Day 99 – to Bornem, Belgium

Roja still can’t get his head around the hour going back. So it was earlier than usual up this morning, but after a night disturbed by an elderly and frail pair of mosquitos who had found their way into the van and avoided my attention until after lights out. Despite their senility they had enough energy to seek food. Somewhat ironic when I thought I had got through the trip with relatively minor disturbance from them, the last time being in Sweden about 8 weeks ago.

Such unseasonal temperatures confuse more than the mosquitoes. Roja is shedding again, and we were sat outside for breakfast this morning, albeit misty, but still 18C at just after 8 am.

Today was a big driving day, but we managed to get in a couple of hours walking in the forest prior to that. After a couple of Shirley Jacksons’s Dark Takes, we were off.

The drive was broken in Enschede by Roja’s tapeworm treatment, which I had booked in advance, and is necessary for his return to the UK. It was a bit more difficult than usual to organise today, as it is a public holiday in the most of Germany, and tomorrow in the Netherlands.

The driving is not particularly rewarding either, across industrial northern Germany and through the Netherlands. I have a couple of podcasts though, and would recommend one in particular, called The Coming Storm, which is the quite in redouble story of QAnon and their plot to break modern America. It’s 8 times 45 minutes, and one of those stories that if it was presented as fiction, it would attract criticism as being too far-fetched.

I hoped I had researched a good Belgian bar to stop at, in the town of Bornem. I was fortunate. It was ideal. De Hopschuur Pub was welcoming and had 250 beers on offer. With it being a holiday tomorrow, there were quite a few people out. The bar has stools at the bar which make it must easier to get chatting, and I shared beers with a few people, the local butcher, a retired journalist and now writer of local history, and the staff, who were very hospitable.

It’s refreshing to see that pubs like this still run successfully. There are so many stories about them struggling for survival and having to resort to price increases, or even closing in the winter months. The prices here were very reasonable, 3 euros for the 33 cl keg beers, and the bottles starting at 4 euros.

Perversely, Halloween is always a much more popular night to go out and have a few drinks in Catholic countries where the following day, All Saints Day, is a holiday.

There was even a Chinese restaurant across the road from which to take a meal home.