Looking for suggestions ,visiting La Trappe and Cologne where else to go ?

[TWAL]

Will be visiting Amsterdam 1st week in December. Spending a few nights there before heading south to Tilburg, to visit La trappe .
Looking for suggestions what else is in the area worth a visit.
Either staying a night in the area or heading south a night or 2 before heading to Cologne for a few days.
We have no schedule and are planning on roughly 4-5 days of traveling before heading back to Amsterdam.

Looking for places to go both beer related and non beer related, museums of any type,churches, Food suggestions,anything you have on these areas.

Tilburg, La Trappe / Koenigshoeven

North east Belgium,preferably east of Antwerp

between Tilburg and Cologne

Also any suggestions for Cologne,Breweries,restaurants,sightseeing,etc..

Kolsch is great but I don't want to drink it for 3 days,in winter no less..
I was tired of Helles after 2 days last spring in Bamberg.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

west of antwerp: Ghent is really nice, Brugge (or also called bruges) is amazing. I visited it in all seasons and preferred fall/winter as the crowds were lower.

I lived in aachen germany for a few years not too long ago and it's a nice town worth an afternoon on the train line to cologne. I have a friend who still lives in Maastricht, NL which is also really nice and has some nice belgian beer bars. my wife and I never cared too much for big cities, cologne is worth an afternoon in my book. dusseldorf actually has a nicer old city center which survived the war, not much of cologne did and it's mostly ugly modern german buildings.

PM me if you decide to go to any places I can probably dig up some more specific belgian beer bars to hit up

 

[TWAL]

My bad meant east of Antwerp.
Fixed.

 

[TWAL]

That's good info,Thanks!!
I wanted to go to Dusseldorf but wife and friends we are visiting are suggesting Cologne.

P.s. - Just saw you're in Golden,I'm in Broomfield. Maybe I can get my act together I can meet for a beer at Cannonball..

 

[popsicleian]

The Achel monastery is not too far from La Trappe and is definitely worth a visit, in my opinion.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

That's good info,Thanks!!
I wanted to go to Dusseldorf but wife and friends we are visiting are suggesting Cologne.

P.s. - Just saw you're in Golden,I'm in Broomfield. Maybe I can get my act together I can meet for a beer at Cannonball..

sounds like fun, hit me up if you get it together.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

My bad meant east of Antwerp.
Fixed.

I didn't get into that area at all honestly. I think most of it is kind of an industrial area and not that great. It's only a hour or two by train from antwerp to bruge or ghent, dont limit yourself those places are great!

 

[TWAL]

We've been to Bruges,Ghent,Antwerp area and Agree they're great places but a little far for this trip.
I didn't think there was much to the east either,couldn't find much more than Het Nest.
Unless we can find something to do for an extra day we'll most likely head to Germany after a night in Belgium/Netherlands border area.
La Trappe > hit the package store at Achel and stock up then get a B&B for the night,find a nice restaurant and pub

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

We've been to Bruges,Ghent,Antwerp area and Agree they're great places but a little far for this trip.
I didn't think there was much to the east either,couldn't find much more than Het Nest.
Unless we can find something to do for an extra day we'll most likely head to Germany after a night in Belgium/Netherlands border area.
La Trappe > hit the package store at Achel and stock up then get a B&B for the night,find a nice restaurant and pub

maybe check out Val Dieu. it's a small abbaye brewery with a little cafe near the germany/NL/BE three country point border. their quad is on-par with westvletern in my opinion (i've had both fresh on-site). it's within biking distance of aachen and maastrict, and that area has some beautiful countryside with lots of rolling hills.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

took me awhile for the name of the town to come back to me. Mechelen is really nice and just south of antwerp. we spent a couple sunday afternoons wandering around there, really nice old town.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

I would also say Dusseldorf and the Altstadt (the old town) is much more enjoyable than Koln, and I found the selection of Altbiers much more enjoyable than the Kolsch too...

If in Koln though, the Dom is definitely something to visit.

Maybe do a day in Koln in 1-2 in Dusseldorf?!

 

[kydan47]

Brauerei zur Malzmühle was our personal favorite - youngest family owned brewery of only 150 years but good food & beer. Cologne for original Kolsch, Düsseldorf for authentic alt. You can sample 3+ versions in 2- block radius.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

I wholeheartedly agree with the last two posters. Koln is certainly nice and one could easily spend a day+night there, but if i had a friend going in the area i'd tell them focus on dusseldorf, not cologne.