Month: November 2025

November 3, 2025 Ypres BE

The trip is winding down but neither one of us is in a hurry to declare it over. This morning the conversation was about whether to head north today or tomorrow. Today is Monday and the tourist season is winding down in Belgium so most of the places we wanted to visit are closed. I offered Ton the opportunity to wrap things up and head to Amsterdam, but after a lot of searching she found a nice pub that was open in Ypres so around 11am we were off to Ypres.

The city of Ypres was literally on the front lines in WWI and was effectively leveled. So all of the nice old buildings you see on the square were built in the 1920’s and 30’s.

While Ton was researching what to do today, I took a quick walk to a British Military Cemetery about 500 yards from our campground. The Dozinghem Military Cemetery has the remains of over 3000 British and Commonwealth soldiers in it from WWI and 77 British soldiers from WWII buried in it. It is another sobering reminder that this beautiful countryside was a killing ground from 1914-1918.

Grave markers with some of the names of over 3000 soldiers buried here during WWI and WWII.

It was a quick drive into Ypres. We passed thru a couple of villages on the way and Ton was struck by how few businesses were open, and how few people were moving about. It’s a dreary day, but part of the dreariness comes from the lack of people about.

The main square in Ypres had a lot fo cars, but very few people.

But today we were not looking at cities or architecture, we were out to sample good Belgian beer. We love Belgian beer and advocate for it in all of our travels over the more famous German beer. Belgian beer just feels more creative than German beer to us. The tastes are more pronounced and the varieties have more character in our opinion.

Trying to join the happy guys in the painting.

We found a very nice, modern pub near the main square and though it was around noon we were the first customers. We ordered two local beers and a light lunch and sat down to enjoy a quiet afternoon.

The pub was named after St. Arnoldus who is the patron saint of brewers.

After a few minutes we were joined by 9 British gentlemen who were touring the battlefields of WWI. We had a nice conversation with them once we figured out they were speaking English, it took our ears a couple of minutes to adjust to their accents. Some British accents are still difficult for us to decipher even after a couple of months of hearing much more British English than American English.

The Christmas beer is out, Ton sampled it and liked it.

We just hung out in the pub for about 2 hours stretching our beers and snacks out as long as we could. It was another fun but uneventful day. It’s days like this when we don’t feel so much like tourists, but someone who is living over here in a home that happens to move. I think it is a good thing.

24 very good beers on tap. It’s too bad I was driving.

After a while we headed back to the campground and spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy and trying to stay warm as the weather has definitely took a turn. The heater will be on tonight.

This region is famous for its hop production. This sculpture was a homage to hop farmers.

Tomorrow we have no choice, we will be on the road to Amsterdam to wrap things up for 2025.

November 2, 2025 Poperinge BE

Today was a laid back day that we really enjoyed. The morning was spent doing laundry including our sheets. Laundry day is always an important event and the near the end of the trip we have to find a place to do our bedding. So getting that done made this a good day already.

Driving to the pub near the campground.

The main treat for the day was a visit to the In de Vrede near our campground. It is a pub next to one of our favorite beers in the world Westvleteren Brewery. It is a Trappist Brewery, and unlike the bigger Belgian Trappist Breweries the beer is not intended for export.

I am happy contemplating the three beers brewed by the Monks at the St. Sixtus Abby in Westvlerteren.

We had discovered these beers on our first visit to Belgium in 2018 and had visited the In de Vrede then to sample the beers. At the time the strongest of the beers from Westvlerteren had been declared the best beer in the world by someone important in the beer world and the demand was through the roof.

We shared this fish stew between us. I liked it better than Ton did.

When we arrived at the Inn which sits in the middle of a lot of farms we were surprised to find the parking lot packed. But the restaurant is quite large and we were able to find a table right away. We immediately ordered a bottle of each of the three beers to get us started. The beer was as good as we remembered it and the blonde beer was better than we remembered it.

The road to the inn was a single track lane with pull outs.

Over the course of the meal we began a conversation with two young men about our sons age next to us. They began telling us about other breweries we should visit when we were in Belgium. They were quite proud of the beer heritage here and gave us some good tips for tomorrow and future trips.

Returning to the campground after a good afternoon at the In de Vrede.

Eventually the wife of one of the guys joined them with a cute Jack Russel Terrier who was used to being the center of attention. We ended up chatting with them for over an hour, and really enjoyed their company. We talked about travel, beer, jobs and life.

The goats thought Ton was going to feed them.

Today we didn’t visit anything “cultural” or “historical” but these three young people taught us more about Belgium and its people and culture than hours in a museum will. We also left with an arm full of Westvleteren Beer to take with us. It was an afternoon well spent and a very productive day and we only traveled 10 kilometers round trip to accomplish it.

November 1, 2025 Poperinge BE

Today we traveled another 350 kilometers north into Belgium. The last couple of days had been about setting us up to head to this part of Belgium. The area we are in is famous for Trappist beers, and good beer in general whether it is produced by monks or not. We originally visited this area in 2019 and are excited to give it another go.

A hop farm, the reason we are in Poperinge.

To get here though we had to navigate the traffic in Paris in a heavy downpour. It went remarkably well though it was a little intense for me. Just as we departed Paris the rain also lifted for most of the drive so most of the last 200 kilometers were relatively relaxing.

Cows in the field near our final destination.

Near the end of the drive we pulled into a grocery store in the last major town in France to get a few critical items such as paper towels, dish soap and wine. Then a few kilometers later we were in Belgium.

The campground we are staying at has a nice bar that is well stocked with local beers.

The last few kilometers to the campground were on very narrow country roads. They are one lane roads with pull outs every couple of hundred yards. Luckily the one time we came upon on coming traffic we were right at a handy pull out. Once we were set up in the campground we went into the on site bar and tried a small sample of the local beers. We are planning on being here a couple of days to do more sampling.