Orval

2/7

Nice snooze. Great early am exercise with Jeff first off, taking an hour’s spin along the RAVel bike path, tagging with me to run it. I don our GARMIN for the first time to confirm just how slowly I jog - incentive to record, measure and speed up if possible in this aging shell.

Parked beneath a leafy canopy, we hit the classroom, doing cartoon strip summaries of our time in Belgium for literature.

In pursuit of a wild beer experience, Jeff’s planned our last Belgian destination - a brewery in a Cistern monk monastery tucked away past poppy fields and pastures, in a French - looking hilly province called Orval.  

Orval monastery

It’s an absolute photographer’s paradise with crumbly ruins almost designed for the lens.  On site is a really nice little museum telling of the brewing process.  Back at Ed, we crack open the frothy trappist ale and Jeff concludes he doesn’t like,” a fishy fish or a beery beer but he likes a cheesy cheese & a winey wine” - profound!

Mathilda Spring - prized water source for brewing beer

A few rounds of cards before bed.  Kel trumps again at the necessary skills of deception & manipulation slamming home the realisation that our baby’s  innocence has evaporated.  Achingly simple.