The Pink Elephant in the Cafe

Sunny Grand Place

Day #8 – Chimay – Couvin – Charleroi – Brussels
Number of Miles Cycled Today – 10.3
Number of Total Miles Cycled – 166.3
Number of Miles Traveled – 5,095.5

Who doesn’t like elephants? Today we met one, a pink elephant. This also marked our final group ride. It was also our shortest. From the sparsely population of Chimay, we headed easily over ten early morning miles over rolling hills to Couvin, our final cycling destination.

I Didn’t See this Rock Turn

Nothing positive could really be said about Couvin. Busy, dirty, it was the New Mexico of Belgium. It’s claim to fame was that Hitler commanded his troops for three weeks in 1940 at a nearby spot.

We left our loyal orange bikes with the rest of the group to be picked up by REM Bike Evasion. Jason, Tom, and I on the other hand caught a train to Brussels via Charleroi. Belgium doesn’t have the reliable, frequent train service one would find in France, so we couldn’t dawdle around, otherwise we may have had to stay the night in Charleroi. I’d rather share a room with both Peppers for a night.

From Gare Central, I waddled with my light weight backpack on my back, carrying a folded up bike trailer that proved to be useless in one hand, and a baby blue Igloo cooler full of beer in the other. Each offset the weight of the other as I trudged to Easy Hotel. Easy Hotel falls under the same umbrella as Easy Jet. Easy Jet is renowned for the additional fees for seating, bags, flight changes and booking. You want to bring a suitcase, $25 pounds. Fortunately at Easy Hotel, I didn’t have to pay for toilet paper, soap, pillow, or a bed. It was included! Honestly, the room was surprisingly spectacular. Clean, economical, and modern. I’d stay there again.

This trip revolved around riding to as many Belgian breweries as possible in a week. My ultimate goal was Westvleteren, and I acquired those in Dinant. I thought I fortuitously pulled off the biggest steal in Dinant. You can imagine my surprise when walking around Grand Place and every bottle shop sold Westvleteren. It cost quite a bit more, but it was easily accessible and also came with an Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren wooden crate. There wasn’t a crate in Dinant. The crate was tempting but considering my cooler and bike trailer wrapped in a tarp, the crate would have to wait.

Hard to Find Westvleteren? Not in Brussels!

Striking out on my own, I moved from the sun drenched Grand Place to Délirium Café. You may recognize Délirium Tremens beer as the tan bottle with a pink elephant gracing the label. The Pink Elephant inspired cafe was a multi-level, patrons drink all times of the day type of bar. Large beer barrels turned on their sides populated the floor upon entering at street level. Délirium Café offers every imaginable beer you could imagine. The Guinness World Record supports this claim with a certificate. That makes it official. The Guinness World Records’ certificate stated that Délirium Café had the “most varieties of beer commercially available was 2,004 . . . when counted on 9 January 2004.” Just to outdo their 2004 self, they now claim to have the most beers available on site at 3,162. When I came in late afternoon, the place was busy. When I would return later in the early evening with Jason and Tom, the stream of humanity was steadily building into a flood.

I met Jason and Tom at Bombay Inn Indian Restaurant, home of Belgium’s spiciest curry. When I eat Indian food, Thai food, or anything remotely spicy, I request the spicy level formulated for a two year old’s palette. Yet for the two Yankees across the table, they ordered their tikka masala at the “downtown Calcutta” spice level. I sniffled across the table nursing my yellow curry and naan bread as they tore into theirs.

A Cherry Lambic at Mort Subite

Further down the road, we left the Indian subcontinent and returned to Belgium’s A La Mort Subite (French for “sudden death”) to conduct less spicy gastronomical research. We sampled their Gueuze beer. Gueuze beer is a fermented, wheat Lambic beer that takes years to brew in various beer barrels. We tried a few, but quickly decided to return to the festive confines and atmosphere of Délirium Café. By the end of the night, Jason, Tom, and I met and shared stories with a guy from Malawi well-versed in the 90’s Chicago Bulls, two friends from London taking a quick weekend getaway, probably arrived on Easy Jet, and an Army guy stationed in Stuttgart, Germany who just earned his Doctorate. So, if you want to meet the world in Brussels, follow the Pink Elephant to Délirium Café, that would be a great place to start.

Délirium Café

Sadly, this had been our last day of cycling in Belgium. Tomorrow, everyone would return to Brussels Airport in order to return to the United States or take a side trip to Iceland. We now concluded our preliminary research of Belgian beers. Yet for the study to be thorough, a return at a future date would be necessary.

Previous Stop: Dinant – Givet, France – Mariembourg, Belgium – Chimay

Next Stop: Day #9 – Brussels, Belgium – Reykjavik, Iceland – Minneapolis, USA

Brussels Central Train Station

That's Some Hot Red Curry!

Hard to Find Westvleteren? Not in Brussels!

A Little Westmalle

Brussels

Délirium Café

Au Revoir Chimay

Sunny Grand Place

Fancy Beer Packing in an Igloo Cooler

Now You Know the Wifi Password at Délirium Café

A Cherry Lambic at Mort Subite

I Didn't See this Rock Turn