“We always went to the gym together next door and afterwards we would eat a hamburger here,” Stefan explains. “It’s a matter of maintaining a healthy balance,” Dieter agrees.
Stefan Van Rompaey (31) and Dieter Lenaers (30) traveled through Belgium to eat in all 111 McDonald’s branches. To conclude, they both order a medium BigMacMenu in their regular branch on the Bredabaan in Merksem.
The two men visited about 23 restaurants every day. “The record number of branches in one day was 26.”
To eat
They enjoy their last burger with great gusto. “It’s been two hours since we ate one, so I was actually looking forward to it,” Dieter laughs.
Stefan and Dieter in front of their regular branch where they always came after the Basic Fit next door. (from left to right) — © Jan Van der Perre
They haven’t gotten tired of eating yet and they haven’t had to fight the stomach acid either. “I had a whole box Gavisconnekes but I didn’t need them,” says Stefan proudly.
They cannot say which McDonald’s has the best burger and which has the best chicken nuggets. “Many branches are only a few minutes apart. Then we ordered chicken nuggets from one, a hamburger from another and our drinks from another,” Dieter explains.
“It was actually only on one of the last days that we realized that we could also just order a sauce. That would have kept the budget a bit lower,” Stefan notes.
They didn’t always eat a BigMacMenu to save their wallet and line a bit. — © Jan Van der Perre
They guessed that they spent about 500 euros on the food. “Although McDonald’s was aware, they did not sponsor,” says Dieter. “Sometimes the managers recognized us and gave a little extra. In Bergen, for example, we gave our citizens to the homeless.”
To film
“I actually don’t think we’ve recovered,” laughs Stefan. “You will see in our videos that we have also accomplished quite a bit. Some restaurants were right in the center of a city. You can only park for free there for ten minutes, so it was a walk to film everything, order and get back to the car on time.”
They provided a lot of content for the ‘mcroadtripbe’ videos on TikTok and Instagram. “After our first day we already had thirty minutes of footage. We underestimated filming and editing everything a bit.”
“But you can expect our first episode next Wednesday and one every week from then on.”
Due to their busy schedule, it was not a 100% fun trip. “In the middle of the road trip I really felt stressed,” Dieter admits. “We often got up at 7 a.m. to edit, but visited restaurants until late in the evening.”
Challenges
To ensure they didn’t get bored, they also did some experiments. “The ‘chicken nugget challenge’, for example, where we snacked on them in as many crazy ways as possible.”
They filmed and edited everything themselves and they underestimated that work a bit. — © Jan Van der Perre
“We are also with one fish citizen dived into the North Sea. No food waste or pollution was involved. We put the burger in a plastic bag and ate it afterwards. It was cold, just like the sea,” the men laugh in unison.
They look back on their road trip with satisfaction. “We really got to discover Belgium. There are beautiful places that I didn’t know about and that I would really like to go back to.”
Tags: Stefan Dieter visited McDonalds restaurants Belgium days Dont Gavisconnekes Merksem
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