What I'll be doing on my holidays (part two)

Dolores's friend Kerstin and her family are holidaying in Belgium this year. At a coastal resort right next to the French border. We plan spending a weekend at the same hotel.

Kerstin is another of Dolores's friend from lovely Merseburg (Messyburg, as I used to call it). She lives on the outskirts of Leipzig. Her house has an attic room large enough to sleep me, Dolores and both kids. I do my best to keep in Kerstin's good books. Leipzig is a city I definitely want to visit again.

I haven't been to the Belgian coast for ages. And the last time was just an afternoon in Oostende when we were on a weekend break in Gent. That was before Lexie was born (he'll be 10 in November). Come to think of it, I haven't been to coast anywhere for quite a while. Tunisia, over 18 months ago. That was it.

I was careful to make sure we booked an apartment in Port El Kantaoui for our Tunisian holiday. The good brewpub is there: Golfbräu. As you might be able to guess from the name, it's German-inspired. They had the usual German brewpub holy trinity of beers: Helles, Dunkles and Weizen. Though the latter tasted like the Helles mixed with lemonade.

Our apartment was only a couple of hundred metres from the brewery. I'd walk down there in the morning and get a 2-litre flip-top bottle filled with Dunkles. The Weizen might have been a bit dodgy, but the Dunkles was first class. Perfect for drinking on the beach. I must have drunk my way through a couple of barrels over the course of the week.

Despite the good weather of the last two weeks, I haven't gone the few kilometres to Zandvoort. The rampaging teenage gangs do put me off a bit, I have to admit. It isn't great for beer, either. There's one beer pub, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.

That reminds me. I need to check if there are any good pubs in Oost Duinkerk. Or close by. It being Belgium, finding decent beer shouldn't be that difficult.