Beer Tour of Belgium – Day 6: Chimay, Maredsous, Rochefort November 19, 2009
Posted by pinchaque in 101 Things, Adventures in Beer, Beer Tour of Belgium.Tags: beer, belgium, chimay, maredsous, rochefort
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Chimay
After a tough day on Tuesday we set off first thing to drive to Chimay, near the French border. This is probably the best known of the Trappist beers so I felt we had to make the trek down there even though it was a 60+ minute drive towards an abbey I was pretty sure we couldn’t tour. Needless to say, my hopes were not high.
Flowers outside Chimay Abbey
It was a a little gray and rainy as we made our way southwest amidst green fields and trees. Heading the other direction on one of the highways was a protest procession of large trucks. You hear about all the disgruntled workers in Europe and it was interesting to see them in action!
Chimay abbey driveway
Welcome to Chimay!
The Scourmont Abbey of Chimay was a simple building that frowned upon tourists. The real gem, however, was the Auberge de Poteaupre located just a mile away. We passed this humble building on the way to the abbey and noted its Chimay signage. I had personally discounted it as a bad souvenir shop but Amanda fortunately forced us to stop.
Auberge de Poteaupre
We didn’t know it at the time, but the Auberge was the official tasting room for the abbey. The inside was elegantly furnished with wooden booths, antique beer memorabilia, and large bottles of Chimay. The tasting room looked out upon a beautiful green field that even had a swingset for the kids.
View outside at Auberge de Poteaupre
Chimay memorabilia
We got there right at opening time so we had the place to ourselves. Chimay is known around the world for their three beers: Rouge, Bleue, and Blanche. However, at the auberge, they also serve a special beer that’s typically only available for the monks themselves: Chimay Doree. This is a lighter beer of only 4.8% alcohol but has a wonderful spiciness and crispness similar to a saison.
Chimay beer at Auberge Poteaupre
I ordered a Chimay Blanche (their triple-style) on draft, and it was richer and more luscious than any time I’d had it in the U.S.. Along with these beers we ordered a tasting plate of abbey cheese. They were all a little on the pungent side, but absolutely delicious. It was great to be able to try all the abbey products in one place, which definitely made the trip there worthwhile.
Fighter jet in middle of traffic circle
Maredsous
Our next stop was the Maredsous abbey, also well known in the U.S.. This was an interesting stop because of the contrast to the other abbeys we had visited: it was touristy. There were tour buses parked outside, a large visitor center, and hundreds of German tourists inside. There were shops selling cheap souvenirs, cheap cafeteria food, and pay-per-use toilets. We got a taster of the three Maredsous beers, which of course were delicious.
Maredsous beer sampler
Maredsous tour busses and dog poop signs
We started a self-guided walking tour of the grounds, reading about the abbey history, and it started to dawn on us: the abbeys are a great scam. The original idea was for them to sell beer locally to support their priestly efforts. But somewhere down the road they realized they could make some serious money doing this. The abbey was beautiful, magnificent, modern, and spotless. They must be rolling in money from the tourism: this was the waning days of their season and the place was still packed.
Maredsous grounds
Maredsous building
Then there’s the beer. It’s not even brewed by the abbey anymore we learned; it is outsourced to Duvel Moortgat. Yes the beer is delicious and Duvel makes other good beers as well (namely, Duvel) but for me at least it pierced the magic to realize that having an “abbey beer” is partly a marketing ploy just to earn money. This was my Wizard of Oz moment.
Fallen leaves at Maredsous
Maredsous church exterior
Maredsous church interior
Disillusionment aside, the Maredsous abbey premises were beautiful and the church impressive. It seemed very modern compare to others we would see on the trip, and allowed access to most of the interior. After snapping pictures we headed off for nearby Floreffe abbey.
Maredsous corridor
Mossy Maredsous arches
Floreffe
Floreffe was another abbey beer that is no longer brewed at the abbey (it is brewed by Lefebvre, whose tavern we had tried to visit the previous day), but it had an entirely different feel from Maredsous.
Floreffe abbey grounds
The abbey itself is tightly integrated into the community. It houses a school, hosts yearly events, and even has an attached tavern where locals drink.
Floreffe abbey from street level
Floreffe abbey grounds
We took a short self-guided tour through the grounds, snapping pictures of the flowers and decrepit buildings in the back.
Decrepit building behind Floreffe
Old building in back of Floreffe abbey
Old building at Floreffe + peacock
The abbey is perched above a river, and we watched barges creep along the water. We had missed the tour of the church, so we headed right for the tavern and quaffed a Floreffe Blonde and Kriek.
Floreffe abbey beers
Both were awesome, and inspired us to buy a Tripel and Brune to take back to the U.S. with us. They also sold goat cheese there, so we bought a chunk of that to eat for breakfast the next day. Overall the Floreffe abbey was a rewarding stop with cool buildings, tasty beer, and a friendly vibe.
Floreffe tavern
River barge near Floreffe
Rochefort
Our final destination for the day was Rochefort, home to another well-known Trappist monastery. On the way we passed through Dinant, with its arabesque church and impressive citadel. Being pressed for time, we pushed on and decided to return the next day for more exploration.
Dinant citadel and church from river level
The roads in to Rochefort were verdant and rolling, with a myriad of cows, corn, and trees. The town itself is rather small but kept up well; I got the impression they get a fair share of tourists over the summer. We stayed at the elegant Hotel La Malle Poste right in the center of town, within easy walking distance to restaurants.
On the road to Rochefort
Carriage house at Hotel La Malle Poste
Dinner that night was, in a word, incredible. I learned that “a la volcan,” while literally translating as “at the volcano,” really means that your steak will be served on a searing-hot piece of slate. It also helped that my steak was topped with a slab of shallot butter nearly as big as the meat itself.
Steak with shallot butter and Rochefort 8
The real winner, however, was Amanda’s steak “a la Trappiste.” In this instance that meant a sauce of beer and cheese made at the local abbey. It was rich and had such amazing depth of flavor that we couldn’t help dipping our fries in it and ended up licking the plate clean.
Saint Monon Au Miel
Rochefort 6
With dinner I had a couple of local brews–Rochefort 6 and 8–and Amanda tried two Saint Monon beers. These had a very unique flavor profile and were new to both of us.
Saint Monon Brune
A triumphant day full of drinking behind us, we rewarded ourselves with some gelato and crashed in our hotel.
I heart gelato
Beers Tasted
Today was a busy day! I tasted:
- Chimay Blanche
- Chimay Doree
- Maredsous 6 Blonde
- Maredsous 8 Brune
- Maredsous 10 Triple
- Floreffe Blonde
- Floreffe Kriek
- Saint Monon Au Miel
- Saint Monon Brune
- Rochefort 6
- Rochefort 8
Total to date for the trip: 39 beers
Silver Strand Half Marathon November 15, 2009
Posted by pinchaque in 101 Things, Running.Tags: coronado, half marathon, performance nutrition, Running, silver strand
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Silver Strand Half Marathon Route
Earlier this year I got inspired by watching the San Diego and Vancouver marathons and decided I needed to run the San Diego Rock & Roll marathon next year. As a first step I ran the Scripps Ranch Old Pros 10k on July 4, 2009. The next big step was to complete the Silver Strand Half Marathon, a course that takes runners from Coronado, down the silver strand, through a loop on a military base, and finally to Imperial Beach.
Training Plan
After having good results at the 10k, I knew I wanted to train reasonably hard for the half marathon. I felt like with all this running I should definitely be in the top half of my sex and age division. Looking at previous results that meant finishing in around 2 hours (9:00 per mile pace), which is also conveniently a nice round number.
Completed half-marathon training plan
I looked at a number of different training plans online to see how I wanted to approach this. I liked the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST) plan because it would have me running only 3 days per week. My knees were hurting when I was training for the 10k so I definitely didn’t want to run more frequently than that. The thing I didn’t like about the FIRST plan was that it lasts 18 weeks and I thought it might be overkill for what I wanted to achieve. So I combined the 3x-per-week aspect with the distances and schedule of Ryan Hall’s plan that I found at RunnersWorld.com. That left me with about 15 weeks of training starting at the beginning of August, including 2 weeks of drinking beer in Belgium (always great for training).
Start line craziness
Eating Right
The other part of training that I wanted to get right was nutrition. Early on I read Performance Nutrition for Runners, which I found to be packed with great information and an excellent reference over the course of my training. Among the most useful parts of the book were helping me to understand what I needed to be consuming during and after my runs as well as what supplements I should take. It also coached me through how to time your eating and bathrooming before the race. It’s impossible to know what it would have been like without following the advice in the book, but I can definitely say the Accelerade kept my hydration and energy at good levels during the run and the Endurox R4 helped me recover afterward–I only experienced mild soreness the day after my long runs.
Loved the line for the bathroom
Training, Training, Training
Overall the training went according to plan with the exception of my long runs. For the first several weeks I was having trouble keeping them at my target 9:20 mile pace and slowed to 9:40 or so in order to complete them. Part of this was because I was wearing a running belt with water and its motion and weight slowed me down. For the last 2 weeks of training I went without the belt and instead brought energy gels and stopped at water fountains by the harbor. This got my long runs back on pace and gave me the confidence I needed for race day.
A little cold at the start line
Over the course of my 13 weeks I ran nearly 220 miles with long runs between 7 and 14 miles. I hit another milestone along the way of running 100 miles in 30 days. I even joined a gym along the way so I could do my interval workouts more effectively.
Final hydration before the start
Race Day
The race was scheduled to begin at 7:30am at Sunset Park in Coronado on 11/15/2009. Amanda was my official designated race chauffeur and got us there about 6:50am. That was a good thing, because the line for the bathrooms was hundreds strong and took 20+ minutes to get through. At 5 minutes to start time I got in place fairly close to the line and chugged some sports drink. Soon enough, we were off!
Race start, complete with shirtless men
There were a few things that made the race particularly difficult.
- It was very sunny. Even though the temperature was in the mid-60′s, the sun was beating down on me nearly the whole time from beautiful clear blue skies. I had done nearly all of my training runs either in the dark early morning or on overcast days.
- The water stations were unpredictable. They were supposed to be 1.5 miles apart, but some were closer to 2 miles. I ate an energy gel shortly after mile 4 (thinking there would be water at mile 4.5) and had to wait another mile to get water to wash it down.
- There was an unexpected surprise mini-hill in mile 11 on this “flat and fast” course. I had to slow way down once I got to the top of that.
Amanda waiting for me at mile 9
Amanda was waiting for me at mile 9 in Imperial Beach with a welcome dosage of sports drink and encouragement. I made it there in 80 minutes (just slightly under 9:00/mi pace), but things progressed more slowly from that point onwards.
Me approaching the mile 9 marker
I passed mile 11 (after the mini-hill) right at 1:39 (9:00/mi pace). I was able to pick up the pace going downhill but by mile 12 my legs were pretty shot and I was just shuffling along.
Finish line craziness
The water stand at 12.5 miles was most welcome, and seeing the finishing line ahead on the final 1/4 mile on Seacoast Drive gave me the motivation to pick up the pace a bit and finish in 1:58:24 (9:02/mi pace). This is just a bit slower than the pace for which I was training (8:50/mi) but I did (barely) accomplish the goal of being in the upper half of my age division. In the final results I placed 86 out of 173 males age 30-34 (50.3%); 855 out of 2631 overall (67.5%).
Me approaching the finish line
Every finisher gets a cool medal and gets to select from a variety of healthy post-race snacks.
Testing to make sure the medal is real
After donning my medal I headed for Amanda who had Endurox R4 standing by. I then hobbled back to the car and am currently looking forward to a steak dinner paired with Belgian beer as I write this.
Enjoying some post-race nutrition
Marathon, Anyone?
Would I have wanted to turn back around and run back to Coronado? Probably not today, but I feel great about setting the goal of the half marathon and hitting it. I now believe that I could do the same with the Rock and Roll Marathon next June. Obviously the training would be different (longer) but I’m confident and enthusiastic about hitting that goal. Overall the half marathon took a lot of training time but was an incredibly rewarding and enjoyable experience.
Hooray! (I made it back to the car)
Beer Tour of Belgium – Day 5: Tournai and Namur November 1, 2009
Posted by pinchaque in 101 Things, Adventures in Beer, Beer Tour of Belgium.Tags: beer, belgium, beloeil, namur, tournai
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
After another delicious breakfast at Hotel Salvators, we departed Brugge on an inauspiciously rainy day. This was going to be another big travel day, with some interesting stops along the way, as we made our way to the Southern part of Belgium.
Tournai
As we headed south on the freeway we kept seeing signs for “Dornik”, which we couldn’t find on our map. It wasn’t until we crossed over from the Flanders to the Walloon province that we realized this was just the Dutch translation of our first destination that day: Tournai.
Cathedral in Tournai
Statue on the outside of cathedral in Tournai
The cathedral there is supposed to be one of the more impressive we could see. Unfortunately it was closed for an extended renovation. The outside was covered in scaffolding and the inside had sheetrock up. I don’t know if it was bad luck or what, but it was starting to seem that every old building was undergoing renovation this year.
Water fountains in central Tournai
The central city area didn’t seem to have too much going on, so we bought some ham sandwiches for a picnic at our next destination.
Bell tower in Tournai
Raised drawbridge while leaving Tournai
Beloeil Castle
After a short drive through beautiful country roads we arrived at Beloeil Castle, also known as “the Versailles of Belgium” (although I’m not sure the castle owners would have appreciated that backhanded compliment).
Beloeil castle
We ate our sandwiches in the car while waiting for the castle to open. Then when we get we realized that we would need more than a sandwich: the castle wouldn’t open again until the weekend. Our tour book had conspired against us and said the castle was open daily through the end of September. We were able to walk around the grounds some and take pictures.
Water features of Beloeil Castle
Le Moulin d’Arenberg
After a couple disappointing stops we were ready for a beer! Like most Belgian breweries, Lefebvre brewery doesn’t offer its beers directly to the public. However, they suggest you can try a great selection of their brews at the nearby Moulin d’Arenberge tavern in Rebecq. We were especially looking forward to the Floreffe Abbey ales that they produce.
Footbridge in Rebecq
Unfortunately we were destined for disappointment yet again. The sign said the bar opened at 3pm until the end of September so we had about an hour to kill. We tried following a walking path (“the path of the 7 arches”) but failed to find more than 2 arches.
Waterway in Rebecq
Butcher in Rebecq - the animals are so happy they can fulfill their destinies!
There were some interesting buildings nearby so we snapped some pictures. But when it got to be 3:20 we decided that the Moulin would not, in fact, be opening that day. We still had a ways to drive so we left, beerless and dejected.
Mini waterfall in Rebecq
Burned-out building in Rebecq
Namur
Our first impression of Namur was the nightmarish snarl of traffic that clogged the limited number of roads through the city. It was rush hour, and apparently everyone lives outside of the city. Once we made it through we understood why: running South from the city is the beautiful Meuse River. It winds its way through a verdant valley, hillsides dotted with castles. Our bed & breakfast, La Mosane, had a great view of the valley and was well-appointed with an enormous bathroom and comfortable bed.
Amanda made me eat an olive
We headed back into Namur to find some dinner. Traffic was still packed getting into the city, but we found some parking near the city center and set out on foot. In one block they were starting to set up a stage for the Wallonie Festival. We would miss the fun here by just a day, but would run into a real party a few days later in Liege.
For dinner we ended up at a pizza place with a decent beer list. Of course pizza isn’t Belgian, but you’d think that since they are closer to Italy than the U.S. is then it should be better! Right?
Ciney Brune and Blonde
It actually was fairly good and definitely satisfied the cravings I get whenever I go more than a week without pizza. We tried a couple of Ciney beers (blonde and brune) and followed that with some old favorites: Duvel and Chimay Blue.
Perfect pizza beers!
There was nothing really remarkable about Namur as a city. It is known for its citadel, which we didn’t take time to visit. It had the normal shops, restaurants, churches, etc. but not as much of the touristy things. It would probably be a decent place to live if you didn’t have to drive around much.
Back at our B&B we capped off the night with another of the beers we had bought at the Be2 store: Kapittel Prior. It was a tasty brown abbey ale, and a delightful way to end an otherwise frustrating day.
Kapittel Prior
Beers Tasted
Today I tasted:
- Ciney Blonde
- Ciney Brune
- Duvel
- Chimay Bleu
- Kapittel Prior
Total to date for the trip: 28 beers
