NMBS - Martijn.be

Misery Fest 2026

Published on 25 July 2026

It had been way too long since I had been in beautiful Harzé to visit Misery Beer Co.… After a failed attempt last year, I finally made it to their birthday festival again this year!

When I visited their opening festival, there was a bus going all the way from Brussels. This time, there was just a shuttle bus from Liège station. It suited me just fine, since this way I had time for a coffee first.

The festival itself was all what I expected: great beers by Misery and three guest breweries—L’Ermitage, Verdant, and Pophin—terrific music, and tasty food. It was a hot day again, so I skipped the imperial stouts, but I tasted pretty much everything else.

After the last band, it was about time to get on the shuttle bus to the train station again. Some would come back the next day for more beers and different groups, but for me, just the one day was enough…

Cycling in de Bollenstreek

Published on 13 April 2025

While hashing usually involves running, sometimes hashers get on a bicycle as well. Every year in spring, the Dutch full moon hash FILTH H3 organises such a bicycle hash—or bash for short—in the Bollenstreek, the tulip region of the Netherlands. As the weather promised to be nice, I folded up my SUGG bike to shove it on the luggage rack of a train heading north!

At first it looked like I wasn’t even going to make it: just before the scheduled departure the train I booked was shown on the boards as delayed for 30 minutes, then postponed indefinitely, and then, all of a sudden, announced as arriving on another platform! For a while, things were looking fine, but then, because of the 40 minute delay we already had by then, we were chucked out of the train in Breda, instead of Rotterdam!

In the end, after a few more train changes than planned, I made it to the start of the bash in Hillegom in time, only half an hour later than planned. After waiting for some latecomers—because of similar train troubles—there were about two dozen hashers on bikes, ready for a ride through the Bollenstreek!

As mentioned, the weather promised to be nice, and it delivered! Cloudless skies and over 20ºC all the way, and tulips in bloom everywhere. And conveniently, the Bollenstreek is very flat, making cycling there very enjoyable. An unexpected bonus was the craft beer they had in the chip shop on trail!

After almost 40km, we ended up at the hares’ home, where the beers were cold, and the barbecue was fired up. Down-downs were given and drunk in a very long, two-part circle, which I even didn’t see the end of, since I had a train to catch, if I still wanted to make it home that night.

While everything went swimmingly at first—I even had time for a quick beer in Rotterdam Biergarten in between trains—in Breda it all went sideways again. The train—which was already hot when the airco was still kinda working—didn’t budge for half hour, and heated up even more. Eventually the train started moving again, and just a couple of minutes before one o’clock, it arrived in Brussels Central. One last, short ride on my bicycle, and I was finally home again!

Carnival in Tilburg

Carnival in Tilburg

Published on 1 March 2025

Somehow I keep ending up in North Brabant during carnival. However, while last time it was by accident, this time it was intentional: I went to Tilburg—for the occasion renamed Kruikenstad—for a special carnival run!

Tilburg station was very crowded when I arrived, and the square in front of it was even worse! The reason became clear when I overheard people discussing today’s schedule while I was having my coffee at Buut Vrij: right around the time I arrived in Tilburg, Prince Carnival—every town or village over there has one appointed for the carnival season—was expected there. I was basically crashing his welcome party!

Since I still had some time before my run, I seized the opportunity to discover the local craft beer scene. I didn’t expect many places to be open, or serving anything special during carnival, and my first intended stop—Café Kandinsky—was indeed closed… Luckily in the LOC Brewery it was business as usual, so I could try some of their beers there. I wanted to take a couple of cans for later—I love the Dutch hashers and their runs, but their choice of beers less so—but apparently there is a very strict separation between the hospitality industry and retail in the Netherlands! So after being unable to sell me any beer to go, bartender Teun was so kind to call ahead to Koen of De Bierbrigadier—the craft beer shop in town—to ask him to already put some LOC beers in the fridge for me, so they would be ready and cold for consumption later.

Amsterdam H3 Trail nº1442 – Carnaval in Tilburg

With cold beers in my bag, I then headed to the start location for the run. As is not uncommon for trails by the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers—the organisers of this run—the start was from the hare’s home. After waiting for everyone to actually find the place, and changing into a theme appropriate outfit, we were off! I was one of only two runners—the others were walkers—but we did get some nice views on trail the walkers didn’t! There were a couple of drink stops on trail, but one was quite unique: it was on a hand-operated chain ferry, in the middle of the canal!

After the run, we gathered back at Pink Panter’s apartment for Circle and dinner.

Since the Belgian rail unions were still partly on strike, I didn’t want to leave it until the last train to get home. So after dinner, I made my way through the partying city to the station—which was way less crowded than when I arrived there earlier that day—to catch an early train to Breda. Over there, it was a bit more chaotic—bigger carnival crowds, multiple last minute platform changes—but I made it on my train to Brussels eventually.

New Spring Beer Festivals

New Spring Beer Festivals

Published on 1 April 2024

The beer festival season has well and truly started for me! After a very enjoyable trip to CBFS24 in Stuttgart in February, I visited two more beer festivals in Belgium I had never been to yet: The Beer Experience in Zolder, and Fest’IPA in Namur.

The Beer Experience – 24-25 March 2024

First up was The Beer Experience, which I visited on the 23rd of March. I arrived quite late—it was a two train trip, all the way to Zolder—so it was in full swing by the time I entered. There were lots of familiar faces, bot among the visitors and the stand holders, but more importantly, also a lot of breweries I hadn’t tried any beers of yet!

The location was quite special—an old mining site—and I didn’t quite get around to exploring all of it. Neither did I had the time to ‘experience’ all aspects of the festival fully, with its art exhibits spread out over the buildings, since there were simply too many beers to try! I did get to enjoy some of the live music, though!

This definitely is a festival I will visit again, and allow a bit more time for next time!

I also skipped the food trucks for once, since I had my heart set on something I can only get the way I want it in Limburg, it seems: a döner kebab in Turkish bread that doesn’t get squished in a panini grill, and with green peppers on the side. The appropriately named snack bar De Mijn had exactly that!

After a beer festival, train trips with a change to get home are always a bit risky, but I didn’t miss any connections, and made it back to Brussels without a hitch.

Fest’IPA – 19-20 April 2024

The next discovery was Fest’IPA in Namur. I already discovered that Namur has something to offer for beer lovers, but I hadn’t been to any events here yet. Fest’IPA is an event by Namur Capitale de la Bière, the organisation behind the festival with the same name, but also some other beer events in the city.

The location for the festival—La Nef—was already quite special. It was in fact the desecrated Notre-Dame church of Namur, but a lot of the artwork was still in place.

No entrance fee, no tokens, just one bar with six beer pumps and a couple of fridges. Apparently that’s all you need, since I had a great time tasting some of the beers they had selected. If I didn’t have to get up early the next morning, I would happily have spent a couple of hours more!

So that’s another, completely different, beer festival to look out for next year!

My Belgian Summer Holiday – Leuven

Published on 11 August 2023

The last trip with my Off-Peak Unlimited train ticket was kind of a mini-trip, since I already had plans in the evening. So my destination was nearby, with a rather limited—but high quality—selection of craft beer places: Leuven!

After arrival in the quite modern but beautiful Leuven train station, my first stop was at Madmum Coffee Roasters, for an iced latte—it was a warm day—and some apple cinnamon cake.

The cultural part of the day was spent in M Leuven. They used to have a nice bar, with a great selection of beer, but this apparently is a thing of the past, so the art had to suffice…

From there, I went to Hops ‘n More. It primarily a bottle shop—so they’re open early—but they have a nice terrace and some beers on draught, and by sheer coincidence, there was a “Rare Bottle Fest” going on as well!