We had a lot of fun. Going to the abbey to get the Westvleteren 12 was probably the highlight of our 10 day trip. The weather was perfect in august, 60-70f. We woke up early in the morning and walked to a bicycle rental shop in Poperinge. It is a nice 15-20 minute bike ride through the Belgian countryside. There is nothing but farms and hop fields on the way to the abbey and you can pull over on the side of the road and get walk up and smell the hops growing on the vines. We had about 7 or 8 rounds and left there feeling really good. It was awesome.
I would recommend this trip to any beer lover. I was worried my wife would not enjoy herself because she wanted to see museums and churches and other artsy stuff and she is not a big drinker. The town near the abbey, Poperinge, is very small and only has a few “tourist” type attractions. She kept asking me, “Are we really staying there for two days!”. She liked it so much that she suggested we do a “proper” trappist tour and visit all 7! That part of our trip was very relaxing.
We talked about an overseas vacation for YEARS but always found an excuse. We finally just booked some tickets. It really motivated us to start saving and take the time off work
I’ve been thinking heavily on taking this trip. What was the overall costs with lodging and everything. Also, what language was spoken at most of the places. I want to learn the necessary conversational Dutch or French before I go so I can get around and have a good time.
Cost: Just imagine what it would cost to vacation in America and you will probably be pretty close. You need food, lodging, beer money, etc. Prices are little higher in Europe because of the horrible exchange rate (1 euro = 1.5 usd). You should also go in the “shoulder season”, less crowded, cheaper flights and hotels. We used venere.com to book most of our hotels.
Language: We never really had a problem. I guess we looked like tourists because most people addressed us in English ;D We learned a few basic words but it was only for fun. Nothing really usable in a real conversation.
I have lived in France and been to Belgium and the Netherlands several times. In my experience, every Belgian and Dutch person I have ever met who was born after 1950 has been fluent or near-fluent in English. There is no reason to learn even one Dutch word. French is somewhat necessary in France, but I still say if you aren’t damn good at French, you’re better off not speaking any, except the phrase, “I cannot speak French, can you speak English?” For some reason, French people can’t understand French when people speak it with foreign accents. I even remember translating a Swiss-German guy’s French for some French people. His French knowledge and grammar was MUCH better than mine, but his accent was thick, so they couldn’t understand a single word he said.
Spent 3 hours calling St. Sixtus last night… didn’t get through. I’ll try again on the 13th (14th in belgium)… but this means I will not be able to get 3 crates of the 12, only 2 crates of the 8 :-(.
