The waitress brought us a wine list, but why would I order wine in Belgium? The bar next door has a menu with 300 beers on it. Still, the local fish stew was excellent, as was the starter of beef stew with carpaccio and truffle oil. But that's enough about food. What about those beers?

I must confess that I never really had much of an appetite for Belgian beer before, so I was here to learn. What better place to start than De Halve Maan brewery where we learnt how they turn normal strength beer into "dubbel", "tripel" and "quadrupel" varieties. They claim it's all about increasing the flavour, and the strength just happens to be a side effect. But then again, they also claimed that the beer is made from canal water, only to confess later that this is just what they tell their Dutch neighbours, and it's really tap water. OK, so I think I get it now. It's highly specialised beer for savouring; and what's more, each beer always seems to come with its own special glass. I think I can fit that into my repertoire.

Cycling in and out of town was very easy along the towpath, but care was needed when heading home after a night on the tap water, wasn't it Helen? Our country-style accommodation was out in the fields half way towards the town of Damme.

The canal only has one bend on the seven-mile stretch between Bruges and Damme, and with such flat countryside you can sit outside a café in Damme (or inside drinking hot chocolate by the fire) and see the effect of that bend as the clearly visible church spires in Bruges are offset to one side. Despite the tourist numbers, I love these two towns. Having escaped the devastation across most of Europe in the last century, it really gave me a sense of just how different pre-war Europe was, and how much of that has been lost.

Better support the cause by drinking more Belgian beer methinks. Hic!

Posted on November 18th 2015.