big ones or small ones.

Belgian Beer

Beer

Belgium is to beer what France is to wine; it is home to one of the greatest beer traditions in the world. Like other European countries in medieval times, beers were brewed in a huge variety of ways with many different ingredients. In addition to the standard ingredients of water, malted barley, hops and yeast, many herbs and spices were also used. This activity was often done in monasteries, each developing a particular style. For some reason, uniquely in Belgium many of these monasteries survived almost into modern times, and the process was handed over to a local commercial brewer if the monastery closed. These brewers would often augment the recipe and process slightly to soften the taste to make it more marketable, but the variety survived in this way. These beers are called Abbey beers and there are hundreds and hundreds with a range of complex tastes unimaginable until you've tried them. 

The Trappist label is controlled by international law, similar to that of Champagne in France. There are only six Trappist Abbeys in Belgium that produce beer qualified to be called Trappist. In order to carry the Trappist label, there are several rules that must be adhered to during the brewing process. The beer must be fermented within the walls of the abbey, the monks of the abbey must be involved in the beer-making process, and profit from the sale of the beer must be directed towards supporting the monastery (similar to a non-profit organization).

Belgium offers an incredible diversity of beers. Several well known mass-produced Belgian beers are Stella Artois, Duvel, Leffe, Jupiler, Hoegaarden. The names given to some beers are pretty imaginative: eg Verboden Vrucht (Forbidden Fruit), Mort Subite (Sudden Death), De Kopstoot (Head Butt), Judas and Delirium Tremens. 

Warmly recommended are also Kriek (sweet and sour cherry beer) and, for the Christmas season, Stille Nacht (Silent night).

Plain blond draughts (4%-5,5%): Stella Artois, Jupiler, Maes, Cristal, Primus, Martens, Bavik.

Trappist ales (5%-10%): Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westvleteren, Westmalle.

Geuze: Belle-Vue, the lambic Mort Subite (Sudden Death), Lindemans in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Timmermans, Boon, Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, Oud Beersel, Giradin, Hanssens, De Troch.

White beers: Hoegaarden, Dentergemse, Brugse Witte.

Jenever

The city of Hasselt is well known in Belgium for a local alcoholic beverage, called jenever. It is a rather strong liquor, but it comes in all kinds of tastes beyond your imagination, including, but not limited to, vanilla, apple, cactus, kiwi, chocolate and much more. Hasselt lies in the east of Belgium, and is about one hour away by train from Brussels or Antwerp.

Pubs

Pubs, or cafés, are widespread. They all have a large variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic, hot and cold beverages. Some serve food, others don't. Some might specialize in beer, or wine, or cocktails, or something else. Since 2011, smoking in pubs has been forbidden by law.

Souvenirs and Gifts

In the old days I preferred to purchase permanent souvenirs for myself and others. After all, food and drink will be finished in a week or two. Now that so many people have houses full of clutter and travel souvenirs, some are happy to have food and drink instead.

Buying Gifts
After that I gave gift recipients a choice. Would you prefer something with lace or something to eat? For people who have everything, or whose tastes you don't know, Belgian food can be a good gift.

Once you have acquired a taste for Belgian types of foods and specific brands, you will be able to track them down in supermarkets around the world. In both UK and Singapore supermarkets we have found Belgian biscuits with nuts, suitable for eating with coffee or topped with cheese.

Belgian Towns In Three Languages
Brussels
Antwerp (nl: Antwerpen; fr: Anvers)
(fr: Bruxelles; nl: Brussel; de: Brüssel)
Bruges (nl: Brugge) (West Flanders)
Essen (Flemish region, Antwerp province)
Ghent (nl: Gent, fr: Gand) (East Flanders)
Liège (nl: Luik)
Mons (nl, de: Bergen) (Hainaut)
Ostend (nl: Oostende; fr/de: Ostende) (West Flanders)
Ypres (nl: Ieper) (West Flanders)

Dates For Your Diary
16 Dec - 17 Dec 2017 Beer Festival in Flanders at Essen, Belgium.

14 Oct - 15 Oct

Jenever Festival, Hasselt ...

18 Oct - 22 Oct

Amsterdam Dance Event ...

28 Oct - 29 Oct

Poperinge beer festival
Dec 2018 Beer Festival in Essen, Flanders, Belgium.

You are so near the border with The Netherlands, that you might as well pop across at least for a coffee.

BELGIUM

FLANDERS

ESSEN

UK Government Advice to travellers
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/festival-travel-checklist

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Armistice Day in England and statue in Seaham of Tommy

The Great War, The Somme. The peace treaty was signed at 5 am, arranged after a secret meeting in Southern England at what is now Port Lympne Safari park. Cease fire was not until the 11th hour of the 11 day of the 11th month and sadly some people died after the ceasefire had already been agreed.

Commemorations are taking place for the centenary of the 1914-18 war in many of the countries involved, especially in Normandy, France and in Flanders, Belgium.

In London, England, there is a minute of silence nationwide and a parade of veterans in London. Wreaths are placed at the Cenotaph.

In 2014 we had a sea of red porcelain poppies in the moat in The Tower of London.

My favourite photograph this year if of pebbled painted red and placed in the pattern of a copy at the feet of the statue of Tommy (nickname for any soldier), in Seaham, County Durham, England.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g315931-d6925619-Reviews-or10-World_War_One_Soldier_Sculpture-Seaham_County_Durham_England.html#REVIEWS
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37951771?post_id=10155595000985597_10157727971990597#_=_ (Armistice Day in pictures including one of Tommy statue and red painted poppies)
The best picture worldwide was the red poppies in Sydney Opera House, Australia
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Food From Flanders: Brussels, Bruges, Magritte, McCrae and more

I have been reading through a book on Flanders food which I picked up from the Flanders stand at the World Travel Market. Before throwing it away, I thought I'd check out interesting foods. Alas, I've now decided I must keep the large format book on my already cluttered kitchen shelves. But I've made a list of the places to visit and foods to try, for my own benefit, and you might find it interesting and useful, planning a trip to Belgium or just around your local supermarket.

Bruges in West Flanders

BRUGES

DRINK
Poperinge Hop Museum

FOOD SAVOURY
Meat
Kortrijkse bil
Salted veal.
I have heard of salt beef but not salted veal.

FOOD SWEET
Ypres Honey
Honey is known as liquid gold.

Chocolate
If you don't want to eat it, just buy it, Belgium has many chocolate shops.
Here's one:
Chocolatier Sukerbuyc make pralines from a 'secret' recipe.
Surely the word Suker is sugar. Is that deliberate?
ww.sukerbuyc.be

The Ten Best Bruges Restaurants
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurants-g188671-Bruges_West_Flanders_Province.html

SIGHTSEEING
If you feel the urge to walk off those calories, try the Bruges World Heritage City walk:
www.visitbruges.be

If the phrase 'In Flanders Fields' rings a bell, it comes from the WWI poet John McCrae, a Canadian physician (in the UK we would say doctor). In Canada you can see a memorial to him at his birthplace, Guelph. This photo is from Wikipedia which has a full article on the poet and details of the photograph. The poem uses the phrase three times, in the first line, (In Flanders Fields the poppies grow ... ) in the middle and at the end, the last three words. Plus, of course, the title.

• In Flanders Fields Museum
• www.inflandersfields.be

Poperinge Hop Museum
www.hopmuseum.be
visitbruges.be

BRUSSELS
"The capital of Europe"

DRINK

Brewery

www.brasseriedelasenne.be

FOOD

BISCUITS
S p e c u l o o s biscuits spiced biscuits are available from
Maison Dandy
www.maisondandoy.com
Wikipedia has a long article and pictures.

Speculaas (Dutch: Speculaas Dutch pronunciation: [speːkyˈlaːs], French: spéculoos, German: Spekulatius) is a type of spiced shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on or just before St Nicholas' feast in the Netherlands (December 5), Belgium (December 6), and around Christmas in the western and southern parts of Germany. Speculaas are thin, very crunchy, caramelized, slightly browned and, most significantly, have some image or figure (often from the traditional stories about St. Nicholas) stamped on the front side before baking; the back is flat.

Speculaas dough does not rise much. Dutch and Belgian versions are baked with light brown (sometimes beet) sugar and baking powder. German Spekulatius uses baker's ammonia as leavening agent. Indian, Indonesian, Mediterranean spices used in speculaas are cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and white pepper were common in the 1400-1500's due to the Dutch East Indies spice trade. Family recipes may also include other small amounts of spices like anise, etc. Traditionally, speculaas were made from Frisian flour and spices. The name speculoos was coined for Belgian wheat flour cookies with hardly any spices. Today most Speculaas versions are made from white (wheat) flour, brown sugar, butter and spices. Some varieties use some almond flour and have slivered almonds embedded in the bottom. Belgian Speculoos varieties use much less or no spice.

CHOCOLATE

Most of the chocolate factory tours seem to be in Brussels, (with one in T o u r n a i)

http://www.visitbelgium.com/?page=chocolate-lovers.

SIGHTSEEING

Magritte Museum (Museum of Fine Arts)

www.museum-magritte-museum.be
One of the best museum websites I've seen. Shows clearly that the collection is huge, three floors of Magritte paintings. You can click on icons across the top of the website for each floor. Then clock on the pictures of groups of paintings in different areas of the map to make the pictures of the paintings bigger.

I read through the Wikipedia account of Magritte's life. Horrified to learn that his mother committed suicide and was found drowned, and that Magritte's pantings of people with missing faces could be attributed to the impact on him of this event. I was further unhappy to read that he and his family were involved in forging paintings and banknotes. But if you investigate the lives of famous people, just like infamous people, and ordinary people, you often find tragedies and questionable morals. If you are put off an artist or writer by the subject matter, its origins, or the lifestyle of the author, you would cease to enjoy art, literature and music. I hope I have not upset anybody by revealing this and drawing attention to it.

If you are still a keen fan of Magritte, the grave of Magritte and his wife is in a cemetery alongside the Brussels Cemetery. Although nothing spectacular about the gravestone, it could provide a point of interest on your travels.

The graves and battlefields of Flanders are also hardly jolly, but they mesmerise us a century later. So enjoy your search through history, and recover your equilibrium and jollity with Flanders food.

• Musical Instruments Museum, Brussels, Belgium www.mim.be
• Magritte Museum (Museum of Fine Arts) www.musee-magritte-museum.be
• Brasserie De La Senne (Brewery) www.brasseriedelasenne.be
• www.visitflanders.com/en/themes/belgian-beer

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, researcher, author and speaker.

Food in Flanders, Belgium: Antwerp area's beer, cheese, chocolate and spicy pastries

Antwerp in Belgium is a port city which has been known for centuries for diamonds and Belgian beer but now is promoting favourite fresh foods and flavours.

Brussels is the big bustling capital; Bruges is known for pretty bridges; but to keep things easy, let's look at the cities in alphabetical order.

ANTWERP

To sum up what you will find in Antwerp: drinking beer from or buy local beer glasses, try herb l i q u e u r, follow a chocolate trail, sit tasting cheese at a cheese and wine bar, walk a culinary trail, or get up and go cycling the soldiers of the Great War trail. These foods are from Antwerp or the Antwerp province and you will find them in Belgium and exported to other countries - maybe in your local supermarket in London, Singapore or the USA.

FOOD
Culinary walks Antwerp www.culinaireandelingen.be
The Chocolate Line   Antwerp www.thechocolateline.be
Mokatine - coffee flavoured sweet. They sell eight flavours of toffee /caramel sweets in a wrapper, as well as other treats such as marzipan.
www.roodthoft.be

Here's a Mokatine recipe for a Mokatine cake with coffee buttercream, which seems quite tricky as the temperature is critical:
http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/mokatine-coffee-cake-recipe

Belgian BiscuitsAntwerp produces Boileke and handjes.

Lier vlaaike
Round raised pastry, like a half height muffin, with a dark brown pastry top and a white base or low cup and with filling of breadcrumbs, milk, syrup and spice,  four spices, with a spicy aroma.
The name Lierse is protected so if the product is called Lierse it should come from Lier bakers affiliated to the 'Orde van het Lierse Vlaaike", using the standard recipe. The outside dough is water, butter and flour. The mould is 5 cm in diameter and 2.5 cm high.

DRINK
www.elixir-danvers.be

SIGHSEEING
Cycling in the footsteps of the soldiers of the Great War Kempen  (Kapellen Brasschaat) www.spoorfletsen.be

visitantwerpen.be
The letters be on the end of the website name stand for Belgium.

More Regional Foods
Saffron
Saffron, grown in the province, sold in a little round tin.
www.belgischesaffraan.be

Caviar
In a similar looking round silver metal tin, from Royal Belgian Caviar as the label says.
www.royalbelgiancaviar.be

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.

Chocolate Hotels and Factory Visits

England has a chocolate hotel. Belgium has a chocolate hotel.

England's Factory tours and shops

England has chocolate factory tours and workshops. you can visit a chocolate factory in Birmingham and a chocolate maker in York. Or stay at a chocolate hotel. In fact you could do a chocolate tour of England.


















European Chocolate Factories

Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate, Brusssels.

http://www.visitflanders.com/en/themes/belgian_chocolate/chocolate-experience

Switzerland has a chocolate factory tour, Alprose. Plus a few more.

Chocolate Hotels

tp://www.thechocolateboutiquehotel.co.uk/

Chocolate hotels - my latest find in Flanders

Which countries to you associate with wonderful chocolates? Britain with Cadbury's Milk Tray and Rowntrees of York, and Fry's Turkish Delight, and Malteezers from Mars, and Thorntons. America with Hersheys.  Switzerland has creamy Lindt sold world-wide (and I went round the Alprose factory).  Belgium has individual quirky chocolate shops in fancy shapes and Guylian.

A guesthouse in Flanders has rooms with names like Smarties.

http://www.visitflanders.com/en/themes/belgian_chocolate/chocolate-experience

Remembrance War, Peace, Pacifist Memorials to visit UK, Europe, USA & Worldwide & Pacifist Memorial

Armistice Day has been observed since 1919. Traditionally at the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month. Nowadays you can hear the haunting sounds of the Last Post play every night at the Menin Gate in Belgium. Visit graves and memorials to the Great War battles. Glance at plaques as you pass through London underground and overground railway stations. Worldwide, join a jolly tour plunging into the water on a boat which was used in the D-day landings, as I did in New York and Philadelphia. Or simply join me touring the world as an armchair traveller through time.

Permanent Memorials
UK
Town Memorials
Most towns and village have war memorials, often in the middle of the town square. I can't list them all because there are more than 100,000.
www.greatwar.co.uk/organizations/war-memorials-trust

School Memorials
Lists of the fallen are on the walls of schools, such as Harrow School.

Transport Memorials
A memorial to members of London Transport is on Baker Street station. Take the Bakerloo south. Another memorial is at the arched entrance-exit of Waterloo station, Britain's biggest station.

London
Cenotaph, Whitehall, London.

London landmarks include the Polish war memorial. Go along the Western Avenue from the Target Roundabout. It's near RAF Northolt, which probably explains the location.

Museums:
RAF museum, Hendon.
Imperial War Museum, London. (This is where the ceramic poppies (originally placed around the Tower of London) will end up after touring.
Churchill War rooms, under London.

England
National Arboretum, Staffordshire, UK. Includes the Shot At Dawn memorial.
www.thenma.org.uk

Scotland
Edinburgh, monument at Edinburgh's Waverley Station. In 2014 a plaque was unveiled at Glasgow's Central Station.

Wales
Welsh National War Memorial, Cardiff.

France
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, under the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.

Belgium
Flanders
Menin Gate. Ypres.
In Flanders Fields museum, Ypres, Blegium.

Temporary - Armchair Travellers View These Online
Red poppies, ceramic, surrounding the Tower of London. One poppy for each person who died, UK and colonial (Commonwealth?) countries. 2014 until November.

Recurrent Annual Events
Remembrance Armistice Day
London. Wreath laying by the British royal family and members of parliament at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Two minutes of silence.
Parade.
Playing of last post.

Scotland
Edinburgh
Parade in Royal Mile on Remembrance Day.

Preserved Planes
Planes - spitfire at Bentley Priory, Stanmore, Middlesex.

Preserved Boats
You can take a tourist trip on WWII duck boats (amphibious vehicles on water and on land in WWIII) in the USA (New York and Philadelphia), London, and Singapore, and elsewhere, depending on weather.

Memorial in France.
Wikipedia.

Worldwide Sites
Australia: ANZAC memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney. Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne.
Bangladesh
Brazil
Canada: Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa.
China
Czeck Republic.
Egypt: El Alamein cemetery, along the coast west of Cairo.
Gibraltar. American monument (arch with names). Outdoors. Accessible all year.
India. Bombay (Mumbai). India Gate.
Israel. Yad Vashem.
Italy
Japan (controversial)
Malaysia: War memorial looks like the American flag raising Iwo Jima, created by the same sculptor.
Netherlands
New Zealand
Philippines: Manila American War Memorial and Cemetery.
Poland. Warsaw Ghetto. Auschwitz.
Portugal
Russia
Scotland: Spean Bridge Commando memorial.
Singapore: Kranji.
South Africa
Spain: Valley of the Fallen, near Madrid. (Valle de los Caidos.)
Turkey: Gallipoli.
UK Madingley American Cemetery, Cambridge. www.madingleyamericancemteryinfo
Runnymede Air Forces Memorial, Coopers Hill Lane, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey. Tel 01784 433329. See Tripadvisor. wiki commonwealth_war_graves_memorials
Ukraine: Babi Yar, near Kiev.
USA: Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, USA. Gettysburg.
American Battle Monuments Commission abmc warmemorialsandcemeteries

Heritage Plaques

Cemeteries with Memorials
El Alamein, Egypt

I am updating this post and will add more during today and later.

More Information From:
www.findagrave
www.wikipedia Somme
www.wikipedia war_memorials

You can do tours of Belgium and France which will help you visit the grave of your ancestor or the wall where their name is inscribed.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.