For Monday, we were to cycle from Ypres to Diksmuide. The day started out sunny but quickly turned windy. Cycling into the wind is not good. I've come to know this.
To leave the city, we had to go under the train station with these cool bike lanes to get us down the steps.
We first cycled to Poperinge, a hop growing community. We passed hop fields along the way growing up long poles.
Stopping at a cafe in the city, we were able to sample a beer made with these hops Poperings Hommel Bier along with a trappist Achel bruin.
A bowl of frites with some mayo to dip it in (I tried and actually like it).
We stopped at the Hop Museum in town, De Stadsschaal, but it was "gesloten". This means closed as we would come to find out throughout the day...
So we headed off to the St. Sixtus' Abbey/Westvleteren. We are not allowed in the abbey itself, just the monks. So instead, they have built us a cafe to sample their beers, cheeses, pate', etc. As our luck would have it, it was also gesloten so we were left to peer inside the building and take a few pictures of the outside...
The wind really picked up from here. We headed down the road along a canal, pushing against the wind. We stopped briefly at the Ieper-Yzer canal for a snack and to rest. We took the scenic route for the last stretch of our journey today before ending up in Diksmuide in the late afternoon.
We went to a local bar for a refreshing Primus which we're pretty sure is the equivalent of the Belgian Natty Light.
Take out from an Egyptian themed Pita restaurant was for dinner. Kind of creepy, the ceiling was made to resemble a crypt or tomb we think. When we were presented with our food, we noticed that our pitas did not come with bread. When Trix inquired as to why not ("where is the pita"), we were asked what was a pita?? It seems we do not know... We did find a Trappist Chimay Bleu and Rood to make things better!
Our hotel was the Hotel de Vrede. That soft, lumpy bed never felt better. A 10 hour sleep started early that evening. Tomorrow we hope for less wind as we travel a longer distance--around 60 km which is about 37 miles. But at least there was no rain!
No wonder I was so confused as to chronology...I started at the top of posts, then ended as you inform us you just got arrived via PDX!
ReplyDeleteSo it looks like you just passed through Bruges, but one of the coolest local breweries I have ever visited is there. This is the way the tour guide explained what makes their beer special -- "When you drink our beer you will notice you begin to grow happy with every sip. As you sip your first you begin to grow warm. After your second, you have a big smile on your face, and you dont know why you are so happy. This is because we do use buds from the female Cannabis plant in brewing our beer. It will make you feel warm and happy."
I cant for the life of me remember the name of this brewery, but the dark beer was extremely good. They must use a very small amount, because you cant much taste it.
Are you going to be in Bruges, again?
hey nate! (it's trixie)
ReplyDeletewe are in bruges for a total of three nights. i think we went to that same brewery... half man or half moon or something like that. we'll be posting pictures tomorrow. it was a really cool tour - i bet it's the same one. bruges is awesome! we took a day off from biking today but will do a day trip tomorrow.