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.
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.
