My wife and I traveled to Belgium in August last year. It was not primarily a “Beer Trip.” We were visiting War Memorials (mainly in the Flanders area) and Biking, Bird-watching, and Hiking around the country-side. However, if you also happen to love beer, you can easily scratch that itch wherever you happen to be in Belgium!

I will say that this beer (TwoTribes Nomad) was made in London, but it set the tone for me as we traveled through the “Chunnel” to Brussels. Once we picked up the rental car, we made our way to Bruges. The car stayed in the parking garage the next two days as we explored the city and surrounding area. I had the advantage of previous “beer-oriented” trips to Belgium, so it was nice to visit things I hadn’t seen the last time.

Because we were there in High Season, there were a LOT of people. But with a little planning, you can avoid most of the crowds (especially if you are biking/hiking). Of course, we did hit the great beer places, too (here’s that post). None of them were “waiting list to get in,” but a couple were pretty full. The service was great and the beers tasty!

We left Bruges early on the third morning … once we were traveling towards Ypres, there were no crowds–the roads were nice and the scenery was stunning. We stopped at almost all the Canadian Memorials as we made our way deep into Flanders.

The poem “In Flanders Fields” was written in this area by a Canadian soldier: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. It was very moving to tour these sites …

We made our way to Ypres for lunch — and it so happens they have beer there, too!

St Arnoldus was great … the bar is very linear with an awesome patio in the back. I figured I might as well have a flight of St Bernardus at St Arnoldus!

We toured the Flanders Museum and, after a couple of birding stops, made our way to Poperinge! (To Be Continued)

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor