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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.