Not having any luck trying to make a reservation, we decided to drive over to Westvleteren and see what there was to see.

The drive over was pretty uneventful, until the last few miles on narrow, winding country lanes.  We found the abbey pretty easily and pulled into a nice, mostly empty parking lot around lunchtime on Saturday.  The cafe (In De Vrede) was nice, more modern than we were expecting.  The food options were pretty limited, but good enough.  And of course, as much Westy Blond/8/12 as you wanted.  They were out of the apple tart, but luckily had the local delicacy — hommelpaptart (a pie made with hops).  I’m not a big hop fan, but I’m glad we tried this — very sweet and rich.

We took the kids outside and let them run around to blow off some steam after being cooped up in the car all morning.  There’s plenty of open space around the cafe for kids to play in, and there’s a nice lane nearby leading around the back of the abbey property to a grotto/shrine.  It was nice to be out in the fresh air and relatively natural surroundings.

We were back at the cafe at 2pm sharp, where there was a bit of a line at the small shop that sells cheese, soap, a few other items the monks make, branded glassware, sweets, and (if you’re lucky) gift packs of beer.  It’s not the two cases you get with a reservation, but 4 bottles a person is a lot better than what you pay in shops around here.

We also headed down to Poperinge, and had some of the local beer — not IPA, but more of a mellow, tart pale ale.  We stayed at a fantastic and reasonably-priced hotel on the old market square, and even found a very nice playground tucked in behind the main buildings.  So we expect to make a few more trips over to Westvleteren in the next few months, whether we get reservations or not.