this is the end

Here's a wrap-up on the vacation photos. After bidding goodbye to all the gnomes, dwarves, etc. in Houffalize, we cruised through picturesque Roche en Ardenne, which had a lot of Battle of the Bulge commemorative stuff all over the place.

Nice river.
Nice castle. There's supposed to be a ghost in it.
This is a pate d'Ardenne sandwich. I don't know what makes it Ardenne pate but it was deeply piggy and had sliced eggs on it.
Oops, put these in the wrong place. This was from our room in the village of Blaugies, home of the Blaugies brewery. It was killing me that Crims was on but it was DUBBED into French

taxidermy in Roche en Ardenne
Then we got to Blaugies, and our B and B operator was nowhere to be found. So we hung out on the back porch with the best cat ever, Pollix! Sorry Babs, this cat was the best. And you wonder why she has issues?
The Blaugies brewery has a nice restaurant in town.
Phallic pork sausage. So good.
Also, awesome steak and of course a boatload of fries
They cook the meat on a grill in the middle of the restaurant.

Here's the Blaugies brewer. He used to be a gym teacher. Their Saison and and Moneuse on draft were unbelievably good. Phenomenal. Totally different than in the bottle. We told the brewer and he said, "you know what they say-there are two things in life that you can't understand-yeast and women!". Har. What about women with yeast infections? I didn't ask him that.

The next day we went to the Dupont brewery in Tourpes.
They have a sick little bar. It was pretty empty.
They don't serve food, but Dupont makes cheese. Dupont also makes bread but we didn't see any for sale and the bartender laughed when we tried to order a cheese sandwich off the menu. Belgian businesses are a mystery.
I don't know why this is sideways! It wasn't when I was uploading it. Fuck, I'm sure you've all stopped reading by now, but we went to this cafe in Denderleeuw, which is pretty close to Brussels. It's called De Heeren van Liedekercke. It's in beer guidebooks because it's famous for its beer and wine list. It is totally worth a visit! Great food, charming little place, amazing beer list. They'll let you buy stuff to go, too. Long story short, this is a potato gratin with Orval cheese and beer and ground meat!!!!! I'm hungry.
They have a lot of aged Orvals, I bought a five year to go for cheap. Aging Orval is this deal in Belgium. Maybe I'll write about it sometime. I want to buy a case of it and age it. I took this picture because you could see the dirt and dust on it.
Then, we went back to Gooik because De Cam Geuzestekery was open. De Cam makes gueuze and kriek but they don't export to the U.S.

De Cam was the only place we ever got our drinks in the traditional ceramic crocks. Most people just serve it in glassware now, of course. Their kriek was unbelievable. Really intense cherry flavor.

The gueuze was really good. I am running out of adjectives. Good great awesome
Here's their glassware. We couldn't get our paws on a glass to bring home, alas.

Now I'm skipping. This is back at Moeder Lambic in Brussels, the one in St. Gilles. They make this cheese snack called Pottekeis that is traditionally paired with gueuze. It has soft white cheese and lots of spring onions in it.

Flea market in Brussels
We went back to Cantillon, but just to have a bottle of brew, not to take the tour. This brew Mamouche was made with elderflowers and it was delicious and wonderfully vegetal. We could not find any to bring home.

We ate lunch in the Middle Eastern part of Brussels again. At this place, we picked out raw seafood and they fried it for us.
This was like the world's best sloppy joe. Those are green olives.

Here's the view from our terrace in the Ukkle area of Brussels. This is a secret back area that you can't see from the street.

Fantome beer
Another special Cantillon beer
Last meal in Brussels-Tunisian lamb and couscous
That's all foks