All of the puzzle pieces were falling into place, Matty Brim had made it from Vic Park to our camp ground in Ieper (albeit he got hit by a car 50 metres from the Ieper train station), we'd made it to Ieper from northern France by 930am, the bikes that we'd hired were ready to go and we knew exactly where we needed to ride to. That's all of the puzzles pieces, yes? Wrong.
The most insignificant seeming puzzle piece, a cycling map of the very region that we were in, was sold out at the tourist office and the book shop across the road. Both normally stock it and had countless copies of every other surrounding map. F*CK!!
The Options
- Just taking off on the bikes and hoping for the best? Probably not the greatest idea
- Walking the 40 kilometres? Hmm...
- Taxi company 1, 90-100 euros return - too much
- Taxi company 2, 80 euros return - still too much
We were in trouble. Enter the camping ground owner's daughter. She would drive us to In De Vreder for 30 euros and we'd work out the rest when we got there. Sold!
Every drop of the world's highest rating beer made the 30 euros and the fact that we were a long way from our camp ground with no way home insignificant. An absolute masterpiece of brewing. And walking away with a six pack for 20 euros that we will slowly consume over the next 15 years felt wrong. You could name your price for this six pack back in Oz.
So without transport between the two, we started the 5 kilometre walk between In De Vrede and De Struise Brouwers, six pack in tow. And the weather wasn't bad either.
We squeezed in a quick lunch (cat food terrine) on someone's windowsill and in we went.
The best tap list we have ever seen somehow got progressively better as the afternoon went on. This is beer geek heaven.
In an old classroom, in a tiny Belgian town, at a brewery that is only open for four hours per week, we slowly worked through as much of the tap list as we could. For four fleeting hours of our life, and on Matt's first ever day in Europe, we consumed a set of beers that are just absolutely flawless. If you lived anywhere near Oostvleteren you would be here every week.
We had 13 beers, left with a couple more take-aways (a Tjeeses was thrown in for good measure) and only paid 29.75 euros - the head brewer insisted on giving us our 25 euro cents change.
To cap off one of the great days of our lives Nix managed to thumb us a lift back to Ieper (apparently I wasn't selling it) and we met angry cat.
And this was our home for the night. We all snuggled.
Brilliant. Look out Bruges. Ho ho ho.
Pug Sightings - 10!
The Barrie-ometer of "Feel" - this is whale country, bitches
The Beers
Westvleteren 6, 12
De Struise Imperialist Lager, Weltmerz, Eliot, Riporter, T.H.R.E.E., Pannepot Reserva 2010, Tjeeses Reserva, Rio Reserva 2009, Black Berry Albert
De Struise/Three Floyds Shark Pants
