A Day with the Baron

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Today has been the perfect ending to an amazing two weeks that we have had
spent in Belgium and the Netherlands. This morning we were allowed to
sleep in and didn’t have to load the bus until 9:30. Today, Baron Piet
Van Waeyenberge served as our host and showed us around the town where
he resides. We began the morning touring Lindeman’s, a local brewery.
Lindeman’s is a small family run business that brews their beers
through a top fermentation process. It was very interesting to see the
difference between a small local brewer and InBev, the largest brewer
of beer in the world by volume, who we saw earlier in the week. We
received a tour of the brewery and then got to taste the different
types of beers that they produce. The Kriek is a specialty beer of
theirs because it is a cherry flavored beer and has a cardinal red look
to it. The owners gave us playing cards, bottle openers, labels of
their assortment of beers, and also an apple flavored beer of theirs.
This small-scale brewery was very hospitable and showed us what is so
special about a family run business. 

Next we went to a local restaurant for lunch, one of the Baron’s personal
favorites for an exquisite meal. This course consisted of a
mouthwatering steak, salad, and the famous Belgium French fries. We had
traditional Belgian organic strawberries for desert. Our lunch gave us
the opportunity for everyone to sit down, relax, and enjoy each other’s
company. During our meal we spoke with the Baron, his daughter, and
son-in-law who works for InBev. We had the chance to learn a great deal
of knowledge from these individuals and discover Belgium from a
native’s perspective. We were privileged to eat with the Baron and gain
more knowledge from him as we toured the town market and his very own
stables where he breeds Belgium horses.

Our next stop was the local dairy farm. This dairy farm was very
different from all the others. The farm owned over sixty cows and also
an electronic robot that could automatically milk the cows. This
Swedish engineered invention runs twenty-four hours everyday. The cows
have the freedom to come into the barn whenever they need to be milked,
which can be as many as 3-4 times a day. The laser-guided apparatus fed
the cows and minimized their mobility, while it attached four
mechanical tubes to extract the milk from the teats. After the cow was
milked it was cleaned underneath and left free to graze outside. The
machine cost around 100,000 euros and the farmer implemented that he
would recover his long-term investment after eight years. In addition
to selling his milk commercially, the farmer and his wife run a dairy
products business where they make yogurt, ice cream, butter, whipped
cream and fresh cheeses. The farmer gave us a tour of his facility and
explained to us that he only uses 10%-15% of his milk to make these
products but makes more profit than he does selling the other 85%-90%
of his milk. We also had the opportunity to sample some of the homemade
ice cream, which was unanimously delicious.

Our last visit for the day was to see the famous Waterloo memorial site
outside of Brussels. The memorial consists of an eighty-meter high hill
that over looks the battlegrounds where the war was fought between the
English/Prussians and the French. The memorial was built in recognition
of the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815 and his French army. On top
of the hill, resides a statue of a lion and the breathtaking views of
the countryside of Belgium. The climb of 267 stairs was well worth the
view as we felt our thighs burn at each step to the top. On the bus
ride home, our driver Hugo passed by the Brussels soccer stadium and
the Mini-Europe theme park. Overall, our day was as Hamish had
described, priceless. The opportunity to fine dine in company with the
Baron, experience a local feel to Belgium through the natives, and also
pass through the history of forefathers was out of the ordinary for a
class offered by a university.

Posted by IBIP Administrator