Good morning adventurers.
Well good morning!
We are in Belgium you guys so
Surprise!
So we had -
Bought a car!
No, we didn't. I forget every single time that she's gonna do this. One of these times, it's gonna be true though
It's gonna be true. We're getting closer and closer, maybe.
But we took a flight over from Sweden over to here in Brussels spent a day here and
Just a day of unwinding not really doing anything because we are about to start a little European road trip
If you can tell by the rental car.
Not our own car.
But don't get too upset with us that we didn't do much in Sweden because we actually decided to come back
So after we do this epic road trip, we will be back Sweden do not worry
We're gonna be - we're planning all kinds of cool stuff.
Yeah, I think we'll be doing some road tripping there, too
So we could see a lot more
We're gonna be heading about an hour east of
Brussels to Diest and gonna see some cool stuff there spent a couple days there and then we're going to be off heading down south
To a new country Luxembourg.
Yeah, a new country. Yes! Love it.
We're also gonna dip our toes into France to stay at a very very special very cool place
So make sure you stay tuned for that video. It's gonna be really neat. We're actually in a parking garage right now
So that's why it looks like it's the middle of the night
But we're gonna head on out of here and start our Belgian road trip
We've gotten a lot of comments people asking why Alison is the one usually doing the driving. Well, it's actually very simple
There's two reasons
He makes me! I hate it!
That is actually the 100% opposite of the truth
I love driving. Eric hates driving. Eric loves filming. I don't love filming
so it's
just a happy relationship when I get to drive and he gets to sit over there not drive
and in some countries you have to
Pay extra to have another person drive. It's not always that way in the U.S.
No, but in a lot of countries and for this wrinkle as well. It was an extra like 100 USD
Sometimes it doubles your rental costs to have a secondary driver
Sometimes they're nice and let spouses drive and then Eric does drive but a lot of the times you only get one
So now you know
We have made it to Diest
We've done it!
I survived!
It was actually only about an hour away, but Alison killed it, driving
It was so easy. It was great.
Yeah, but we've checked into our little hotel that's right in the center square - the Groot market area I think it's called. And the hotel, how do you pronounce it?
BNB Demut
Sure, we're gonna go with that.
It's so interesting because in Brussels they speak French but up here they speak Dutch
Yeah, we don't know much Dutch. So I apologize for all of the
Mispronunciations that are about to happen - we're gonna try our best.
But check this place out
So it's at the top floor this charming little house
There's a bar down below but we have this open a-frame area with these old wood beams and the bed
This old green couch, and then it's all open to the restroom back there
But it's so pretty and so charming and we're literally right in the middle of town on top of a brewery
I don't think it can get any better
Speaking of being on top of a pub
They have a little mural of a I think he's brewing some beer in there
And I guess this is meant to be the town. The bathroom is connected to the main room and it's got a really cool old-school
medieval type of vibe
I love all this little bitty green tiles that are all on the backsplash and on the wall over here
But you have to watch out for this beam because I've almost smashed my head on this
Multiple times and there's no doubt that I'm going to succeed in smashing my head on it
At least once. You might actually be tall enough to hit your head on it too.
Me?
Yep. You're just gonna sting your head
Yeah, I would definitely. Oh, yeah, it's definitely - it's five foot four inches.
Oh, that's gonna hurt bad if you just get caught right there
Oh no, I hope I do not.
Got all checked in to our place
We actually met up with the owner and he took us around the town a little bit. And uh
This town is gorgeous
Allison: Oh my god, it's so pretty Eric: Super charming
and now we are headed to an airplane flying festival?
Yeah, so from what I understand
It should be a bunch of old airplanes that they're bringing in but there might be old cars there, too
Yeah, I think it's everything
But that's one of the things the town is known for is for the airfield that's right next to it
But that's what we're gonna head right now
We found our dream car, this is an 83 Land Cruiser and it is absolutely beautiful
We are currently obsessive Land Cruisers. Sadly, I don't think we'll ever be able to afford one
But oh, they're just so pretty. Yeah. Wow. This thing is just so sharp
This is the best Wayne Cruise I've ever seen that color is amazing
Sadly these old ones like this are very expensive. So we won't be getting those any time soon. We'll just admire it from afar
We're on the airfield right now. They're
Old school classic cars mostly European. They're very tiny. Yeah, but they're not all European
They have a sweet Mustang over there. That was a DeLorean floating around here somewhere
Yeah, they got some old like jeep wranglers and stuff
They got a nice mix of everything
And we're not really car buffs. But even we are getting excited about some of the cars here
Like I've never seen a red DeLorean. I've only seen like the Back to the Future gray one
Yes, and that Land Cruiser was amazing. I mean, I can't beat an old Mustang
also tons of tiny little quirky British cars
Those might be my favorite. I would love to drive around on one of those for a day.
Be very fitting for you.
We've arrived at the fly-in the weather took a little time
But we're making the best of it
We've met up with Ludo who we actually just found out wrote a book about the history of this airfield
I think the most important thing is what is a fly-in?
A fly-in is - the airplanes can come and go as they wish. Nothing is organized and they come and go as they wish.
How did this one become
Involved with the old planes and the old cars
That was invented 50 years ago. It was a very small
Reunion of
Owners of older airplanes and an old rapid is helping older than 20 years. They had a beer and they
Ate some sandwiches and that was all
Literally fly in?
During the German occupation
During the First World War. Okay, they built here an airfield. It was in fact a school. [speaks Dutch]
The German train their personnel here during six months they were here
there were a lot of casualties I counted more than
1020
Fatal casualties
Really?
This was not - it was not safe. It was due to the
Material they used. The airplane they used and the exercises they did
It's much smaller than you see now because now it's dropping zone
now the
airfield is
owned by the army and the
Parachutists, they use it. Over there you see the balloon
As they call it in Dutch [speaks Dutch]
You're not gonna give it a try? Try to say it?
It's a cable balloon, okay
During the first World War they used cable balloons to do
observations of the front. On the side of the Allies on the side of the the journals and they constantly
observe
one another
and they shot also, one another
Using those balloons
They weren't fun balloons back then
I saw you can do skydiving here?
Yes, yes, yes
Alright
But we won't be doing that this time around especially not in this weather.
Thank you so much for chatting with us
This was lovely
Yeah, we're gonna go explore a bit
Now, I think we're gonna take a proper tour. They have these trucks that are driving around and I think we're going to shove into
We're gonna climb in and they're gonna take us around the entire airfield.
Nice job my pants are too tight for this
I don't think I did that right. But, it's alright.
Bit of a bumpy ride
We did a little tour of the airfield our guide Albert was very knowledgeable about the airfield
We learned pretty much everything there is to know about it. There has been so much history here
It was actually in World War II
it was under German occupation and he told us all kinds of stories about that and
The liberation of the airfield and all kinds of stuff. Needless to say we worked up a bit of an appetite and check this out
They have friggin barbecue here. So they had a bunch of meats curling back there
They have a buffet up there with all these different festivals really fresh looking stuff, too
So that tour we just did you can actually come and do it on your own I think weekdays
Typically, they do it expecting some stuffs close on the weekend
You should look into it goes really neat and you get to see such an interesting piece of history
I think with better weather you get a nice view from up there the surrounding area
Yeah
Because we go we went to the highest point in the region which isn't that high but you get a nice view around
We are back in Diest in the town center called Grote Markt
I'm still not sure if I'm saying that right, but if you're not familiar with the geography of Belgium
It's actually divided into three different regions. We are in the region of Flanders
But each one of those regions is divided into different provinces. We are in the province of Flemish Brabant. Hopefully I'm saying that right
Probably, we're to go with that
But if you look at the map, it's really interesting because Brussels is cut out into its own region the region around it
They actually speak Dutch but in Brussels they speak French
but like I said, we are back in the town square as you can see this place is completely
Stunning. There are people out and about restaurants all over the place. It's lined with all these amazing old buildings
And of course you have this epic Church over here, which I don't quite know the name of yet, but I will learn it
Also on this spot tomorrow they're going to have a whole beer market and that's what we're gonna be doing tomorrow
Wait. Us at a beer market, that doesn't sound right?
Yeah, that's definitely not us
Since we're gonna be drinking so much beer tomorrow
We're actually going to head to a wine bar over there. That's right next door to the hotel we're staying in
So we have pub next door. There's actually a wine bar one bar violet or Winbar Violette?
Maybe? I don't know. I wonder if that's why there's a violet light?
We ordered this babalons
Chardonnay which is actually the wine growing region right around here, but he said - our server said it's about ten minutes from the area
So very local wine because we are going to be drinking lots of local beer tomorrow
We'll save the beer for tomorrow stick with the ones tonight nice and light bring it with some little chips. Oh, yeah, good waiting
Nothing to see here
definitely
We didn't lie to you earlier and I wouldn't got some beers after our wine
We did. Mine's over there.
We did. What? And no we didn't get any waffles
Because we're in Belgium - Belgian waffles?
Actually you guys may laugh but they're prepackaged waffles that you just get in the convenience store. They're bomb
Oh my god, we found a pack. There's ten of the pack or something crazy like that
So this has been our bedtime snack every - one a night
I hope you guys enjoyed exploring the airfield with us today
It was a very unique experience
For us seeing all the old planes and old cars and just interacting with people who were very passionate about
The airfield and its history and being you know paratroopers and pilots and they were also into that culture
Yeah a culture that we have know nothing about before today. We really enjoy it
we hope you guys did too and
Like we said earlier you can come and do the tour here anytime you want so you can learn
Everything they went into so much detail about the airfield and they drove you all through the property. It was really cool
You can see all of this history still living on today
Tomorrow we're gonna be exploring the town of Diest quite a bit more
They have amazing museums and old buildings, but also the beer market that we are so excited to go to it's really amazing
We're gonna learn all about all kinds of different Belgian beers and most importantly taste a bunch of Belgian beers
Goodnight adventurers
We'll see you on the road!