Westvleteren Things to Do

While staying at the monastery guesthouse, you will be asked to participate during the Liturgy of the Hours. These are prayers that take place through out the day from 0400hrs to late in the evening.

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Upon arrival to the Monastery, you will be taken to the guesthouse reception area where the Father in charge of the guesthouse will welcome you. We waited several hours for the rooms to be cleanned, and then we were allowed to drop our backpacks in the room.

Buy Westvleteren beer from the Trappist monks. This is the least known of the Trappist monks. I'll heistate before saying it's the best, because it goes against the monks' ethos of not competing. But ratebeer.com thinks its the best in the whole world.

The monastery is not open on Fridays, Sundays or a whole load of other days. make sure you call ahead to check time. There is a limit to the amount of beer you can buy, and you are not allowed to sell the beer on. Why anyone would want to sell this precious stuff to anyone else I don't know...

After the beer you might need some excercise to work away the calories. There is a nice walk around the abbey. It is 7.1 km in lenght, and it shows you the area. It brings you through fields and woods.

Maybe it is better to do it before you sit down for the beer :-)

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The second of the courtyards is right next to the Church, and it is also very nice but it does not have any chairs to relax and read.

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There are several countyards in the monastery, but this one was without a doubt my favorite. It has several chairs under a large tree where you can relax and read a book.