La Trappe!

Hello! Now where was I? Oh yes, I was going to tell you about my trips of course! Well I'll start with mid April which found me in the lovely little town of Tilburg, Holland, where the legendary Roadburn Festival is held, which was just truly amazing! Really brilliant fun this year! In between watching some amazing bands such as Pentagram!!! Candlemass!! Shrinebuilder and Voivod! we also made the most of what the town has to offer...

On one of the mornings, we made a pilgrimage to Abdij Koningshoeven which is a monastery of the Trappists where they make La Trappe beer! Excellent! It is the only one of it's kind in Holland (all 6 the other Trappist breweries are in Belgium).


We were shown around the old brewery where we learned all about the brewing process, which was very useful for me! (They have long since grown out of the old brew house due to the sheer demand of produce and now use a much larger, computerised brewery in a warehouse just a bit further along the site.)


The packing factory, where the bottle filling takes place...


and then ended with a short film on the history and present day activities of the monastery where we finally got to sample some of their delicious and wholesome (8%) wares!

Proost!

Tara for now chuck!

I've got a couple of really exciting trips planned over the next month in the shape of...

Going here...

For this..!!!

To enjoy some of these...

Made by these guys...

To devour lots of these...


And, if I have time enough, visit this place

And then I'm off to...

To see these little guys...


And maybe a few of these too...?

To travel around on something similar to this...

And for day trips to places like this...


But I'll be back on the blogging front after all this next month (with lots and lots to write about I'm sure) so until then.... happy end of April / beginning of May everyone!! Yay!!

Sam the Shepherd's Hut

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all had a great one!! We very much enjoyed ours and I can now tell you where we decided to spend it - Sam, the Shepherd's Hut at The Old Forge Bed & Breakfast, Compton Abbas, Dorset.

Peace. And. Quiet. Wonderful!

Sam is a wonderful restored shepherd's hut, beautifully equipped with all the necessities - double bed, wood burning stove, table and chair, wine glasses, homemade rock cakes, lanterns and board games. At first we thought it was a bit mad to go at this time of year but once we got the fire going it was really warm and cosy inside.

Simon in Sam -

It was so nice being on the farm too, the Old Forge has free range black hens, 3 dogs, 2 horses and a donkey, Scrumpy Jack -

The breakfasts Lucy, the owner of Old Forge cooked were delicious and hearty. All ingredients are locally sourced, eggs from their hens, apple juice pressed from apples in their orchard and mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon and sausages (although being a veggie mine were just Quorn) from local organic farms. Lucy also makes her own marmalade and relishes, which were also delicious!!

Some more photos of Sam -

The views.

The inside.

Across the field from Sam is Rosie, a lovely old red wagon that is also available to rent out (if there are 2 couples, you can hire both the hut and wagon for a discount). You can see more photographs and read about it on the website, but I took a peek in just before I left - here it is!

Equinox Tide

Also whilst we were in Brittany, we were lucky enough to witness the Autumn equinox tides! The particular place where we were staying has the third most lowest tides in the world next to somewhere in Canada and the south of France! During the lowest tide we experienced (rated 116 on a sliding scale, with 120 being the lowest!!) we were able to pass several beaches and harbours. It was such a surreal feeling to be walking on what is the seabed, and all underwater for most of the year.

The locals also make the most of this time of year to walk out and dig or literally scrape (with rakes and claws) for all kinds of shellfish - scallops, razor clams and mussels. There were so many people out gathering and it was so amazing to see them all returning home with their bags and baskets full of their daily catch!

Some photos of our walk below - you can just about make out where the sea begins on the horizon!