So. We are here for two nights. We picked this town and this hotel due to the brewery next door/adjacent to here. The idea was to get a brewery tour and not have to hurry our visit.
Ha. There are only brewery tours on weekends. So since it is Tuesday, we were feeling a bit goofy.
But we are on vacation and we just had a laugh about it. We decided to make the most of our free day (since the brewery tour was all we really had planned). It felt oddly freeing to have "nothing" to do. Do you know what? It made for a great day!
Mechelen is a really great place! Even though it is not in our guide book (not at all) it really should be. We like it better than some other the places that were in the guide book! There is awesome strolling, fantastic pedestrian streets with shopping and strolling, a great park (with a play area!), a canal side stroll, and even a very impressive grand market place (a market place is a wide open area, ringed by impressive buildings, that is sort of a place for everyone to enjoy).
We stumbled into nooks with gardens, we found streets lined with great shops, we found the best lunch ever (and I mean it was an awesome lunch at this great Brasserie/Cafe where I had scampi in tomato sause and Dan had a goat cheese salad). It was just a carefree, perfect strolling day - and we were amazed that it was so nice since it wasn't in the guide book at all! The locals are so happy. They are everywhere on their bikes and there feet, walking all over this wonderful place. Cars? Why? Just walk or bike.
For dinner we went to the restaurant associated with the brewery - a family run place with a great chef, and had a wonderful meal. I had a stir fry pasta with vegetables (no cheese!) and Dan had beef. Sara ate chicken, tomatoes, and some wheat bread. The brewery makes excellent beer. I usally don't like beer very much, but I do agree with Dan that Belgian beer is very good.
We were supposed to return our rental car tomorrow, but we think we will extend our contract one additional day. It will making things easier.
So, I know I didn't really dive into details on this day , or this lovely place that we found. We were just happy as ever that it turned out to be such a great place - since the whole reason we came here (for the brewery tour) wasn't even possible on a Tuesday! So a nice surprise for us, and a restful, fun day of exploring came true.
Sara is still goofing around, so I'm going to try to get her to sleep and head to sleep myself. Good night.
Lori
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