The Coopers' German Adventure!: Long overdue post #1

Ok, so I know we said that we were going to be better about updating our blog after our severe procrastination last time around, but again, we failed…..haha. Sorry! In our defense, we have been extremely busy and all over the place lately. In the time since we last updated the blog we have been on four separate trips throughout Germany, Belgium, and Italy. In addition to those trips, I have gone back to the US twice (once for Ian’s graduation, and once for a class for work), and Andrea went home for two weeks to visit family, friends, and meet our new nephew Thomas.

Well that’s enough whining……on to wonderful beer filled Belgium!

Back in early April, we had planned on going up to Rudesheim, Germany and going on a 2 day hike with Toni and Warren. The weather wasn’t supposed to be good, so travel agent Toni mentioned that she had another little trip all laid out. She said that it involved relaxation, beer, and cool little towns. All three are high up on our “trip must have” lists. After we found a hotel that had rooms, we were on our way to Belgium. The two towns that we visited were Durbuy and Dinant. Durbuy is a pretty neat little touristy town, with lots of narrow alleyways, restaurants, and a small castle. It was a pretty cool little town, but we actually found more to do in Dinant. Andrea and I hadn’t been introduced to the world of Belgian Beer until this trip. Toni and Warren said that it was amazing and that they were sure we would like it. They were right! Turns out that Dinant is the home of Leffe. For those that don’t know about Leffe, it is an Abbey Ale. That means that they don’t actually brew the beer at the Leffe Abbey (if it was brewed at the Abbey by the monks, it would be called a Trappist Beer). It is actually commercially brewed at the Stella Artois brewery in Leuven, which is just outside of Brussels.

After wandering around the little down town area and making the climb up to the citadel at the top of the hill, we decided to go to the Leffe Café and give it a shot. It was absolutely delicious! I think it ranks right up there with the best German beer that we have had since we have been here. After a little relaxing, we decided to take a walk over the bridge that was right next to the café. I’m really glad we did that! We found a tourist information stand right on the other side, so we wandered in to see if there was anything that we were missing in the town. Turns out there is a Leffe Museum that we almost missed out on……..and it’s just down the road. We made our way over and took the tour. This tour was a little bit better than most beer tours. We got a free drink, and a glass at the end!

After the museum, we made out way back to Durbuy for the night and headed back to Germany the next day.

We did make a little pitstop on the way home though. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stock out shelves with some delicious Leffe, Chimay, Ciney, and Durbuy beers! No…..the beer in the picture wasn’t all ours, so don’t judge us!. Only half of it was ours. Toni and Warren had to stock up too!