Belgium Beer Festival. Grand Place, Brussels

A last minute trip arranged to Brussels for the annual beer festival held in the Grand Place. When we got there, we found fantastic surroundings and great weather for drinking the world's best beers. OK, so the photo shows us taking some time out for a fruity detour from the regular stuff, but they do make some very lovely beer over there. And not a drop of Stella to be seen the whole time we were there. I managed to spend the weekend drinking only beers that I had never tried before. Not that I can now remember any of their names. The Lambics were the most interesting, the coconut the best of the fruits and the ambers and bruns were just plain delicious.

We had an early start to get there - me coming from Cambridge, Dan and Becka from South London. The Eurostar from St Pancras was smooth and pleasant and we got into Brussels at noon. Brussels is a tiny city, easy to navigate and friendly. Pissing in the street seems to be the norm but apart from the lingering smell, I have no other complaint about the place.

We stayed at Le Plaza, a grand hotel just ten minutes from the Grand Place. Apart from slowly working our way around the four sides of the square's beer stalls we went to see the Manneken Pis getting a change of costume and cruised the streets just like proper tourists. Food for the day consisted of frites with mayo, some delicious escargot, and some wonderful chocolates, of course. In the evening we had a novel Ethiopian meal before getting back to the square for the last beers of the day at the festival. Then back to the hotel to find that the bar there closes early. I was so tired (not drunk, surely) that I fell asleep in front of the hotel TV.

It's always a pleasure to spend time with Dan and Becka and they make for great travelling partners - enthusiastic, happy, easy going and always on the look out for trying something new to try. On the train back home we were even making plans to travel to India together.

I know I will be back for this beer festival next year and with a bit more planning I will organise to spend the whole weekend there and to bring more friends. I know they have other beer festivals in Belgium but given the amazing setting of the Grand Place, surely there can't be any that are more enjoyable than this.