'We really need to head out again for a night on the town in a different country, and we really should not wait the whole year for this' my friend said out of the blue in a totally random situation. Well come on, having an offer like that is something not to refuse right?
I didn't have to think long about this offer, so packed our bags, hit the car and just drove to a random Belgian city. It ended up being in the city of Gent, but this could have been any other city as well.
Had I ever been in Gent? Well, I wasn't entirely sure anymore, so regardless if that was the case or was not, it was time to head out and go do some exploring. We decided to make it a Belgian beer trip!
Because that is to me what Belgian cities are always a lot about (don't kill me for this, my friendly neighbors, this is a compliment!!). Belgium has good beers and excellent places to hang out and have these beers in. Gent was no exception to this.
But where to go in all of these pubs and breweries? I found the option to do this guided tour just on local pubs but that was a little bit too much if you ask me. As in...I also like the freedom of moving on again when it is boring, or staying longer if the place is good.
So on this site on tours we found an option of doing a walk in the historical centre, but also checking out some pubs in there as well. Perfect for the inspiration!
tourisme-leienstreek.be
There was absolutely zero point in doing this whole especially from the random point where we started. And the first place we ran into was brewery Artevelde where we did this nice tasting.
The beer is brewn here in the city centre and that makes it kind of cool. I didn't go inside to check out the brewey because it was super decent weeather and it felt like spring for the first time. Gotta take in all the outside air that is possible after this really grey winter, right?
There was a choice from a regular lager, a blonde beer, a dark beer and a superstrong blonde beer. Honestly I have to say, they were all super nice and I would literally try a bigger glass from all of them!
From there on the city walk turned a bit into a city stroll and there were literally so many options to choose from (but it was also quite crowded I have to admit in the city) that we just went inside this next random small place which had a spot available.
Here we had one of the classic Tongerlo beers which never get's old. I liked the small place for a bit and we stayed here for quite some time. It was a good idea not to go with the guided tour because this place surely would not have been featured in there, but also it would have been time to pass on through again. And that would have been a pity, because these small gems..those are the ones you want to have!
Did I mention snacks and food along the way? What about these nice and savoury Corqino's which is like a big toasty filled with yummie stuff?
I was blown away by this snack attack which also had a cool feature in the menu where a beer and a wine pairing was suggested by your toasty. Sweet marketing guys, I fell for it!
I would totally say yay to this on any given day. The old city of Gent is classic, the food options are cool and the beer options even cooler!
