Day 21 - Ghent & Ypres, Roeselare, Bruges

Jan 3rd - Have you ever had one of those days where you wish you could have a 'do over' ? This was defintely one of those days on many fronts...so sit back & hopefully get a good laugh at our mis-adventures for the day, like we can do now :)

We planned a pretty full day with a day trip to Ypres (Ieper) and Roeselare. There is no easy way to get to Ypres, but through a connection in Kortrijk with a bit of a wait there. Our goal for Ypres was to see a bit of the town and to find the cemetery where Rob's great-grandfather is buried & visit his grave. When we arrived at the train station, it was raining pretty hard, and walked through the town (it is a very pretty town) to find an information center where they looked up the location of the cemetery for us in Vlamertinge and gave us info on how to get there by bus. There is only one bus that goes out there & it does not run very often. We were only about a 15 minute wait for the next bus at 12:26, so we went right out to the bus stop to catch it...found the proper spot & saw the correct time on the schedule. Well, 12:26 came and went, and went, and went. We waited a good 20 to 30 minutes after the scheduled time in case it was late, but alas, no bus to be found. The next bus on the schedule wasn't for another couple of hours, so Rob made the call that we should move onto our next plan for the day. Strike one for us for the day.

Ypres

Ypres

So back to the station for a train back to Kortrijk for another wait for a train to Roeselare - and to find the Rodenbach brewery. We had about a 15 minute walk in a torrential downpour & high winds, when we found the brewery, completely soaked. Come to find out...brewery tours? Oh no...only for groups for 50 people or more. Tasting room/gift shop?...no such thing here. Sigh...yep, that's our strike two for the day.

So back to the train station again, getting even more wet, and finding the next train back to Ghent. At least we should be able to salvage something of the evening. The train we were on makes a stop in Bruges, and as we were approaching the station, the clouds in the sky disappeared & the sun came out. We absolutely fell in love with the town of Bruges when we were here 10 years ago, so we figured why not hop off the train, find ourselves some dinner since I had a hankering for moules & frites (mussels & french fries...a very Belgian thing to to), a waffle, and a stop into the Bruges beer locations we had on the list. Oh, the day was turning around! Walking from the train station into the town, I quickly saw why I loved this place the first time around - such a beautiful spot. We were very close to the De Halve Maan brewery which is the oldest running brewery in Bruges - running since 1856. It was 4:00, so the last tour was over, but their tasting room was open for a bit longer & they had a huge fireplace where we were able to warm up & get mostly dry while we enjoyed a sampling of their brews.

Wandering Bruges...  



Mmm...Moules!



We meandered our way to the town center & went looking for a spot to eat. There are a ton of small restaurants all listing their specials outside, so we did a quick walk about looking for where we would find moules & a good deal. I happened to be perusing one menu outside a restaurant door & noticed there was another on the other side of the door. Thinkng it might be in English, I did a quick step over to the other side not realizing there was a slightly elevated, black carpeted wheelchair ramp at my feet. Those of you who have known me a while know my affinity for clumsiness, and yep I went flying. Thankfully nobody was witness (not even Rob) to my display of gracefulness, but I did land smack dab on my knee. I'm going to go ahead and call this strike three for the day since several days later, it is still tender to touch. We did settle on a place to eat & I had very enjoyable moules & frites. Dessert was included in the meal as well...not a waffle though, so I'll need to find one of those elsewhere.

There's the alley

 Sufficiently nourished, we went off to find a well hidden beer bar called La Garre. It came recommended, and we heard that they have a wonderful house beer. Well hidden it was indeed - we could see it on the gps, and we walked fully around an entire block trying to find a way to get there...when Rob discovered a very narrow alley beside a chocolate shop that led us to the place. We ordered up the house beer, and when the waitress brought them to us, the head was so white, frothy, and huge that I thought she had deliverd us a glass of milk :) Letting it settle out was well worth the wait...it was an amazing tripel.

Then we were onto our last stop in Bruges befor making our way back to the train station, at another recommended place called 't Brugs Beertje with an impressive beer list. We found a spot across from a couple of older gentlemen from England who were highly entertaining. Before we knew it, it was getting close to the time we needed to catch our train back to Ghent, so we rushed out the door, and ran our way back to the station...only to find we missed it by just a minute or two, ugh! That was the last train back to Ghent tonight. So what to do? Check to see how much a cab would be to ride back...120 Euro...hmmm, we think not. The next train is at 4:10 am...thankfully the Bruges station platforms have enclosed seating areas, so we got comfy on some seats & waited for a few hours. Thankfully it wasn't too cold out. I guess we don't get a strike four, so let's just call this icing on the cake :) We did make our train at 4:10, and made it safe & sound back to Ghent...never did a bed feel so good!

So even though the day didn't quite go as exactly planned, we were happy to have spent some time back in Bruges, and the 'bad' was all part of the adventure...just happy to be healthy & enjoying life. Looking back though...maybe we should have gone back to Cantillon today to see Jean Van Roy brew :)

New Beers for the day: Leffe Brown, Omer (Belgian Blond Ale), Brugse Zot Blond, Brugse Zot Dubbel, Straffe Hendrik Tripel, Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel, La Garre Tripel (house beer at La Garre), Malheur 10, Echt Kriekbier, Prearis Quad