I woke up on Thursday at 8:30, Zeke and Tony who had crashed later than
I were still sleeping. I figured I'd let them wake naturally, so I read one
of the beer books and found out that the bar we were at in Hasselt was
recommended by Mike, we hadn't even known that at the time we went there.
Breakfast was supposed to be at 8, the young men woke around 9:30 and we
figured we had missed it, so we took our time preparing for the day and
about 10 there was a knock on the door. It was the guy from the hostel
saying "Come, eat". This was great, these Belgians sure are civilized. So we
went, ate. There was homemade bread again with lunchmeat, cheese, more
cheese, butter, jams, nutspreads, juice and coffee. When we were done we
cleaned up after ourselves and told them we were staying another night.
Fine, they said, just leave everything where it is, no nonsense about
leaving and checking in again.

     So we headed to Genk for the open air market. First stop, the Genker
Pub, but Daniel had come and gone, not at 7AM either but at 9. We were much
later though and we told Ivo we would come back again as he assured us that
Daniel should be back.

     The town was packed with people, everywhere there was an open spot,
lines of stalls were there selling everything you can imagine. They all had
awnings because it was raining, not very hard, just a persistent drizzle.
Most of the stands were selling women's clothing, but there were stands with
toys, food, hardware, utensils, sunglasses, satellite dishes, flowers, you
name it. It was pretty wild and they do it every Thursday. Tony bought an
olive salad and I got some grapes. That would take care of out lunch for the
day. We looked in the Genker again but no Daniel, oh well.

     After exchanging some money at the bank we stopped and filled the car
with diesel fuel. It cost about $25. American. That's not bad considering
all you hear about the high cost of gas in Europe. The diesel is cheaper and
the diesel motor is more fuel efficient so we really lucked out with the
car. We then headed to the provincial park at Bokrik

     After you park your car, I think we had to pay to park but it was like
50 cents or something, you have to pass one of the 9 bars in the park before
you even pay your admission. Did I mention the Belgians were civilized. Man,
why did the Puritans have to be the ones to start the United States. We got
a map and wandered around a bit trying to keep dry. It would rain harder at
times and then slow down to a drizzle again. The place was neat, it had all
the utility buildings like a mill, a bakery, and a brewery, all from various
periods of the past as well as different provinces of Belgium. There were
dwellings as well as public buildings like city halls and such.

     After a bit of walking we thought it was time for a drink. We found a
bierkeller in the Oldtown section of the park. It was just us and the
barmaid. She had the Bokrik Kruikenbier that Tony brought us to Bokrik to
find. (It's his favorite) After a couple of glasses we saw why, it's a
perfectly balanced full body beer. We could have drank it all day, but there
were so many others to sample. We tried the Chapeau Lambics. They have more
variety of fruit flavors than other brands. The banana killed. The mixed
berry was also good, the blueberry, eeeh, ok. We had several others Delirium
Tremens, Piraat, and some tap beer, I can't recall what it was.

     Refreshed, we left the bar and toured more of the park, we had a
complementary pass for the shuttle they run through the park but we decided
to walk. Bought some postcards and stamps, some souvenirs and wandered back
to the car and took the 1-1/2 mile drive back to the hostel and took a nap.

Next up - last night in Bokrik

Pictures - Open market, bierkeller