Bruges is many people’s first experience of Belgium. It attracts some two million visitors every year from all over the world. It is one of Europe’s top weekend destinations and is particularly handy for visitors from Britain, being less than an hour from Brussels Eurostar terminal and the Channel ports.
Bruges deserves its reputation as a lovely, unspoilt medieval city, famed for its architecture, lace and chocolates. However, it is also a great place to sample the diverse offerings of Belgium’s finest brewers. How many other cities can offer 80 hugely different places selling 80 different top quality beers?
After many years of visiting and drinking in the city we decided it was time to share our knowledge and point people to the cafés, restaurants and shops that stock the best beers. Around Bruges in 80 Beers is aimed at the general traveller who knows that Belgian beer is supposed to be good and wants to know where they can try the best, in the most interesting surroundings.
We have matched each of the 80 places with a specific beer, chosen from their menu. This is not to say that they cannot be found at other cafés in Bruges or indeed throughout Belgium. The places we have chosen range from specialist beer shops to posh restaurants, from locals’ bars to elegant taverns and from early risers to late night haunts. We even have a boat.
There is no end to the places where you can drink dull, factory-produced, brand name beers from multi-national producers with huge advertising budgets. We will lead you instead to quality Belgian beers, many unknown outside Belgium and sometimes even outside the area where they are brewed.
We have included beers from old family-run breweries, tiny new micro-breweries and some that will be like nothing you have ever tasted before.
Armed with this guide, you should be able to dig a little deeper and be more adventurous in your beer choices and to experience some of the truly exceptional offerings of the greatest brewing nation in the world. You will find out with practice, which beer styles and which beers you prefer.
And if 80 proves a bit too much for even a long weekend, we may just persuade you to return, again and again.
We hope you enjoy reading, and more importantly, using this book as much as we enjoyed researching it.
CHEERS!
Podge & Siobhan
Order Around Bruges in 80 Beers
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