Delicious Belgian beers and old-fashioned bar games, to give your seminars a convivial and relaxed atmosphere..

To allow your teams to unwind and have fun after a full working day's seminar, Martin's Hotels suggest an exceptional trip to the Timmermans Brewery. Founded in 1781 in Itterbeek, in the "Pajottenland" region, this is one of the last traditional breweries still in operation, full of charm, scents and authenticity. It's where Lambic is brewed, following a jealously guarded secret recipe. However, you'll be able to enjoy the delicious results once the tour is over, when you taste the house beers!

The atmosphere will be even more entertaining if you decide to take part in an inter-team competition of ancient bar games! What a fascinating and enjoyable way to spend some time, while following the guidance of the specialist instructors for maximum points.

Another option is to escape into mediaeval times, with a surprise gift and, of course, an appetising buffet du terroir, or a light meal with traditional dishes such as 'tartines au fromage blanc' or "tête pressée". These are all served in a reproduction of a typical "Pajottenland" bar, which has been re-created right down to the very last detail, including waiters in turn of the century dress!

Popular bar games, traditional and amusing ! Some of these games have been in existence since time immemorial. But one thing's for sure: they all require skill and concentration. Certainly, you need a clear head to win. Here are a few examples that should tempt you into discovering and playing them all! Trou Madame This has been played since the 16th Century! Mainly by women, while their husbands got on with more sporting activities. The players try to roll 5 wooden discs through the 9 arches in the front of an open-topped wooden box. Each arch carries a different score. Not as easy as you'd think! Pudeback Pudeback consists of a board in the centre of which is an open-mouthed frog, surrounded by 6 small holes and two trapdoors. Players have to try and toss copper coins into the frog's mouth for maximum points (glurp!) Mannetjesspel A box with 5 little wooden men is fixed to the table. The figures, mounted on a hinge, can swing backwards. A weight hangs by a thread, attached to a miniature gallows . Using the weight, players have to try and knock over as many men as possible. Let yourself go! Struifvogel The struifvogel is a wooden bird hanging on a cord. Its beak holds a dart tip. Players try to lodge the dart tip in the target by swinging the bird towards it. To re-balance itself, the bird swings back towards the player who then puts another dart tip in its beak. A game of precision for which you'll need your wings. ToptafelThe game consists of a square box, on which there is a maze. A number of small skittles are placed in the maze and players have to try and knock over as many skittles as possible, by releasing a traditional wooden spinning top. In other words, your turn will come! KegelenIn one or several attempts, each player tries to knock over a maximum of number of skittles (9 in all) using a metal clad wooden ball, with one large hole for the fingers and another for the thumb. In fact, a hint of things to come, this is the ancestor of bowling.Hamertjesspel

Using small hammers, 4 players must each defend 2 goals and try to send a little metal marble into another player's goal. When a player lets a goal in, he must take a nail which is placed in the centre of the game. The first with 9 nails loses .... and he cannot even tap them in with his hammer.

Scenario:

The participants are greeted in the clinic with a "weird" welcome drink. At the end of this quick drink, Professor Van Teamendorf appears and tells the participants about an imminent medical discovery which he has made and which is going to revolutionise the third millennium. This Crazy Professor addresses his audience in a highly excitable state, practically raving ... and ends by telling the guests that they have just ingested a "test" liquid which will help him study some of the side effects of this remarkable elixir!
The irreversible effects of this beverage will become apparent in a mere 120 minutes!!
Participants therefore have just 120 minutes to set off in search of the formulae for the antidotes … The professor then asks them to form groups of eight people and follow the nurses who will take them to the cloakrooms to change into more "suitable" clothing ... and the activity begins.

The main principles of the activity:

The participants are split into teams of up to 8 people. Their objective is to search for the greatest amount of liquid forming part of the antidote's formula. To do so, each team will carry out a succession of physical and intellectual tests, both magical and diabolical!
Before the start of the tests, each team receives a "giant" test-tube which they will attempt to fill with the greatest amount of coloured liquid. Using large syringes, instructors will inject a certain amount of liquid into the test-tubes, depending on how successful the participants are in the tests.
At the end, it is easy to work out each team's rankings, thanks to the calibrations on the different test-tubes.
Moreover, to create the life-saving antidote, the liquids from the various test-tubes have to be mixed together in a single recipient!

Suggested tests:

The Morgue
This test takes place in the cellars (darkness). Various obstacles are placed in the corridors which form a sort of labyrinth. The participants will have been able to visualise a map of the route before venturing into the sinister corridors! The objective is to find the largest number of test-tubes. The chemical formula of the contents of the test-tubes has to memorised ... At the exit of the labyrinth, the participants find themselves in a laboratory where they have to recreate the mixture of the products which they identified along the route.

Frankenstein's Operating Theatre
The team's objective is to "create" an artificial being (either in a "robot" style made from a disparate assembly of limbs // parts from dummies, metal limbs, wooden parts .... or in a teaching dummy style, in which they have to put the organs back in the right place). To do so, the participants have to choose the elements they need and pass them to one another in a sort of hermetically sealed chamber, into which they can put only their arms! Only one participant can see what's happening inside this chamber. The others try to work as fast as possible with the various elements (transfer from hand to hand + ingenuity).

The pharmacy
To reach the pharmacy, the participants have to slide through different confined spaces, of which only one leads to the Pharmacy. Access to these premises is locked with a coded padlock. The numbers required to unlock the padlock must be attained by solving mathematical puzzles. The information needed to solve each puzzle can be found at the far end of another of these spaces. This one leads to a corridor where three increasingly inaccessible "letter boxes" succeed one another! Once the padlock is opened, the team enters an area adorned with various preserving jars (containing brains, eyes, ... and various animal specimens). The atmosphere is " thunderous" (sound effects, stroboscope). Competitors win precious liquid by reconstructing one or more "key" words, courtesy of the letters that they will have found in the pharmacy.

Psychiatry
In this zone, everything operates "upside down" (decorations, tables, chairs all suspended from the ceiling; instructions given are " back to front", etc.). The first thing the team has to do is cross a corridor, the floor of which is swarming with spiders (arachnophobia). Participants cannot therefore touch the ground and must progress by using three or four beams (to be positioned in notches provided). A second corridor which is bizarrely angled (feeling of imbalance) leads to a room where a tangle of tubes are suspended. By manipulating these tubes, the team will be able to move a "strange" object from one end of the room to the other. This object is a useful element for the collective resolution of a brain teaser in the "claustrophobic" room, a room in which the ceiling slowly but surely descends "ominously" as the time passes!

Radiology
The objective is for the participants to find a maximum number of "radioactive" objects which have to be evacuated urgently. To do so, the competitors have to retrieve these objects from a mysterious and dark place. The search for bones is carried out "one by one". The searcher (a different person each time) is completely in the dark due to a special helmet and is equipped with a video camera and a miner's lamp ("diving suit" style). His team-mates guide him thanks to a surveillance screen....

The SixthSense
Each participant fills in a questionnaire (five questions about habits and preferences). The team will then attempt to win the liquid antidote by identifying the answers given by their team-mates (knowledge and finding out about one another).