Braderij

With all the excitement of the Rock Festival it would have been easy to forget Braderij weekend. But, a very hot weekend meant an apartment with every window open wide, which was a blessing in a way because if they hadn't been open then I would have missed a great spectacle. I was tipped off by the sound of men shouting and generally having a good time. Looking out of the window I saw a wonderful sight. Now, I have been pretty vocal about my dislike of:
A) Bicycles
B) Cyclists
C) Wieler Toeristen - to remind non-Belgians, these are groups of people, usually men, who ride around wearing skin tight lycra and visit cafés where they drink beer and show off their crotches.
What I saw was six men, pedalling a mobile bar down the street, whilst drinking beer! The bar consisted of two benches on either side of the structure, with a man serving drinks in the middle. The men sitting on the benches propelled the bar by pedalling a standard bicycle type pedal and chain. Genius!
I wish I had rushed for my camera because when we walked down the street later it was no where to be seen.
The Braderij was a little bigger than I remembered it from the last time it was on. Each shop competed with each other to see who could play music the loudest and so the street was a mish mash of noise. There were stalls selling Indian goods, that's native American Indians, and girls were having beads sewn into their hair. There was the usual bouncy castle and all of the shops had money off stickers posted on their windows. Chalk drawings adorned the middle of the road, a competition for children, beer tents and tables and chairs were liberally placed every twenty paces or so for the thirsty pedestrian. One thing that did confuse me was what seemed to be a race between racing bikes and motor scooters. As the racers turned the corner, the cyclists always seemed to be riding in the motor scooters slipstream, "that's a bit of a stupid race," I thought, no contest, the motor scooters will win, no problem. It was quickly pointed out to me that the cyclists were supposed to be riding in the scooters slipstream and as a matter of fact the motor scooters were only in the race to help the cyclists ride faster...I think that's a good example of just how Belgiums love affair with the bike can get out of control and drift into pure stupidity. As an invention, the mobile bar has to be up there with satellites and the microchip, but a race where riders follow a motor scooter to go faster? Well, I'll let you be the judge!
But, unfortunately my feet were still aching like crazy from the day at Werchter and we didn't stay too long, although we did get the bargains we went out for. As the day wore on, we could hear a decent sounding rock band playing into the night and rumours of a mobile bar being seen heading towards Eindhoven were unsubstantiated.